Help with severall htpc's. (1 Viewer)

[Jocker_Boy]

First of all, i'm portuguese so my english may not be perfect.
Well, i have one problem.

I have 1 HTPC in my living room with MediaPortal and i have only spade for 2 HDD's in my case (Antec Fusion Black)
And both HDD's are already full (1TB + 1TB).

But now i i'm thinking of purchase another HTPC for my room, and the objective is to have all my data in HDD's and have acess to those in my room and in living room.

How can i do this? I don't want to have some HDD's in one HTPC and anothers HDD's in another HTPC.
I know that i have to build a network, but how it is the best way?

Understand my question?
I don't understand very much of this, but i was thinking in bying a case to save severall HDD's, and both HTPC will have acess to that case. But for that case i don't want a tower in my house, it's ugly, the only objective is to keep all HDD's and have space to if necessary add some...

Sorry once again with my english.

 

[etheesdad]

Its possible to fit an additional 3.5" drive in the space above the 5.25" bay using an adaptor.

In answer to your question, yes its relatively easy to do.

Three options come to mind:

1. Wireless. If you have a wireless router this may be the easiest way. Older routers are 'G' type wireless, newer ones are 'N' type (which has better range and quality). If you have a wireless adapter in each machine (pci or usb) then they can be connected to one another through the router, provided the router is in range of both. For 'N', the router and both wireless cards need to support it. 'N' is generally backwards compatable with 'G'

2. ethernet cable. This offers the possibility of better/faster connectivity in some respects but involves running a cable between both machines, each attached to your router. You would need a router with more than one LAN port on the back. Most new motherboards have 10/100/1000 (gigabit) conection. Older motherboards are 10/100. 10/100 is fine for playing videos. Gigabit is better for file transfer but you need a router and network cards/motherboards that support it.

3. ethernet via power. You can get adapters (wall plugs that fit into power sockets) which will allow you to run LAN cable between machines using the power cabling in the house to move the signal. Once again a router is needed to intervene.

4. crossover cable. This involves running a cable directly from one machine to another without the router intervening. They are quite difficult to set up but will also achieve what you want to do.

Obviously, wireless N is the easiest option. Wireless G is fine too as long as both machines are in range. LAN offers better connectivity than wireless G but involves some degree of cabling.

As far as a case goes, silverstone make some nice HTPC server cases. LC20B-M has space for 6 or 7 hard drives....

 

[Jocker_Boy]

Well, thanks for your reply.

I have already a router with wirless and ethernet cable (router asus wl-500gp2).
I have alreay a HTPC.
Now what i want is a place to keep all my HDD's and be avaible to future HTPC's that i will have.

The best option is a HTPC server or a NAS? Price/qualitie?~For example Drobo, but the price it to high.

 

[etheesdad]

My vote for price/ performance would be the server route. Cheaper NAS = slow and less flexible than a server.

If you want to go the NAS option its expensive to get something comparable and for the price and then all it can do is store files.

Have you read THIS thread?

 

[dastrom]

I have a Buffalo Terastation Pro (4 drives) NAS that works great not only for my MP HTPC but also for storing files for both my Macs and PCs. I have them setup RAID 10 so with 4 1TB drives I have 1.8TB. I have added a second Terrastation also setup in RAID. I only have one HTPC but can play movies on it with other pcs playing movies or accessing data fine. Both have 10/100/1000 gigabit connections. Very easy to set up (I have no clue how to set up a server!). I picked mine up refurbished with smaller drives and then upgraded the drives. Very pleased with the setup.

Dave