NAS options

Soldato
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How do you guys make your data available to machines in the house?


I can justify having a full-size PC running all day just for file access, but i would like to put 2x 2TB HDDs on the network, 1 backing up the other (time-stamp, not RAID). I'd like to make it visible/accessible to Mac, Windows and PS3. I thought about a ReadyNAS Duo but proprietary OS, file format and unreliability scare me.

Any suggestions on how you'd go about it? For cheap :confused:
 
Soldato
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I've a full size PC set up to wake on lan and sleep, running an MATX atom board in a cheap case with 8x hot swap sata bays (for ease of access). I have each drive set up independently, and currently have 2x 500gb, 2x 1tb and 2x 1.5tb. Mainly used to store media for the HTPC, but also backup all pcs my documents, photos, recorded tv etc. Was tempted to go with a NAS, but all were either too expensive, too propreitary or didn't hold sufficient disks.
 
Soldato
OP
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Bournemouth
I've a full size PC set up to wake on lan and sleep, running an MATX atom board in a cheap case with 8x hot swap sata bays (for ease of access). I have each drive set up independently, and currently have 2x 500gb, 2x 1tb and 2x 1.5tb. Mainly used to store media for the HTPC, but also backup all pcs my documents, photos, recorded tv etc. Was tempted to go with a NAS, but all were either too expensive, too propreitary or didn't hold sufficient disks.
Power consumption is another thing in mind, any idea how your setup fares? Sounds like you have 2 PCs running just to get media to your TV. When i hear stats like the Mac Mini runs on 11w of power, makes me think twice about running a dedicated machine for Media
 
Associate
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I'd suggest:
Ubuntu as base system
TwonkyMedia as the file server system for most stuff [supports SMB and Bonjour IIRC],
PS3 MediaServer for the PS3 [it's a simple java app, works brilliantly]
100Mb networking everywhere.

If you can't get wired networking, then ideally you want a transcoding solution. PS3 Media Server can do some decent downsampling of content to get it to fit on a slower wireless connnection where the raw file just won't work [I can't get raw 720p files to stream to my Xbox cleanly - the medium downsampling option works perfectly without too much loss of detail].

TVersity is also worth looking at, if you can get it to work properly - my install stopped indexing files properly. As I only stream to my netbook and the XBox, I just SMB [simple windows file sharing] for th enetbook, and PS3MS for the XBox.

As for replication solutions - well, with Linux you can use RSync. Any decent freeware backup solution should be able to do a daily copypasta of one drive to another.

Hope that helps.

In terms of a different machine for serving data, any low range quad core machine will have loadsa grunt for that. In terms of clients, AVOID ATOM LIKE THE PLAGUE and also avoid anything with an Intel 950, or in fact, any Intel chipset - only the most recent ones support HD resolutions out of the box with any degree of competence. Discrete Nvidia/ATI solutions are better.

I haven't experimented with remote power on as I tend to watch stuff on the Xbox in the evening - I go up to my room to kick off my shoes and stow my jacket, power up the machine, log in, start the services then go back downstairs...

Anyway, hope that helps. You'll want to look into things like TVersity, TwonkyMedia, FUPPES, and Bonjour for Windows, which I beleive works better on Macs than hooking up to SMB shares.
 
Associate
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Oh, and my setup:
Q6600/8gb RAM/HD4850 as a server.
Win7 64 bit
SMB file sharing
PS3 Media Server for XBox transcoding/viewing.
Orb for music streaming - works really nicely on the Xbox, I expect PS3MediaServer would do the job for your PS3 though.
54g Wifi [BT voyager - ha!]

Clients:
Xbox 360 wired to 54g router - PS3 media server works, but doesn't support subs/skipping when transcoding. For stuff that doesn't need transcoding, it works perfectly.

Acer Aspire One A150/Ubuntu 9.10 - can just about handle 720p files, to the degree that I don't bother with them - fine for SDTV streamed stuff though.
 
Man of Honour
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30 Jun 2005
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London Town!
I've been looking at various devices and a friend has just got a readynas duo, I can't see much reason to get anything else myself, it's small, performance is very reasonable and power consumption is very very good. It's also basically debian underneath apparently so it's not that proprietary.
 
Soldato
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Bournemouth
I've been looking at various devices and a friend has just got a readynas duo, I can't see much reason to get anything else myself, it's small, performance is very reasonable and power consumption is very very good. It's also basically debian underneath apparently so it's not that proprietary.
See thats what im thinking, that any other box is going to be bigger, more power consumptive (sp?) and complicated.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
3 Jan 2004
Posts
3,862
Location
Bournemouth
I'd suggest:
Ubuntu as base system
TwonkyMedia as the file server system for most stuff [supports SMB and Bonjour IIRC],
PS3 MediaServer for the PS3 [it's a simple java app, works brilliantly]
100Mb networking everywhere.

If you can't get wired networking, then ideally you want a transcoding solution. PS3 Media Server can do some decent downsampling of content to get it to fit on a slower wireless connnection where the raw file just won't work [I can't get raw 720p files to stream to my Xbox cleanly - the medium downsampling option works perfectly without too much loss of detail].

TVersity is also worth looking at, if you can get it to work properly - my install stopped indexing files properly. As I only stream to my netbook and the XBox, I just SMB [simple windows file sharing] for th enetbook, and PS3MS for the XBox.

As for replication solutions - well, with Linux you can use RSync. Any decent freeware backup solution should be able to do a daily copypasta of one drive to another.

Hope that helps.

In terms of a different machine for serving data, any low range quad core machine will have loadsa grunt for that. In terms of clients, AVOID ATOM LIKE THE PLAGUE and also avoid anything with an Intel 950, or in fact, any Intel chipset - only the most recent ones support HD resolutions out of the box with any degree of competence. Discrete Nvidia/ATI solutions are better.

I haven't experimented with remote power on as I tend to watch stuff on the Xbox in the evening - I go up to my room to kick off my shoes and stow my jacket, power up the machine, log in, start the services then go back downstairs...

Anyway, hope that helps. You'll want to look into things like TVersity, TwonkyMedia, FUPPES, and Bonjour for Windows, which I beleive works better on Macs than hooking up to SMB shares.

Oh, and my setup:
Q6600/8gb RAM/HD4850 as a server.
Win7 64 bit
SMB file sharing
PS3 Media Server for XBox transcoding/viewing.
Orb for music streaming - works really nicely on the Xbox, I expect PS3MediaServer would do the job for your PS3 though.
54g Wifi [BT voyager - ha!]

Clients:
Xbox 360 wired to 54g router - PS3 media server works, but doesn't support subs/skipping when transcoding. For stuff that doesn't need transcoding, it works perfectly.

Acer Aspire One A150/Ubuntu 9.10 - can just about handle 720p files, to the degree that I don't bother with them - fine for SDTV streamed stuff though.

What box do you guys start with? Cause you've listed all the insides, but something really discrete and neat is really important. It'll probably go on the TV bench shelf next to the PS3 etc.

Thanks for the detail though
 
Associate
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30 Apr 2009
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688
Well the main tower [currently the server, in my bedroom] is a Coolermaster 335, but the other machine I have that is meant to be the AV server/possibly a media centre is based on the Asus T3 chassis - about 2/3 size of a boggo midi tower and the one I have has a 2.8ghz Phenom II 920 in it with 8gb RAM - it has an onboard GeForce 8300 GPU IIRC which I'm fairly sure will do 1080p - haven't tested it.

The plan was - at some point - to whack a couple of big, quiet drives in it, transfer all the media to it, hook it up over the [built in] HDMI and use that for films and stuff on the telly. It's currently a XenServer for my OS experimentation. I really need to re-evaluate my kit at the moment, actually, so roles arre subject to change :p

I might even go to the degree of setting up a *nix distro on a Xen VM that can share and transcode the media, shove it out of the way in the lounge somewhere, and stream the transcoded media to the XBox - and just use the bedroom machine for games and occasionally streaming films up to. Actually, I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this stuff any more. I'll think of something moderately fun though, one day.

Incidentally, the T3 is a damned sight quieter than the Xbox 360 - probably on par with a fat/old style PS3 from what I remember of them.

OCUK don't stock the T3 any more, I'm afraid, but for the record the one I have is the Asus T3-M3N8200 Barebones System - AMD64 (Socket AM2+).
 
Associate
Joined
28 Jun 2008
Posts
391
My 'server' is a VIA C7 based mini-itx board with a pico power module. XP boots from the IDE drive leaving 2 SATA connectors for removable storage.

I messed around with many options before settling on this, all be it a couple of years ago. It's not up to playing HD media, struggles at times with DVDs and iirc hibernate/WOL doesn't work to well. On the plus side 20W to 40W, depending on HD sleep, is a good compromise for an always on PC, 5v fan + quiet HD's = almost totally silent, XP + VNC gives me full remote access and it acts as an FTP gateway for my Topfield PVR.

The original idea was to build a media device but to be honest the current configuration is much more useful. I'm looking to an Atom + ION2 as a possible upgrade, depends on the power consumption.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
30 Jun 2005
Posts
9,515
Location
London Town!
See thats what im thinking, that any other box is going to be bigger, more power consumptive (sp?) and complicated.

That's my thoughts too, for me there's no advantage to running a full PC as it doesn't need to do anything else. It's also really cheap at the moment compared to what you could build a PC for.

Only downside, if you ask it to do too much at once it gets upset it seems. ie the media server gets slow to respond if you're rsyncing loads of data to it...

as a pure NAS though, I think it's a very good box...
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2007
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Location
Lancashire, UK
I'd throw together a mini-ITX system. It won't really cost any more than a decent NAS, will allow more drives to be added, and gives you the potential for future server functionality should you want it. Since mini-ITX is designed for low power operation, that shouldn't be a worry (especially if you undervolt the chip!).
 
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