Multimedia NAS ?

[user_31000]

Here's my dylema :

I need both a NAS and a multimedia station, this will be next to my TV so i want it relatively quiet.

My problem being : i don't think a multimedia HDD is enough due to codecs and updates limitations.
I'd rather have something like a mini-pc or mini tower running with a dedicated multimedia system.

Problem is i dont think there's alot of NAS that can be connected to a TV, no ?

Thus i would need a mini tower to serve both as multimedia station and NAS OR a NAS and a mini pc just for the tv/nas interface.

Soo, is there a full good ( and affordable +/- 500€ max ) Nas+multimedia station built in option ?

If no, would you go for the single mini tower PC or the mini pc+nas option ?
Thanks for your help.

[ThonEney]

My problem being : i don't think a multimedia HDD is enough due to codecs and updates limitations.
I have no idea what you're trying to say.

Why don't you just get an atom board and stick some hdd's in there?

[Hurricane]

Synology or QNAP iirc will do what you want.

Synology is a barebone basically running a simple linux distro.

No experience with either though personally but heard good stuff from friends.

ALternatively, DIY is also a option if you have the technical knowledge to do it.

[firefoxx80]

ION based ITX boards have enough power to play 1080p, and only draw <25W. Plus they have HDMI out.

To be honest, you'd be best bet is to get one of these, and stick loads of disks in it.

[EntroX]

ION based ITX boards have enough power to play 1080p, and only draw <25W. Plus they have HDMI out.

To be honest, you'd be best bet is to get one of these, and stick loads of disks in it.

what he said.

i built an HTPC with one of the ION based boards, does 1080p playback just fine.

you can do the same i did and buy an eSATA external enclosure, mine has 4 bays and included a eSATA PCI-X raid controller and i have 4x 2tb drives on raid-5. the card can hold 2 enclosures so you can actually get 2 enclosures in, it supports most raid forms (JBOD, RAID-0, 1, 5 and 10).

total cost would be about 400-500$ i think with disks (1 enclosure)

[user_31000]

My problem being : i don't think a multimedia HDD is enough due to codecs and updates limitations.
I have no idea what you're trying to say.

Why don't you just get an atom board and stick some hdd's in there?

Well obviosuly i just expressed my lack of knolwedge in the field :

I don't want a multimedia hdd with no possibility of extention and a shitty factory OS with no other possibility to update but the possible patch from constructor.

Those HTPC looks like my solution IDD, they don't have any in my usual resaler tho ...

I'll get some quote and be back here to have your opinion on my future aquisition.

[EntroX]

for 500 euros you can deffo do the same thing i did vOv

[Drakma]

Purchase PS3

download tversity

Profit?

[ThonEney]

Purchase PS3

download tversity

Profit?
Besides :lolpsn: it can't be a nas or at least a good one.

[EntroX]

Purchase PS3

download tversity

Profit?
terribru


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[firefoxx80]

tbc XBMC has worked fine for me, running on Windows.

[user_31000]

Got a few question after some hardware browsing :

- Atom or Fusion ? My main concern being silence and consumption if they are both equivalent performance wise i'd go for the best heat generation wise and consumption wise.

- A good Case for the stuff ? Something robust and if possible black, size isn't too much of a problem, and id rather have something that optimise passive cooling or 120mm cooling since they usualy are less noisy.

- Amount of RAM ? I realy have no clue here, it depend on the OS i guess but i would probably go for 4go, or is 2 enough to wistand HD.

- Remote controler ? Is it better then let say remote network acces or a remote mouse+keyboard ? Have seen many modele with this but i guess it's more of a gimmick.

- Number of HDD ? I'm not too tempted by RAID because i will probably just stick 1 or 2 1 TB hdd in the thing and use my actual 1TB external HDD to backup sensible files. So i would guess 2 tb let me enough space for the future.

Thanks.

[Stoffl]

Got a QNAP TS-212 turbonas recently and can't recommend.

Shit is making me raege.

Crashes randomly, web interface then only brings a php error msg, samba/file access/ssh won't work until you force-shutdown the whole fucking thing.
Which is awesome because you're then "forced" to check the file system, wich takes hours with 2 x 2tb disks.

Also admin pw keeps resetting to default.

My current workaround is a scheduled reboot every day...
:facepalm:

[firefoxx80]

Got a few question after some hardware browsing :

- Atom or Fusion ? My main concern being silence and consumption if they are both equivalent performance wise i'd go for the best heat generation wise and consumption wise.
Atom by itself doesn't have anywhere near enough power to play 1080p (or 720p, for that matter); so be sure to get one with an accelerated chipset (like the ION-based Atoms).
As for Fusion, I've not seen any reviews yet, so can't comment.



- A good Case for the stuff ? Something robust and if possible black, size isn't too much of a problem, and id rather have something that optimise passive cooling or 120mm cooling since they usualy are less noisy.
I have an Antec Fusion case at home, for my C2D based media centre, and with some Nexus fans it's practically silent (quieter than my cable TV box!). It only takes two drives, so you'd probably have to ghetto some additional drive bays into it.
Alternatively, Chenbro does some ITX-based NAS boxes, I think there's one out there that supports 4-5 hotswap drive bays. Although, I'm not sure of their acoustics.
Finally, why not just get a decent case, stick a quiet/passive PSU in it, and then rip out any case fans? Atom's don't generate that much heat anyway.



- Amount of RAM ? I realy have no clue here, it depend on the OS i guess but i would probably go for 4go, or is 2 enough to wistand HD.
2GB minimum. More RAM = less swapping to disk = less disk noise and heat.



- Remote controler ? Is it better then let say remote network acces or a remote mouse+keyboard ? Have seen many modele with this but i guess it's more of a gimmick.
I use all three on Windows:
Remote - Fine, can be configured to work with most media centres. But is a PITA when the machine does an update or somethign unexpected.
RDP - Struggles with video overlay sometimes, you end up seeing huge blocks of black instead of video. Plus it needs some hacking to prevent the console sessions feom being overridden. VNC is a slightly better solution here.
Mini wireless keyboard w/trackpad - seems to be the best so far. You can pick one up for £40-50

Of course, if you went down a linux-based solution, remote access becomes irrelevant.



- Number of HDD ? I'm not too tempted by RAID because i will probably just stick 1 or 2 1 TB hdd in the thing and use my actual 1TB external HDD to backup sensible files. So i would guess 2 tb let me enough space for the future.

Thanks.
Yup, 2TB is fine. I quite like the WD Green.
At the end of the day, ask yourself "what can I afford to lose?". If the drive dies and you just lose some torrents and ripped DVD's, it's probably not a problem. But if you are storing important personal files, then RAID should be seriously considered.



btw, Entrox. What eSATA solution did you go for? Got any model numbers?

[user_31000]

I didn't realy choose the OS yet but i've eard good things about ubuntu for HTPC, if you have any advice about that i'll take them too =).

[Stoffl]

Yup, 2TB is fine. I quite like the WD Green.
At the end of the day, ask yourself "what can I afford to lose?". If the drive dies and you just lose some torrents and ripped DVD's, it's probably not a problem. But if you are storing important personal files, then RAID should be seriously considered.



Don't!! buy WD green drives for a NAS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-Limit ... r_Recovery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-Limited_Error_Recovery)

Also,
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic ... 24&t=28344 (http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=28344)

In short, the LLC problem is this: the WD 'Green drives' try to reduce the power consumption
by parking their heads after few seconds that there is nothing to read or write.
However, with Linux-based computers (like Synology NAS), disks receive requests even only
to re-read some data every few seconds. What happens in the WD greens is that if they are idle
you can hear a click of the head parking... and then immediately moving again.

tl;dr:
.) A raid feature that's been disabled by default in WD green FW(can't be enabled anymore)
.) A "power saving feature" which will essentially murder your drive in a NAS(llc timeout value can be changed with a dos tool, after that it ..should..be ok. But it's :effort:

[EntroX]

btw, Entrox. What eSATA solution did you go for? Got any model numbers?

TowerRAID TR4M-BP

the included eSATA raid controller takes an obnoxious amount of time to load up but it works like a charm, i get around 120-135mb/s speeds on it with RAID-5 of 4x 5900RPM 2tb drives (so 6tb useable space).

it has a single fan and while it claims its hot-swappable it really isnt, well, i mean, it can but to put the hard drives in you gotta open up the thing so its inconvenient at the very least ;p

main reaso ni went for it is that it included the controller (alone they sell for like 60$?, nd i paid about 100$ for the controller + enclosure) you can put 2 of these on a single controller so you can get a hefty amount of storage for a very small investment, you can even install a web interface if you care enough vOv

edit: link to it http://www.amazon.com/TowerRAID-eSATA-P ... O/ref=pd_2 (http://www.amazon.com/TowerRAID-eSATA-Performance-Tower-TR4M-BP/dp/B003X0BJAO/ref=pd_2)

[Stoffl]

Got a QNAP TS-212 turbonas recently and can't recommend.

Shit is making me raege.

Crashes randomly, web interface then only brings a php error msg, samba/file access/ssh won't work until you force-shutdown the whole fucking thing.
Which is awesome because you're then "forced" to check the file system, wich takes hours with 2 x 2tb disks.

Also admin pw keeps resetting to default.

My current workaround is a scheduled reboot every day...
:facepalm:

Swapped the unit yesterday because I thought it was just bad luck, upgraded to TS-412, same shit happened over night.
http://i51.tinypic.com/34qwgw6.jpg

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUU

I guess it's the config which was migrated by putting the TS-212 raid1 into the new TS-412.

[firefoxx80]

Yesah, don't use the WD Green/Blue/Black drives on a RAID card, for the reasons defined above.

For a JBOD setup, they're fine. They're quiet, and they draw a low amount of power.

[Stoffl]

Unless it's a linux based system/nas, the llc issue isn't raid related.

[EntroX]

shame really, i thought those qnap's looked cool, good thing i went with a lolhomemade setup.

[Stoffl]

Made support ticket at qnap, they replied with LOLWD20EARS, you're fucked.

Yeah rite, a high LLC count(WHICH I DON'T HAVE) is causing the NAS to crash and resets my admin account. :roll:

[EntroX]

not trying to be a dick here but MAN i'm glad i didnt go qnap :lol:

[Waagaa]

QNap is great, as long as you use the right disks.. :)

[Stoffl]

Their support is still buttfucking retarded.

The guy is just avoiding any serious work, his main argument was "Wd green don't work well in raid".
I sent another mail "So the problems should dissapear when not using raid, right"

Another "blablabla sry we can#t support those disks, all will be good when you buy another set"

Yeahritefucker

[arian snow]

Well, didn't you check the disk supported page before you got the discs for it?

The problem you have is most likely with your raid setup, so even through the discs you have aren't officially supported then disabling RAID will most likely fix you issue.

I have a Qnap 419p+, and it has worked flawlessly 24/7 for the last three months.

[firefoxx80]

Problem is... 5-6 years ago, the consumer WD drives were almost identical to the enterprise/raid ones. Then WD started dicking with the firmware.

Don't get me wrong. WD Green runs lovely as JBOD, and the WD Black isn't far off a raptor in terms of performance. Just, due to gimped firmware, if you want one of them working reliably in RAID - it's an extra £50-60 per drive.

[Stoffl]

@arian snow
No I didn't, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the WD20EARS drives.



Disabled raid, put in 2 x 1TB Hitachi drives in JBOD mode and guess what....admin account/config just reset to default AGAIN.

Let's see how the useless support wiggles out of it this time...

[user_31000]

have been spending a while simulating configs on diferent hardware sites and reading some guides, loads of them suggest that CM :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031AK5CE?ie=UTF8&tag=htpcselector-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0031AK5CE

Paired with this proc : http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Processor-i3-2100-LGA1155-BX80623I32100/dp/B004JEVGMO%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJXN3MA46JNZ2AOQA %26tag%3Dhtpcselector-20%26linkCode%3Dsp1%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165 953%26creativeASIN%3DB004JEVGMO

Is nonintegrated option viable in small case like this ? Won't i have all the pain in the world to find a passive rad to cool the thing ?

I think i'm gonna get the Antec Fusion remote case wich looks awesome and is well rated everywhere.

other question that comes to my mind :

Most solutions suggest putting a TV tuner on it but first i got a decoder on the TV cable and i doubt i will be able to see my channel through the PC, second does it add anything outside of the obvious possibility of recording whatever you want ?

Overall i have a good idea of what i'll use as a case, powersuply and ram/disck drive, but i can't settle on the core of the beast. Silent is my main concern, thus i don't want to go the non-integrated path if it forces me to put a noisy fan atop the thing.

[Stoffl]

Damnit why did I buy Qnap and not Synology.. :?

http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php? ... duct_id=17 (http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php?lang=enu&bays_id=3&product_id=17)

*hint* They're not terrible and list WD20EARS drives as compatible-nonshocker.
Would've also saved monies.

[Stoffl]

@arian snow
No I didn't, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the WD20EARS drives.



Disabled raid, put in 2 x 1TB Hitachi drives in JBOD mode and guess what....admin account/config just reset to default AGAIN.

Let's see how the useless support wiggles out of it this time...

support guy said I should update FW again, even though the changelogs don't mention anything even remotely related to my issue(s).
Updated, admin account reset to default pw again.

:roll:

[Stoffl]

A week later, still no solution from support. Every reboot resets admin account. Also happens randomly.
And the NAS crashed twice within the last 4 days. Fuckers even made me buy another set of disks because that's OBVIOUSLY* the issue.

Will try to swap it at my shop for a Synology, or get a voucher.


Stay the fuck away from QNAP.

*NOT

[EntroX]

still glad i built my own 8-)