storage for networked Macs

[suklee]

Have an iMac, MacBook Pro, and a Vista box whose sole use is HTPC for playing videos or streaming from the iMac. (Vista box is quad-core and is overpowered for what it needs to do... would want to replace this with a Mac mini or apple TV down the road)

The Macs both have 500GB hard drives but I'm looking to expand their space for shared storage and Time Machine. What do you guys use for home network storage? NAS? Router with USB port such as AEBS? I'm wondering if I need something FW800 enabled like this WDC (when plugging into a Mac directly) or if USB only will suffice.

The iMac is wired up via 100Mbps ethernet but MBP is on wifi G.

 

[Kadarin]

I went with a Drobo FS for network storage. Other people in this thread also have some interesting ideas: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2150157

 

[ubercaffeinated]

i'm using the current gen aebs with a 1 tb wd external usb 2.0 drive hooked up to it. i've set up transmission to download things to it directly - but i've always wondered about something - when i download a large file via bittorrent, and have that download directly to my airport disk, is it writing the file over my wireless setup directly onto the airport disk? or is it caching part of the file onto my computer's hdd first, and then copying it over to the airport disk?

 

[kowalabearhugs]

I've got a Synology DS210j that shares files with my Apple and Windows machines. It supports Time Machine backups and can act as an iTunes Server. It has a lot of advanced feature and Synology hosts a pretty informative user's forum.

 

[Paperlantern]

I use three 1TB drives in RAID 5 on my home server. Gives me 2TB of space accessible from any machine on my network. The server runs Server 2003. This is however, NOT it's only purpose, the server would run whether it was file sharing or not so I figured why not give it some space.

 

[kamikazekyle]

i'm using the current gen aebs with a 1 tb wd external usb 2.0 drive hooked up to it. i've set up transmission to download things to it directly - but i've always wondered about something - when i download a large file via bittorrent, and have that download directly to my airport disk, is it writing the file over my wireless setup directly onto the airport disk? or is it caching part of the file onto my computer's hdd first, and then copying it over to the airport disk?

I wanna say it's writing directly to your NAS, though I suppose it would depend if Transmission had anything special such as recognizing a networked share and doing local temp files. While I don't have anything to back it up with since I don't really use Transmission, most of the time the network share is going to be treated as a local mount point, so it'll be written to directly. AirPort Disks are simply shared out via CIFS and AFP depending on the drive's formatting, and I don't think OS X throws anything extra into the mix.

To the OP: a basic NAS setup would work fine, as others have mentioned, if you don't want to keep running your current Vista box.

 

[Ka0t1x]

Yep I really don't think it matters as long as the OS/Application you're using can take benefit of the protocol the system uses. IE: XBMC cannot do AFP (at least not AppleTV variation).

 

[dmw16]

Whatever you buy be sure it will support an iTunes server (if that's something you want) and Time Machine. I believe that a lot of Windows-based network storage options will not play nice with Time Machine (or vice versa) without some monkeying around.

The Drobo is a good option. It's a little more expensive but I believe it supports Mac well and also gives you the option to expand in the future. Some of the other options that offer RAID (or RAID like data protection) lock you in so that once you've setup your drives you've got what you've got.

I actually bought a MacMini Server, but that is probably overkill. If I hadn't bought that I'd have gone Drobo.

 

[Goosemaster]

If you decide to to go with a networked solution, 100Mbps wired and 54Mbps wireless connectivity will be a bear. Upgrade wireless and wired connectivity along with your storage.

If you want to keep it as Apple as possible, get one of their newer wireless routers (not the one with built in storage as they suck).

 

[suklee]

I've been looking out for a Gigabit/N-router for a while now. How about one that has a built-in USB port to share its hard drive? I'll probably be losing features compared to a NAS but when we travel the hard drive is a bit more portable.

iTunes Server - it seems it's possible to use this as a central library for syncing with a bit of work - (example) If so this would really save a lot of space on both Macs.

Hmm... I can't retire my HTPC until I have something to do the streaming TO the TV? (like an Apple TV or Mac Mini?) Unless there is a NAS out there that can do this as well!

Perhaps the PS3 a good choice for streaming from a NAS. It can play games, Blu Rays as well...

 

[dmw16]

I've been looking out for a Gigabit/N-router for a while now. How about one that has a built-in USB port to share its hard drive? I'll probably be losing features compared to a NAS but when we travel the hard drive is a bit more portable.

iTunes Server - it seems it's possible to use this as a central library for syncing with a bit of work - (example) If so this would really save a lot of space on both Macs.

Hmm... I can't retire my HTPC until I have something to do the streaming TO the TV? (like an Apple TV or Mac Mini?) Unless there is a NAS out there that can do this as well!

Perhaps the PS3 a good choice for streaming from a NAS. It can play games, Blu Rays as well...

You could use an AppleTV but you'd need to have a server that supports home sharing.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You could always get a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme + Hard Drive.

 

[suklee]

Do any NAS support audio & video streaming to iOS devices?

 

[Emulex]

any nas that runs windows/osx/linux can run run airvideo/streamtome - reccomend a Q6600 or so for high bandwidth transcodes

 

[suklee]

My Windows box that I use occasionally to stream stuff to the TV is actually a Q6600 and has AirVideo server installed.. I could stick more storage in there and call it a day

 

[rdp6]

I have put my iTunes library on a external drive connected to the current AEBS. It doesn't connect fast enough from sleep for trouble-free operation, but I have been testing (getting good results) from another way to go:

Make a new user on the iMac's external hard drive, load media to that user's iTunes library, enable iTunes library sharing, leave iTunes running, and then switch back to other users for normal use of the iMac. Other computers, ipods, apple TVs, etc all see the shared library perfectly and it is never subject to someone quitting iTunes on their own login for whatever reason. Has anyone else tried this approach?

 

[suklee]

Update: I went with the Synology DS111 and a 5900 RPM Seagate 2TB. Happy so far, but want to get an N/Gigabit router as I am using a G/100Mbps one at the moment. (I hate how when I upgrade, one thing usually leads to another)

I backed up 200GB via Time Machine to the NAS via wire... took most of the day lol.

iTunes streaming from the server is nice but I wish the NAS can become the central music library for syncing to iPhones/iPads. I've read some forum threads where it's been done but it seems complicated...

 

[sourceninja]

I just have a external enclosure attached to my AEBS.