Looking for a NAS (~8TB usable space) to use with MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[Zuzler]

As the title says, I am looking for a good NAS in the 8TB usable space range. I'd love to use 3TB WD Red HDDS, in a 4 disk NAS that would make 12TB, with RAID 5 this should give around 7-8TB useful space.

The problem is: I have NO clue about what NAS to get and if MediaPortal can even be installed on such a (server) system. The QNAP TS-459 Pro II looks quite ok, but I have no idea whether this is a total overkill or just not the right category for me. Can anyone help me shed some light on this issue?

 

[gijoe73]

Build your own one...

If you've an old Mainboard or a complete old PC, you can easily build an excellent Device.
Use freenas for your NAS, which is really simple to install and to configure.

I'm using an Asus E45m1-m with 16 Gb ram and 5 WD red HD's with 2tb Diskspace and doesn't have any
Problems with it.

 

[gijoe73]

Mediaportal can only be installed in a Windows enviroment.

If you build an Server with Windows Home server, it is possible to install the TV-Server on this. But this is a little bit tricky.

 

[Zuzler]

Good point, but I always thought unless it comes to Intel Atom or similar, the power usage of a self-built is higher than the one of a "real" NAS?

 

[gijoe73]

That´s true - but how much is the difference ?
It depents on the CPU you want to use - An I7 is overkill but many People uses I3 or older Core2Duo CPU´s for their NAS and happy with the Power consumption.
If you build your own NAS using Freenas, you´ll have a much more flexible Device than any other Pre-build NAS. You can easily move your Data to newer Hardware, if you´re going to upgrade, without loss of Data. This was the winning Point for me to build my own NAS.

 

[hafblade]

The problem is that there is no nas available with windows for the tv server. You could use a nas to record on but that is all.

 

[DJBlu]

Try purchasing a DAS and attaching it to your TV Server.

There are a few out there with 4 bays that will set the drives up in RAID5

Something like this connects over E-Sata

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/data...1394a-b-800mbit-inc-jbod-raid-01-1plus-span-c

 

[kiwijunglist]

There are lots of RAID/Storage Pooling options that run with windows, and it would be pretty easy to put together a miniture file server running windows. You could take a look at SnapRaid or FlexRaid

http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/

Snapraid gives you data protection, but at the same time the original file system is untouched so your data is even safer than most NAS devices. I think people lose data quite often due to them making a mistake with RAID setup/maintenance. This makes it impossible to lose your data in this way. Also snapraid is ideal for HTPC storage of large files that don't change very often.

 

[JimCatMP]

Lots of good advice here, but suggest take a step back and answer a few questions in your head to help you.

1) Do you want to use NAS exclusively with TV server or for general use? Reason being, then you have problems with TV server and get into the 'change, reboot, check, change....' cycle (rare, but we've all been there with some application or other), if someone else needs access to content, you'll get ear ache

2) Mechanically, do I have space [physical, heat & noise] for NAS and use it as server [so TV input] & client [HDMI to TV? - MP2 still being a fair way down the road]. Making storage truly separate, means as long as you have network that will handle it [200MB/s main/ether works for me, but this is VERY specific to your home] you can off load heat. noise & space to somewhere it may not matter so much - so having a far larger case with lots of vents & simply effective cooling & small UPS even for safe shutdown?

3) Do you want a plug & play or 'install & config' - advantage & disadvantages both ways.

4) Performance - bottom of range NAS [like mine] - perfect to media server, pant's as filer server for anything more

And as example - my current set up is TV server just as TV Server, ATOM ION based Client for TV, basic Freecom 2 bay NAS config'd as JBOD with 2x2TB [anything critical {photo's & home vids} get's it's own copy on separate server].

Next time - may go with server with disk [mini-itx & i3], custom casing [shallow 1Uish] and something akin to snapraid or native OS support (Win 8 - need to bite bullet and try it without Metro

Cheers - J.

 

[kiwijunglist]

DONT DO IT @JimCatMP - I just tried Win8 for my mp client + server, i'm going back to W7, Metro was cool, but W8 was buggy and caused lots of small annoying htpc related problems & niggles!!