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  1. Balforth

    New USB Type C coming in 2014.

    Nobody should be complaining about this anyway. Those USB connectors were born that way. It's not like it's a conscious decision.
  2. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Well, this doesn't seem very exciting... is this all you wanted to see? pool: Volume1 state: ONLINE...
  3. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Just an update... I have my FreeNAS system up and running, and I don't think there's anything I can do to cause the buffering on XBMC I was seeing before. I initially restored my TV shows to my media share (1.6TB). When that was finished, I started on my movies (1TB). While the movies were...
  4. Balforth

    Gaming HTPC Build

    Your limitation will be your case. I went with a larger case and was able to build a completely silent gaming HTPC. The build is a couple years old, but at the time it was pretty kick-ass. The link in my sig details every step of my build, including all of my fan choices and cable placement...
  5. Balforth

    New PC- Should I buy now or wait a few more months?

    everybody keeps talking about black friday.... but nobody mentions cyber monday
  6. Balforth

    Apple vs. PC

    My wife and daughter have MacBook Pros and have constant lock up issues, weird trackpad issues where you lose the ability to scroll or the pointer starts jumping all over the screen. But I think the biggest thing that turned me off to macs was when she first bought a 17" MacBook and the...
  7. Balforth

    DIY NAS - better & cheaper than DS1511+ (or DS412+)

    Well, the motherboard actually as a type-a connector on it, so I can attach directly to the motherboard internally without an adapter. And I would if I had a traditional giant bulky USB stick, but those SanDisk Cruzers are so tiny, I can just leave it on the front USB port just in the off...
  8. Balforth

    DIY NAS - better & cheaper than DS1511+ (or DS412+)

    I just built this: ram Ddr3-1333 4Gb/512Mx72 Ecc Cl9 Server Memory ram Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC System Specific Memory Model KTH-PL313E/4G $85 mobo SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C202 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard $152.99 cpu Intel...
  9. Balforth

    DIY NAS - better & cheaper than DS1511+ (or DS412+)

    Do you run DSM? I've heard so much hype about FreeNAS that I didn't look too much into other OSs and just came across DSM last night. Now I'm confused as to which route to take. I also stumbled across this guy's page where he compares his home NAS build using several different OSs and RAID...
  10. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Thanks to all for the advice. Please don't be mad at me :) but given the sweet deal on 16gb of ECC RAM from Gillbot, I decided to go the ECC route. I ended up building it for the exact same price the non-ecc build would have cost with 16gb of new RAM. Here's the final product list: ram -...
  11. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    I'm literally laughing out loud.... so is that one more vote for not needing ECC in my NAS? I'm not set on anything right now, just have people very adamant on two separate sides of this argument and I'm trying to weight it out!!! :)
  12. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    LOL I really do believe you! It's just funny with the guys on that board so adamant about their stance and people here saying don't buy into it! They seem to preach that non-ecc RAM can completely trash your entire array. Either way, I'm not going to be purchasing any new drives at the...
  13. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Well, one of the mods over on the freenas forum didn't like my build at all. I think he is a big ECC RAM advocate. I put together another build using ECC memory... ram - Kingston Technology ValueRAM 8 GB 1333MHz DDR3 PC3-10666 ECC CL9 DIMM Hynix M Server Memory (KVR13E9/8HM) 112.99 mobo -...
  14. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    I switched up the memory based on the memory compatibility list for that motherboard. That team vulcan ram doesn't seem to be on the list. I've been looking at the DDR3 1600 4gb choices listed here, but they all seem to be a bit more pricey. This is about the cheapest I can find on the list...
  15. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Great advice... here's iteration 3: case - DIYPC Skyline-A Black Steel USB 3.0 ATX and Micro-ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 1x 80mm Fan - 18.99 cpu - Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3220 - 69.99 mobo - ASRock H87M LGA 1150...
  16. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Ok, how about this build: case/psu combo - Rosewill Ultra High Gloss Finished MicroATX Computer Case with 400W ATX 2.2 12V Power Supply, Black R363-M-BK - 39.99 cpu - Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3220 - 69.99 mobo -...
  17. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Great info... I definitely would like to be at a cheaper price point. I only have 4 2TB drives, but obviously I was trying to give myself some room for expansion. However, in the 4 years I've been running a NAS, I've never broke ~2.5TB in stored data, so maybe to save some cash I'll just stick...
  18. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    So here are some parts I slapped together on Newegg for an initial build: case - Fractal Design Node 304 FD-CA-NODE-304-BL Black Aluminum / Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case - 89.99 cpu - Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics...
  19. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    It looks like that sticky is from April?
  20. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Well everybody seems to say you can run FreeNAS on old crappy hardware and it rocks, but there's a sticky in the hardware forum over on the FreeNAS page about buying hardware, and the recommendation there is to not use any consumer-based hardware, only professional grade servers with xeon...
  21. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    It's cat 6 end to end, all gig-e. My HTPC specs are: Corsair HX850W PSU Intel i5-2500k CPU ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Motherboard 2x4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws PC1600 DDR3 RAM Gigabyte GTX-470 Super Overclocked Crucial C300 SATA3 64GB SSD WD Caviar 7200RPM SATA3 1TB HD So it's not the most powerful...
  22. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    So you're saying that it's a better idea to go the custom route with FreeNAS?
  23. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    FreeNAS wasn't an option because I needed a Windows 7 machine to run Media Center Master. It has only resurfaced as an option because I've decided that it doesn't matter if my HTPC is serving as the torrent machine or not... the issue isn't the network. I can leave Media Center Master on it...
  24. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    edit: rant deleted. just trying to say i'm not a tech newbie and i'm obviously not just running a basic setup to steal stuff with bittorrent.
  25. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    So on any given night, my HTPC will start stuttering exactly when we are watching something, and while it is copying downloaded files to my NAS. This afternoon, for the sake of troubleshooting, I started streaming a 4gb movie on my HTPC, a 3gb movie on my laptop, and a ~1gb tv show on my...
  26. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Well, this was my initial thread here about the issue: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2352439 The advice I got there was that the NAS itself has a very weak processor and can't match the speed of the hard drives: I had though about applying QOS on the switch my HTPC is...
  27. Balforth

    DIY NAS - better & cheaper than DS1511+ (or DS412+)

    +1 A build with equivalent performance to the DS412+ for some fraction of the $600 Synology price tag would be awesome.
  28. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Dave: Haha no offense taken. I really don't want to get into this debate, but I do consider myself a bit more ethical than the average downloader -- I still spend tons of money every month on DirectTV, so I'm still paying premium prices for everything I end up watching. The HTPC is just so...
  29. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Ya, I get it :) But I just went from upgrading my NAS to building 3 machines... a torrent machine, a media center master machine, and a NAS. I'm not even separating that functionality now... For several years now I've ran Media Center Master, which lets me add tv shows, automatically...
  30. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Now that I think about it, I'm not maxing out my network, and I'm definitely now maxing out my HTPC (it's a pretty powerful gaming HTPC), I'm only maxing out the processing capabilities of my current NAS. So is my obsession with off-loading the work from my HTPC unfounded? As long as the NAS...
  31. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Therein lies the problem :) My torrent box needs to also run Media Center Master, which is dependent on Windows. So the VM would have to be windows. Even on powerful machines, my experience running a Windows VM inside Windows is extremely poor. Hmmm....
  32. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Well, the problem is the torrent box will also run Media Center Master, which is the requirement for Windows 7. So the main box would have to be win7 with torrent/mcm, running a vm with freenas... Not sure how the separation of storage would work.. if i could leave the drives unmounted in...
  33. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Ouch. Great advice, but it stings :) 1) All clients are Windows 7 or MacBooks. No linux File formats are nothing out of the ordinary... mkv, mpg, avi. Currently my NAS is a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. The new NAS was going to run Windows 7 because I intended to double as my...
  34. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Ah, I thought there were some size limitation for a native windows 7 array. I'm currently only using 4x2TB drives right now, but I wanted the ability to expand in the future. Outside of hosting the array, I'll need it to run a program called Media Center Master, utorrent, and sabnzbd...
  35. Balforth

    Building a PC-based NAS

    Are there any good guides out there? I'm not sure what to aim for with processing power, ram, power supply specs, using on-board controllers vs a separate raid controller, etc. I need it to be windows 7 based, which isn't my first choice, but it will need to serve some additional duties...
  36. Balforth

    Win 7 routing with dual NICs

    Well I just realized the bulk of my problem is that my HTPC is not just streaming files from my NAS, but downloading, processing, and copying files back to my NAS. With a weak processor in my NAS, it is a major bottleneck. My HTPC isn't just streaming from my NAS, but also downloading files...
  37. Balforth

    Win 7 routing with dual NICs

    Wow... some interesting things going on. I bumped the NAS interface down to 100/full, then tried copying a 3.1GB file from the NAS to my HTPC. it was copying at around 160KB/s. I figured the NAS just needed to be rebooted after the change because that's friggin crazy, so I rebooted it...
  38. Balforth

    Win 7 routing with dual NICs

    Thanks for the replies... I have a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. I upgraded the ram to 1GB. I'm using 4x2TB WD Red 7200RPM hard drives. I'm not sure how reading and writing at the same time effects the hard drive and or memory/CPU performance, but I know multiple people in our house can stream from...
  39. Balforth

    Win 7 routing with dual NICs

    The computer is a home theater PC in my living room that is constantly in use streaming videos from the NAS. Occasionally, it processes semi-large files and moves them to the NAS. When it does this, it causes buffering and interruptions to whatever is being watched. Obviously it could be a...
  40. Balforth

    Win 7 routing with dual NICs

    I have a simple home network using a 192.168.1.x subnet. I have a computer with 2 NICs running Windows 7 with a static IP of 192.168.1.60. I have a NAS with a static IP of 192.168.1.50. I would like my computer to read from the NAS on one nic, but perform writing operations to the NAS on a...