Best NAS solution?

[jfall]

I use my modded xbox as a media center and currently stream media from my local PC. I was thinking about building or buying some type of a NAS system that can hold at least 2TB's of data and have some redundancy, probably use RAID 5 or 6

Is there any benefit in buying a NAS as opposed to simply building a cheap computer a slapping a bunch of hard drives in it?

What is the easiest/cheapest solution?

EDIT: oops, didn't mean to create this in off-topic

 

[j00fek]

http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=27&flcache=6500005&entercat=y

 

[Kaido]

The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

 

[jfall]

Originally posted by: Kaido
The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

Do you really need a dual-core + 1gb of ram just to stream the content?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: jfall

Originally posted by: Kaido
The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

Do you really need a dual-core + 1gb of ram just to stream the content?

No, but they had a great deal on an Athlon X2 3600+ combo so I jumped on it. I also plan on using my server for things other than file sharing in the future, so I wanted a bit of a more powerful machine. I'm running the 1.9ghz X2, gig of ram, RAID card, and 4x400gb hard drives in RAID 5 and the machine only pulls about 100w, so it's only a bit more expensive than a lightbulb to run every month.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: jfall

Originally posted by: Kaido
The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

Do you really need a dual-core + 1gb of ram just to stream the content?

IIRHHESC (If I Recall His Home Entertainment Setup Correctly) he's doing some on-the-fly reencoding as well.

- M4H

 

[jfall]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: jfall

Originally posted by: Kaido
The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

Do you really need a dual-core + 1gb of ram just to stream the content?

No, but they had a great deal on an Athlon X2 3600+ combo so I jumped on it. I also plan on using my server for things other than file sharing in the future, so I wanted a bit of a more powerful machine. I'm running the 1.9ghz X2, gig of ram, RAID card, and 4x400gb hard drives in RAID 5 and the machine only pulls about 100w, so it's only a bit more expensive than a lightbulb to run every month.

So, what made you decide to build your own instead of buying one? I'm trying to find out what benefit if any do the pre-built NAS units offer?

Also, how are you liking FreeNAS? Does it work well?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: jfall

Originally posted by: Kaido
The best solution is a computer-based NAS. It offers the best performance and most flexibility. I just built a NAS box for about $300 off Newegg (minus hard drives & RAID card) - dual-core, gig of ram, etc. I use it for the same purpose - storing media to stream to XBMC. Add in your RAID card or do software RAID. I use FreeNAS:

http://www.freenas.org/

Do you really need a dual-core + 1gb of ram just to stream the content?

IIRHHESC (If I Recall His Home Entertainment Setup Correctly) he's doing some on-the-fly reencoding as well.

- M4H

Also there is the simple cost issue. A 3.2ghz+ Celeron is $60, a 1.9ghz X2 is $60. Why not go dual-core? Plus you can get the Athlon & motherboard combo for $99. Find a suitable case, some ram, and snag one of those Arctic Freezer CPU HSF for $21 shipped and you're all set!

edit: and lol @ the acryomm