NetGear? That's better than building my own? I don't mind either. I just want the best bang for buck.
Alright, I think I'm going to grab a Synology DS411j. Looks cheap enough. I want 4 bays.
Are 3TB drives the way to go? I don't see many 4TB ones out there.
Doh. I guess I'll have to find a way to rig it up wired. Germany doesn't seem to be big on wired connections.
Thanks. Any hardware suggestions?
WTF? I've been reading about tech for forever and I've never heard of anything like this. Awesome. I need to read up on it. Any disadvantages?Why not try an ethernet over power solution. You plug in some adaptors and it basically pushes your data through your power lines from one adaptor to another. Data streams are stable and it saves your running ethernet cables everywhere.
e.g. http://www.tp-link.com/au/products/details/?categoryid=1862&model=TL-PA411KIT
DS411j: Will this be 110v or 220v? Is there a switch in the back I can just flip?
WTF? I've been reading about tech for forever and I've never heard of anything like this. Awesome. I need to read up on it. Any disadvantages?
I just got my NAS. Synology DS411j. Can I add more hard drives to it later? Or do I have to add all four HDDs at once? I want to avoid having to delete all the currently existing HDDs if I add a new HDD. Possible?
Hatte erst 2*2TB Platten als RAID1 verbaut, dann die 3. 2TB-Platte eingebaut und auf RAID5 umgestellt. Hat alles ohne Probleme und auf anhieb funktioniert. Die Konvertierung lief allerdings knapp 1,5 Tage. Ist aber kein Problem einfach die DS so lange in Ruhe lassen.
Greatest combo. While a HTPC with a sufficiently large HDD will suffice, a htpc with a small SSD with the bare essentials (Linux, XBMC) that streams the movies from a NAS (by wire) is far cheaper, blazing fast and all-around awesome.
I noticed the thread and now I'm reading up a bit on NAS devices. I looked at the amazon reviews of this model.
Looks like that should be no issue. Here's one from a guy who first only had two HDDs on Raid 1, then added a third HDD and switched to Raid 5 without issues.
Adding a nas will obviously not really give a performance boost - but does this really matter for a htpc? Either your media streams without choppiness or it doesn'tWhy would there be a siginifcant performance boost with adding a NAS? I mean wouldn't adding internal drives to an already up and running HTPC provide the best performance?
I mean it would just add another hardware's latency/access time on top of it all, instead of just having it centralized in one device (the HTPC).
It just seems really unnecessary adding a NAS if you already have a htpc up and running.
Sure, the HTPC will be running an OS and various software but i can't imagine that would cause that much of a performance drop.
Adding a nas will obviously not really give a performance boost - but does this really matter for a htpc? Either your media streams without choppiness or it doesn't
On the other hand, a nas offers so much functionality in an easy to manage package with the added benefit of consuming less power than keeping an htpc running 24/7.
My current setup is :
- Synology DS411slim with 4 1tb disks in raid5
Opened up to the outside world so i can use the DS Audio app to stream it's music to my iPhone, manage downloads and my photo library
- Boxee Box downstairs
- rest of my living room plugged in to the network using a powerline adapter (my router is behind the couch)
- iMac upstairs also plugged in using a powerline adapter
- timemachine backups done on the nas
Also use it as a local webserver to work on webprojects but that's a different discussion
He said it was blazingly fast. So i assumed it was faster than going the easier, cheaper route. Trying to approach this from different sides but can't come up with how this would be better in any way. It would cost more, it would add another device taking up space, it will offer no real benefits.
Sure, if one doesn't already own a HTPC, a NAS would be considered. The small footprint (both physically and for the electrical bill) would make it attractive. Then again, building a HTPC would probably come out in similar (or maybe less) costs for a lot more features.
Also, having a HTPC with sleep mode and Wake on Lan would probably not make that much of a bigger footprint on the electrical bill. Maybe if it was running 24/7 but even then i think it's bullshit.
Getting a fully fleshed out OS and all the capabilities with it would be far superior than what a NAS would/could do. I suppose that for end users that can't operate electronics beyond plugging a cable into a power socket it might be a little bit of a hassle.
I'm not trying to shit up the thread by saying "NAS are worthless, build a HTPC", i'm just saying that there's better options.
If i think what you mean by having powerline networking i'm just gonna say ugh. I've had limited experience with this and i will never, ever touch that again. But that's going off topic ;p
An HTPC is worthless if you need more than 2-3 HDDs, or any kind of hot swappability.
They both serve completely different purposes, personally I'd never choose either one or the other on their own if I had a need for networked storage/backup/streaming and also media playback.
I'm wondering how exactly those NAS things work and if I need one.
Lets say I was using a Windows 8 device with a relatively small SSD, my old PC, an old Macbook, and my parents also have a notebook running Windows 8.
Right now (not running Windows 8 yet and I don't have that Ultrabook-y Windows 8 device yet), I back up the mac from time to time with an external HDD (like every two weeks -- plug in, back up, plug out), use Live Mesh and SkyDrive to synchronize some stuff with the cloud and with my old PC, and my parent infrequently back up the notebook with another external HDD.
With a NAS, could I use it for Time Machine on the Mac, and Windows 8's History Vault?
Can you put Windows Libraries on the NAS so that multiple PCs/users can use them?
Does connecting to the NAS work automatically when I connect to the network with a mobile device or when the PCs are running and the NAS powers on? Or will every device somehow complain when it doesn't find the NAS?
Do you keep it on 24/7? I don't really need hourly time machine backups.
Any issues using NAS devices with a router running DD-WRT?
300mbit, absolutely stable and no need to pull cabling all over my rented apt is a pretty big winIf i think what you mean by having powerline networking i'm just gonna say ugh. I've had limited experience with this and i will never, ever touch that again. But that's going off topic ;p
We actually use a synology RS3412xs to power a vSphere clustered webserver park at work. The performance on that thing is incredible since only pretty high-end SANs seem to support vSphere 5 VAAI currently.Only if you plan to virtualize stuff really. Though some higher end NASes can virtualize smaller stuff.
Like 404 mentions, HTPC and NAS are pretty different beasts.
You could build a monster HTPC with NAS capabilities, but the power draw from having that thing on all the time would be ridiculous.
The idea of a NAS is for a wholly independent device with a software layer as thin as possible.
300mbit, absolutely stable and no need to pull cabling all over my rented apt is a pretty big win
Modern powerline technology is nothing like it was 3 years ago and actually pretty fantastic.
I get what a NAS is and why it is preferable in some cases, and i've touched on some of it. My original question still stands though when it comes to already owning a HTPC, why would one add another hardware layer on top of it when the HTPC already have the capabilities of doing exactly what a NAS would do, and more?
I actually would like some sources on power draw and what that would amount to in costs per year, because i recall reading about it a couple of years ago and it seemed negligible.
I don't remember where i read it though.
I can't seem to find any hard data on it after some searches so i would be interested if anyone could provide it.
Even if the cost would be a large sum for running 24/7, why not utilize Hibernate and run WOL?
The low profile and easy to use makes a NAS perfect, but to say that it can do anything other than a HTPC is wrong. I would also argue the whole "HTPC would cost more running 24/7", and it most likely would cost less to build.
Wow, cool. I didn't know that. I think it was at least 3 years ago since i last had my run in with it and it was absolutely shit.
I get what a NAS is and why it is preferable in some cases, and i've touched on some of it. My original question still stands though when it comes to already owning a HTPC, why would one add another hardware layer on top of it when the HTPC already have the capabilities of doing exactly what a NAS would do, and more?
I actually would like some sources on power draw and what that would amount to in costs per year, because i recall reading about it a couple of years ago and it seemed negligible.
I don't remember where i read it though.
I can't seem to find any hard data on it after some searches so i would be interested if anyone could provide it.
Even if the cost would be a large sum for running 24/7, why not utilize Hibernate and run WOL?
The low profile and easy to use makes a NAS perfect, but to say that it can do anything other than a HTPC is wrong. I would also argue the whole "HTPC would cost more running 24/7", and it most likely would cost less to build.
Synology DS1812+
- 194.48 MB/sec Writing, 202.20 MB/sec Reading
- Scaling up to 18 Drives with Synology DX510
- Featuring SuperSpeed USB 3.0
- Expandable RAM Module (Up to 3GB)
- 2 LAN with Failover and Link Aggregation Support
- CPU Passive cooling Technology & System Fan Redundancy
I owned an HTPC and it's great. But now I roll with a NAS. It's a lot more efficient for my set up, I think. I want to stream stuff to more than one computer at a time. I haven't tried it yet but I hope it works well.
Is there any iOS and Android app where I can pull media off the NAS and stream it?
Synology has a couple of apps for music/videos/pictures, but you're better off just finding any media app that look into network shares (avia/dice player/etc).
I can't think of any music app that looks at network shares though, and the synology one is kinda lame.
What? Hotswapping have been around for ages on PC's.
I currently have 4 drives in my HTPC. Granted, the case isn't the smallest (which i agree, a NAS wins). An HTPC is just like any other PC.
I get what a NAS is and why it is preferable in some cases, and i've touched on some of it. My original question still stands though when it comes to already owning a HTPC, why would one add another hardware layer on top of it when the HTPC already have the capabilities of doing exactly what a NAS would do, and more?
Oh I know, it's just that IMO if an HTPC case is large enough to support at least 4 HDDs and/or hot swapping, it sort of misses the point of an HTPC.
Don't think of it as "adding a layer". It's much more like modularizing
There's a principle in software design called "separation of concerns" that applies just as well to hardware. The idea is that it's much cleaner and more efficient to have N smaller things that focus on doing one task each and doing them well, than one large single device/system that handles all N things on its own. I understand that some prefer the swiss army knife approach when it comes to tech, but personally I think it's inelegant, and it certainly doesn't scale as well. If your requirements change, you can just deal with the single machine handling the task in question, and not need to worry about the effect upgrading/changing it will have on anything else, because it's an encapsulated system.
Sure you could stuff 4 HDDs into an HTPC, but then you have this giant beast of a machine that's going to get loud, hot, and draw a lot of power. Also, having 8, 12 or even 16+ HDDs in a NAS isn't too uncommon these days either (relatively speaking, of course...I'm talking about within the market of people who know what a NAS and an HTPC are). Would you really want to be sticking all of those HDDs into the same machine that is responsible for handling all of your media ripping/encoding, transcoding, internet streaming, TV recording, gaming, etc?
In my opinion, that's adding way too much complexity to one device. It has too many responsibilities.
Now, if you know your needs are relatively stable, that 4 TB of space is plenty and you're just repurposing an old computer to stream media directly to a screen, then of course it doesn't make sense to buy a separate NAS. I completely understand that and wouldn't recommend a full HTPC + NAS solution to just anyone.
The only thing i could agree with you regarding stuffing more drives in an HTPC is that it would require a larger case, but becoming louder and hotter? Nope. I can't agree with you on that. Sure, it would be "louder" than an NAS, but it wouldn't instantly become louder than the HTPC you already have (sans harddrive trashing of course, but imo it's negligible).
I also think that an HTPC would give you more freedom of upgrading than a closed system like an NAS. A NAS would of course bring better closed integration and easier set up, but as a poweruser myself, i'd prefer more options and modular support. Granted, my knowledge about NAS isn't as up to snuff as i would want it to be, so there's probably a lot more upgrading options than i give credit for.
I really don't see the difference between sticking 8 drives into a HTPC and doing it in a NAS? The performance drop would literally be the same, if there even would be one.
I think maybe this has derailed the thread somewhat and i apologize. I still want to point out that i do not think it's pointless getting a NAS, even if you have a HTPC. For myself, i wouldn't do it but i can understand the reasons why. It just becomes more expensive, imo.
I'm thinking of getting one of these:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34516
And a small appliance machine to run FreeNAS on connected to it. Cheapest way I can find to house more than 4 drives and I like the flexibility of having it in the future. Actual computer cases with large numbers of 3.5" bays are ridiculously expensive.
I just looked up prices for 8 bay nases.
EEK.
I'm thinking of getting one of these:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34516
And a small appliance machine to run FreeNAS on connected to it. Cheapest way I can find to house more than 4 drives and I like the flexibility of having it in the future. Actual computer cases with large numbers of 3.5" bays are ridiculously expensive.
That actually looks pretty nice for the price.
For a case, you could always look at the Fractal Design cases (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352017 for example) it can fit at least 10 and it's only $140
If you can find an R3 for a good deal, it'd be a good option as well.
You could also use cheap converters to make more room for 3.5 drives, like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002
I have been checking out there site. Synology seems like top of the line for NAS.
I think I will go for a cheap 2 bay version. 6 TB is enough for me. Currently have all my stuff on 3TB.
I'm wondering how exactly those NAS things work and if I need one.
Lets say I was using a Windows 8 device with a relatively small SSD, my old PC, an old Macbook, and my parents also have a notebook running Windows 8.
Right now (not running Windows 8 yet and I don't have that Ultrabook-y Windows 8 device yet), I back up the mac from time to time with an external HDD (like every two weeks -- plug in, back up, plug out), use Live Mesh and SkyDrive to synchronize some stuff with the cloud and with my old PC, and my parent infrequently back up the notebook with another external HDD.
With a NAS, could I use it for Time Machine on the Mac, and Windows 8's History Vault?
Can you put Windows Libraries on the NAS so that multiple PCs/users can use them?
Does connecting to the NAS work automatically when I connect to the network with a mobile device or when the PCs are running and the NAS powers on? Or will every device somehow complain when it doesn't find the NAS?
You can generally set a period of time of inaction for the internal HDDs to spin down to save power. If you want to save more power certain NAS devices do allow you to schedule shut down and start up times. Again these two things are really based on which brand of NAS it is you get. QNAP and Synology had no issues, the Netgear ReadyNAS I set up could schedule shut down but not start up ... so be careful.Do you keep it on 24/7? I don't really need hourly time machine backups.
Any issues using NAS devices with a router running DD-WRT?
I'm in a dilemma, I already have an htpc where I can put 3 hdds in, connected to the network it would make it basically a nas. But I don't want it to run 24/7 because of the power consumption. Are there any nas with atleast a 4 bay drive for around 300-400? Do they already come with usb3.0?