Hey all - I've been reading a ton of forums for the past month, and while I glean bits of info all over the place, I'm still in a bit of a quandary.
Here's my situation:
For a few years I've been ripping my dvds and putting them on an an old desktop which has been functioning as an HTPC and a torrent box. I've been streaming through my Xbox360 and administering the box via RDP. It's an old Pentium D 3.0 w/ 4gb RAM that is really on its last legs - doesn't even have a video card in it anymore.
Now, that computer has been running without any kind of backup for the entire time. (I know, I know...
) As my collection has grown, I've been getting more and more paranoid about HD failure or some other kind of data loss. As such, I'm looking at buying a full fledged NAS.
My requirements:
-Preferably 4 bay, as to provide lots of future storage space and a wider variety of RAID configs.
-Has to be able to stream via uPNP/DLNA etc to my xbox, though I may at some point buy a different media extender.
-Has to be able to run a full fledged BT client, seeding a lot (usually 100+) though not usually more than 3-4 simultaneous downloads (and all this while streaming video if necessary). I have a 20Mb connection, which tops out at about 3000kb/s down.
-Would like some kind of WAN support - I do travel a fair bit, or am on non-home networks, and would like to be able to access my media for streaming, not just downloading to a remote client.
-NAS will be wired to a gigabit network; Xbox is wired as well, there are a few wireless clients also - would like easy access to files via wireless clients.
-NAS will also be set up to backup wireless clients when they are local.
I've been looking a lot at the QNAP TS-459 Pro/Pro+ and a bit at the Synology DS1511+. I like the looks of the Synology, but it seems like their multimedia support is somewhat lacking. I know they are probably overkill, but I want to be sure I have the horsepower to run a number of services without degrading performance. I've read a bit about FreeNAS, but it seems to function best as a pure NAS, not a hybrid box like I'm looking for.
I've been toying with the idea of going to DIY route, as it would be cheaper and probably more versatile but I don't have a lot of time to spend tinkering (I'm a medical student).. it's probably worth the money to me if I can find a readymade solution that will work out of the box. That being said, if the "ideal" device doesn't exist, I may be convinced to go with a DIY.
I'm probably going to start with 2x2TB drives in a RAID 1, then adding and migrating to RAID 5 or 6 in the future.
I'd like to come in under about 1100 to start.
Any help/questions/suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Here's my situation:
For a few years I've been ripping my dvds and putting them on an an old desktop which has been functioning as an HTPC and a torrent box. I've been streaming through my Xbox360 and administering the box via RDP. It's an old Pentium D 3.0 w/ 4gb RAM that is really on its last legs - doesn't even have a video card in it anymore.
Now, that computer has been running without any kind of backup for the entire time. (I know, I know...
) As my collection has grown, I've been getting more and more paranoid about HD failure or some other kind of data loss. As such, I'm looking at buying a full fledged NAS.My requirements:
-Preferably 4 bay, as to provide lots of future storage space and a wider variety of RAID configs.
-Has to be able to stream via uPNP/DLNA etc to my xbox, though I may at some point buy a different media extender.
-Has to be able to run a full fledged BT client, seeding a lot (usually 100+) though not usually more than 3-4 simultaneous downloads (and all this while streaming video if necessary). I have a 20Mb connection, which tops out at about 3000kb/s down.
-Would like some kind of WAN support - I do travel a fair bit, or am on non-home networks, and would like to be able to access my media for streaming, not just downloading to a remote client.
-NAS will be wired to a gigabit network; Xbox is wired as well, there are a few wireless clients also - would like easy access to files via wireless clients.
-NAS will also be set up to backup wireless clients when they are local.
I've been looking a lot at the QNAP TS-459 Pro/Pro+ and a bit at the Synology DS1511+. I like the looks of the Synology, but it seems like their multimedia support is somewhat lacking. I know they are probably overkill, but I want to be sure I have the horsepower to run a number of services without degrading performance. I've read a bit about FreeNAS, but it seems to function best as a pure NAS, not a hybrid box like I'm looking for.
I've been toying with the idea of going to DIY route, as it would be cheaper and probably more versatile but I don't have a lot of time to spend tinkering (I'm a medical student).. it's probably worth the money to me if I can find a readymade solution that will work out of the box. That being said, if the "ideal" device doesn't exist, I may be convinced to go with a DIY.
I'm probably going to start with 2x2TB drives in a RAID 1, then adding and migrating to RAID 5 or 6 in the future.
I'd like to come in under about 1100 to start.
Any help/questions/suggestions would be very much appreciated.
