HTPC & NAS in one box

[AustinGeorge]

Hi All,

I've recently built a NAS box with FreeNAS 8.3.1 after having CPU and RAM overloading issues with a synology unit.

The NAS so far does everything i needed it to perfectly so far:
- Back up a MBP via time machine to a share hosted by the NAS side
- Run transmission (specifically) and administer from a remote session
- Create shares with CIFS for a windows PC
- Raid5 style redundancy

As I can relocate the NAS easily behind the TV I was wondering how I could keep all these features, but also run some sort of media player through to my TV at the same time. I won't need to be able to stream to any other devices as we only have 1 TV.

When I've dug around on google, i have only found 'server', 'client' style builds using software that accesses a share hosted externally to the set top box. Linux has popped up quite a few times, but i'm not all that happy with extensive command line administration of the NAS side.

Maybe I'm missing some feature of some NAS software somewhere that does XBMC or plex out of the box. Surely there's lots of people that have made this progression from NAS to NAS&HTPC on the same hardware?

Here's the build specs:
AMD A6 5400k
ASRock FM2A85X-ITX
8GB Crucial 1333MHz RAM
3x2TB HDDs
http://imgur.com/a/rcomf

If anyone has any suggestions, or just a point in the right direction so i can go off and do some googling I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks,
Austin

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Here's some info running Plex on a NAS:

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/FAQ:_Plex_Media_Server_and_NAS

I'm not familier with a NAS setup as I have a server/client configuration. Personally I like it this way. My server does nothing but serve, with the occasional transcoding when I want to watch something from my server on the internet. I also have Plex installed and running on the server, but with the latest update, having trouble streaming from it.

 

[Dirigible]

Windows with flexraid?

 

[AustinGeorge]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've done a lot of researching and it really doesn't seem like there's anything out there for anyone looking to add a media player to a small form factor NAS and use it as a HTPC simultaneously with normal NAS activities.

Linux came up a lot of times, but you start to enter NAS management through the command line which I really didn't fancy.

I've decided on unRAID. I've filled my 304 case with barracuda 2TB drives and a 320GB cache drive and will use that to serve streams rather than what i had planned before.

For the set-top box I've purchased a model B raspberry pi. Which should run XBMC on my 720p living room TV with stereo out nicely.

I would say I'd keep you posted on how I get on, but setting up a raspberry pi and an unraid server is well documented so i'll let the thread move off the first page

Austin

 

[wirednuts]

one of my dreams is to make a modular server all out of pi's. really, you could do 1 pi for every drive... and then through software keep everything backed up and synced. and another pi for media playback.. another pi for a voip phone... you get the point

 

[piasabird]

Some TV's can play video off of a file server. Dont know how that would work for streaming the internet. I have used my samsung to read files off of an external hard drive with a USB interface.

 

[AustinGeorge]

I wrote off using my TV to stream from a file-server as it's 2-3years old now.

My original intention was to relocate my NAS and add the functionality to watch downloaded movies/TV etc.

Adding a Pi to a system seems like a really good way to bridge the gap from home file server to home streaming server for multiple TV/rooms.

It should turn up today so I'm very excited

 

[jaqie]

all it would take for your nas box without linux would be to run a host OS which runs xbmc or whatever you want, a virtual machine host (such as virtualbox or vmware player) to run the raid nas server inside.

 

[gorobei]

i was watching some YT videos on freenas, the two nerd guys or something. the latest version of freenas doesnt support media streaming though earlier versions did. you may have to wait for an update or look into nas4free branch.

 

[AustinGeorge]

i was watching some YT videos on freenas, the two nerd guys or something. the latest version of freenas doesnt support media streaming though earlier versions did. you may have to wait for an update or look into nas4free branch.

I am aware of this, I didn't design the build for the purpose i described, and was wondering if i could get the HTPC functionality out of it alongside the current NAS duties that FreeNAS was providing.

Nas4Free looks good, but i'm now using unRAID as its well supported and seems to be what everyones using. I'm not very excited about fiddling in linux. I'd much prefer to set a GUI and leave it.

all it would take for your nas box without linux would be to run a host OS which runs xbmc or whatever you want, a virtual machine host (such as virtualbox or vmware player) to run the raid nas server inside.

Good point, but i'm not too hot on the idea of running a RAID out of a VM. I'd much rather do something thats well supported and avoid adding potential headaches to the set-up.

Maybe someone who reads this thinking of the same thing i did will give it a go...

 

[aigomorla]

You can have a NAS double as a HTPC.
Setup in windows so you have sharing enabled and setup your home network.
I have friends on that setup because computers arent cheap.

The only drawback on that is the HTPC would need to be significantly bigger to house all the drives and would take up space, also look fairly bad sitting next to a HDTV.
(think of a full tower sitting next to your TV)
The HTPC would also need to always be on, or you cut your other PC's from accessing NAS.

If your gonna double up on NAS / HTPC duty, just install windows on that machine, Setup Remote Desktop, setup sharing, setup automatic login, and forget it.

This way u can access it from another PC on the network with remote, it autologins so its always on, and sharing will allow you to share its drives across your network.

 

[jaqie]

So, aigomorla, you have a way for windows 7/8 to do raid 5 in software? That is what the OP was asking for.

 

[Dirigible]

So, aigomorla, you have a way for windows 7/8 to do raid 5 in software? That is what the OP was asking for.

It's $60, but otherwise why not flexraid?

 

[jaqie]

Wow so many people posting without having read even the original post...

 

[SolMiester]

I have my server out in the garage connected by gigabyte to home ADSL.....my TV just uses DLNA to connect to Plex server...Only trouble so far is DLNA client on the TV looks rubbish to what I get on other devices using the plex client...

OP, if I were you, i'd leave your NAS as a NAS, where it is with Plex Media Server. Get Roku 3 for the TV, works like a charm for my Dads setup....

 

[smitbret]

I'm confused why you even bring up Plex or XBMC if you're not streaming to remote locations.

If you're just looking for a NAS that can also serve as an HTPC then FreeNAS isn't going to be your answer. I'd go with WHS 2011 and install VLC for media playback to the TV.

As far as redundancy, FlexRAID will give you RAID 5 or 6 type parity but it'll cost a little bit. Alternatively, you can go with SnapRAID with the Elucidate GUI for the same kind of parity but the drives won't be pooled. Neither of these employs striping like ZFS but it doesn't sound like you need the ZFS features, anyway.

 

[aigomorla]

So, aigomorla, you have a way for windows 7/8 to do raid 5 in software? That is what the OP was asking for.

Doesnt that board offer Marvel Raid?
Marvel Raid has onboard Raid5.

if that board has no onboard raid controller, then yeah he's gonna have to use one of the many software raid programs

 

[wirednuts]

Wow so many people posting without having read even the original post...

the anandtech way! we all know before we know.