To NAS or To PC?

[TauRus]

First of all, I would love to thank the team that runs this web site and forum for the wealth of useful information.
Currently, I have a couple of USB external hard drives along with a number of internal hard drives full of various media: photos, music, home video, etc.
My current LAN hardware:
1) Custom built desktop PCs (3 units, two of which are wired to the router, one has an internal wireless card).
2) an HP laptop (wireless)
3) PlayStation 3 (wireless connection to router; attached to a family TV via HDMI)
4) iPod Touch (wireless)
5) and the heart of it all is D-Link DIR-655 router connected to Comcast cable.
Objective:
1) Move all of the multimedia files to a single shared location (NAS)
2) Stream multimedia files to a family TV (via attached PS3).
3) Later down the road I will probably look into back up options, but this is not a high priority for me now.
4) And even lesser priority is ability to stream some multimedia to the iPod Touch.
Desired NAS / Setup Features:
1) Ideally, I would like to go away from having to run my main PC while streaming the multimedia to the family TV.
2) I would love to have an always on device (NAS) that is power efficient and quiet.
3) It has to be expandable and future-proof within reasonable financial limits. I figure a 4 drive unit is more than enough for me at this point.
Unfortunate Limitations:
1) PS3 as a media server is limited to the file formats and containers that Sony allows to process. That is a shame really since PS3 has so much built-in power that no other NMT or media manager will have in the foreseeable future. In fact, if only Sony would allow third parties to develop apps for PS3, one of the first apps would probably be some sort of a media manager like Twonky. PS3 AppStore – here we go. But I am starting to dream and digress here.
2) With the above in mind, unsupported containers / formats have to be transcoded before they are streamed to PS3. Thus, the server has to be able to use a media streaming application (my app of choice is PS3 Media Server, http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/), as well as have sufficient power to transcode the media without slowing down the whole thing to a crawl.
3) Did I mention my budget (up to $500-600)? It seems to always be a limitation.
So, the NAS device should allow me to install PS3MS, have enough power to transcode and stream SD and HD video and other types of media, as well as performing other typical NAS functions like back up etc.
Initially, I was looking at some off-the-shelf NAS units, but pretty soon I figured (perhaps incorrectly) that within the reasonable budget none of them, even the fast ones such as QNAP TS-219 or Thecus 3200 Pro, have enough power to do what I wanted them to.
Thus, I came to a conclusion that I probably need to start thinking about a DIY NAS. I spent some time reading the blogs and reviews at many sites. While trying to figure out where to draw the line between CPU power and efficiency, I eventually came to point when I realized that the NAS I am trying to design looks increasingly like a regular powerful PC. So, I made a full circle and came back to a point where I have to have a full blown PC/Server running to have the functionality and performance I want.
Lately, HP MediaSmart server EX485 caught my eyes moved me away from DIY plans back to off-the-shelf solutions. Is EX485 a possible answer to my questions? Does it have sufficient power for the transcoding chores? Will it allow me to install a windows flavor of PS3 Media Server?
Questions, questions, questions. Hopefully, I will get some answers too.

 

[TauRus]

Further questions. I read some more about HP EX485 Server. It appears that HP only allows to install "approved" plug-ins onto this server. Is this correct? I mean, if I get this server, will I be able to install any Windows application on it or not (I am primarily thinking of installing PS3 Media Server application as mentioned earlier). Does anyone here have first hand experience with these HP MediaSmart servers?
If it does not allow installations of windows apps, then I am back in the DIY NAS realm.

 

[thiggins]

Windows Home Server is a modified form of Windows Server 2003. You can install any Windows application on it that is supported on that OS. But you would need to separately administer the transcoding application using Remote Desktop.

"Approved" WHS plug-ins are integrated into the server admin GUI.

Given your requirements, I would focus on a Windows Home Server based solution, either DIY, or prebuilt.

 

[TauRus]

Tim,

Thank you! If you do not mind, I have a question. You wrote: "But you would need to separately administer the transcoding application using Remote Desktop."
By that, do you mean that every time when I start the server, do I also need to run a remote desktop from another PC to launch the application (PS3MS in this example)? Does WHS have anything similar to Windows Startup menu where you can configure an application to load automatically on startup?

Also, I am curious: is WHS installed on a hard drive inside EX485 or on some type of a flash memory?

 

[thiggins]

WHS has the ability to launch programs / services at startup, just like any other Windows OS.

WHS is installed on a hard drive.

 

[TauRus]

Thanks again, Tim!

 

[mpoliver]

Windows Home Server Box Hardware

Just figured I'd throw this out there...not sure if I'm coming to this post too late or not, but I figured it might be helpful to someone trying to setup a DIY Home Server.

I had been running Windows Home Server on an old recycled Dell Pentium 4 computer but i wanted to upgrade the hardware to increase efficiency, reduce the noise, and keep the heat down. So I decided to build my own rig on which to run WHS.

I have been running WHS on a DIY computer since about October 2008 without any problems. I did a lot of reading/research on what I would need for the box. Here are some of my operating requirements that I used to determine which parts to use:

1. Low energy consumption (or efficient energy consumption) as the box would be on most of the time.
2. Quiet.
3. Powerful enough to run the server, but not overkill in order to keep heat down. I didn't want an overly hot box.
4. Sufficient SATA connections for the hard drives (up to 6) for storage expandability.
5. Integrated graphics chip on the motherboard as I didn't want to deal with a graphics card and didn't see the need for spending extra money on one.
6. Integrated Gigabit ethernet.
7. Low cost (as close to $600-800 range as possible).
8. Reliability of components.

As a result and after a lot of reading on Newegg reviews and other sites, here is what I chose. Keep in mind that this was my first home DIY build of a rig and I needed it to be as simple as possible:

1. The case: Thermaltake VI5000BNS ATX box. Provided enough room inside to put in what I needed to put in and, based on the reviews, provided good airflow. It was in the lower end of the cost range as well. In hindsight, though, I think a bigger box would have been better as I just added two additional hard drives (4 total) and don't think I will be able to add another 2 drives if I need to. This is probably the only area of my starting requirments where I fell short because I constrained myself on the cost of the box. I might have space for one more hard drive if I'm lucky (for a total of 5 instead of the 6 I had wanted). It also provided the front connectivity that I wanted.
2. The motherboard: ASRock A780FullDisplayPort AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G Micro ATX Motherboard. Provided the integrated graphics I needed and seemed reliable based on the reviews. Being my first DIY rig, I feel the Motherboard was well documented and I got it up and running the first time without any problems. It also had 6 SATA ports and all the connections I felt I would need.
3. The CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4450e Brisbane 2.3 GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual Core processor Model ADH4450DOBOX. Key thing on this for me was the 45W power consumption. This was driven by my requirement for low power consumption and less heat. It also translated into a quieter box as I was able to use the stock Heat Sink (fan-less) to keep the noise down. Less fans is better assuming the components are the right ones, IMO. This might have been overkill on the CPU speed and dual core (considering I had been using a much older Pentium 4 CPU). But the price was low enough and the reviews were solid on this CPU.
4. The PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS. I agonized over this decision as I think I could have gotten a lower wattage PSU. But the efficiency rating was there and the reviews were solid. It was rated as very quiet and the 80 PLUS certification met my efficiency requirements. If I understand correctly, higher efficiency also results in less heat. Not sure if that is true, but this CPU runs cool and quiet.
5. The RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit. 2GB just seemed like the right thing to do. I thought that 1GB might have resulted in lower performance. And I think the RAM kit was around $40, so it was cheap enough at the time.
6. The Hard Drives: I agonized over these also, as I needed to take reliability, heat, noise, and cost into consideration when deciding on the right drives. In the end, I bought two 1TB Samsung Spinpoint SATA drives and haven't been disappointed. They are quiet, the reviews on them say they are reliable, and they operated at around 72 to 74 degrees F after I set the box up and got it running. Last month, I added two more drives (2 x 1TB Western Digital Green Drives (WD10EADS)) and have suffered a bit of a heat build-up hit that I think is a combination of the reduction in airflow as well as the WD drives operating a little hotter than the Samsung drives. The Samsung drives now operate in the 82-84 degree F range with the new WD drives operating about 2 degrees F hotter. All in all, not too bad. Both sets of drives are extremely quiet and I think my choices were pretty decent on these drives.
7. I used two 120mm fans for lower noise and increased airflow to cool the unit. I used the Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan and it is quiet and seems to circulate air pretty well.

Overall, my experiences with this setup running WHS have been excellent and I haven't had any problems using it. The box runs cool, quiet and the software itself runs great. As a matter of fact, I have had to restore my laptop from backup images on the server at least six times over the past year. Each restore went without a hitch and the backup function works flawlessly.

I hope this post helps anyone who decides to build a DIY WHS box.

Mike

 

[thiggins]

I hope this post helps anyone who decides to build a DIY WHS box.

Thanks for the post, Mike. I'm sure that it will.