Hiya, Along with the million other things im doing at the moment, im looking to get a NAS box to run in my flat for me and my hosuemates. We would like to be able to... - Store Pictures/music/files/mooovies on it - Use it as a bit torrent client - Use as itunes server - Capable of housing 2x hot swappable SATA II HDD - Raid support - Ability to transfer files in & out using a USB stick (for files that are too big to send over wifi) - Ability to stream media to PS3/Xbox (Nice to have, not critical) Our budget is approx £150, but this may change depending on what information i find out about NAS boxes over the next few weeks. - Does anyone have any suggestions of which boxes i should look at? - Is there a recent NAS box roundup that someone could point me in the direction of?
there may be more suited ones, but you can relay on Synology NAS software to do everything you've said there. only thing i don't think is achievable by Synology £150 solution is hot-swap. why do you need hot-swap capability anyway? surely purpose of NAS is to have it online 24/7. also, what sort of Wifi speed are you thinking? since 100Mbps router will be bottlenecking your whole network
Film's over Wifi, dear lord NO! Wifi has its uses but since its a flat its not hard to run some CAT5 and do it the right way. The required usage, just buy a atom itx, single core early model should be dirt cheap now. The PCI slot will allow for a cheap RAID card if your using more than two hard drives. Low power, and hassle free. Plus cheaper than most NAS devices.
- Cabling isnt an option. Homeplug maybe? - Hot swapping is not crucial, just a nice to have. - Have added additional requirement in op (ability to stream media to PS3/Xbox etc) We have Belkin Wireless N+ Router, and all using Wireless N dongles. Think it connects to the router at 230mpbs? irrc? But yeah - i appreciate we wont hit transfer speeds anything like that.
ps3 media server will steam a/v to ps3/xbox and its available for win & linux depending what you use It wont stream music to a 360 tho :/ but its much better than tversity
well, definitely a homebrew NAS would be your best option now, as your need for flexibility is the biggest need.
LIked the look of this? - http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS210j/index.php ahh just seen that it doesnt have USB port. hmmmm not sure what to do.. i guess the most important things are: - Bit torent client - itunes server (so that we have 1 iTunes libarary for the whole flat) - Storage of pics/backup of files etc But i think the main barrier to this is the speeds over Wireless N. For example, if a large file is downloaded over bit torrent (over 1gb) then it will take ages to transfer onto a PC.
The DS210J does have USB ports, they're just on the rear but hubs and memory card readers are supported too. We'll be taking a closer look at it soon but we looked at it's more expensive brother, the DS210+ recently
The DS210j looks awesome but its £150 before you even consider adding storage, and limited to just two drives. So unless you've got a couple of spare drives, you would basically push your budget nearer the £250 point, where a very expandable homebrew build would out class the synology.
Have a browse of this recent thread which was around building a homebrew NAS running FreeNAs: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=196127.
Thanks for all the info & links guys. Browsing scan just now i found this on today only http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-...20005mnd10g-rk-nas-110-72001-gigabit-ethernet I must admit, im confused as to what the best option is for us now
Depends if you're talking buying new gear for a homebrew or not. A decent new ITX board with integrated CPU is gonna cost £100, + RAM + case and if we're being good, the OS too, unless you use FreeNAS or something like that. You'll be looking at spending as much as the DS210J before you start thinking about hard disks as well. Of course a PC of any sort would be far more flexible than a NAS but the Synology DSM3.0 interface is pretty awesome and ticks everything on his original list with the addition of a smaller unit and lower power consumption. However, as I've gone the media PC/torrent box route at home and tested NAS boxes from the likes of Netgear, Qnap, Synology and Thecus over the last 12 months, I can honestly say that a small PC with Windows 7 is far better than any NAS. The only thing that might change my mind is if I had a media streamer but until I can use things like iPlayer on these, I'm sticking with a PC.
Thanks Combatus - Il keep watching for your closer look at the DS210J. I think my main issue at the moment might be managing expectations with the lads..... Explaining to them that transfering large files over WiFi is not going to be fast. Am i right in thinking that we could use the NAS to download something from bit torrent, then use a USB key to transfer it from the NAS to a PC? There is 4 of us in the flat, each with a PC, each with a bit torrent client, each with our own iTunes, each with our own my pictures folder.... and i just cant help but think there is a better way of doing this!
Just thinking about this.....Ive got 3 or 4 old PCs sitting around. PIII's, Celerons, AMD 64's... Perhaps my best option would be to set up Free Nas on one of these, and test how it works. I appreciate that the PCs might draw more power than a true NAS or mini ITX, but it could function as a proof of concept before we bite the bullet... Would that work?
Your issue with older kit such as that will be storage - they are probably only IDE motherboards. However, for setting up and playing with to see how it all works they should be fine, as long as FreeNAS supports the hardware. It's worth trying it out to see if you like FreeNAS. This post shows an example of the cost for a cheap homebrew NAS: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=2453492&postcount=58.
Ive got one machine with a SATA motherboard. Should be able to set that one up ok. Would the issues with IDE be speed then? I thought that if i could get FreeNAS up and running, get it configured and in use by my flatmates, we could see how much we really need/want a NAS
The main issue with IDE (for a NAS) is that the drives are not good value/GB. A quick check showed a 500GB IDE drive costing about a tenner more than a 1TB SATA drive. In addition, I am not sure you can get IDE drives in a decent size any more.
Hmmm good point, i would need to buy a SATA drive as i only have IDE kicking around (got a 320gb one though)
A PCI sata card would allow for the addition of more cards. Throw that A64 machine together and get ubuntu or freeNAS setup, loads of guides out there. Since your all running draft N already prove the problem to them buy transferring a large file such as a film from your machine to one of theirs. If you use a thumb drive to transfer with the synology then it'll require a lot of running around as you have no local GUI to select which file to copy across.
