Synology DS410j or self built SFF?

[IAmATeaf]

Am deciding if I should go down the NAS route or build myself a SFF.

Main use would be backups and streaming media to the PS3 so I suppose a lot of the functionality of the SFF wouldn't be immediately used. On the SFF side, I'd like to put in 4 3.5" hard drives so are there any SFF cases that will house 4 disks?

Pros of the NAS are that it is compact, self contained and can boot up and down without any other hardware. Pros of the SFF is that I can trans-code on the fly when streaming to the PS3, also can a SFF be turn on/off without having a keyboard/mouse/screen plugged in?

 

[loaky]

..also can a SFF be turn on/off without having a keyboard/mouse/screen plugged in?

I would imagine so, my little machine rarely has a keyboard or mouse attached. The power button on it will boot it up unattended, and shut it down with another press.

You can assign what the power button does in control panel, Here's where in Windows 7.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\System Settings\Choose What The Power Button Does

From experience some BIOS have an option to halt/alert you if keyboard isn't attached though these can usually be turned off.

Also with my HTC Desire I can use WOL (Wake-On-Lan) to wake it up, and remote desktop if I need to.

 

[IAmATeaf]

So it sounds like a small SFF PC may be the way to go, anybody have any ideas on a compact case that will house 4 standard desktop drives?

 

[agent_paul]

It really depends on what your going to use it for. If you are only thinking about backing up and streaming media then the NAS route should be fine (provided that you have a DLNA support on it).

If you think your going to start using it as a web server or something else then having a SFF might be the better choice

 

[iraiguana]

I have a SFF intel atom 330 set-up, and to be honest I think it was more hassle than it was really worth. I sadly went for the earlier intel boards so only 2 sata connections and have now filled my drives so looking at either replacing the board and a fresh install or adding a pci sata adapter which is not the greatest of solutions.