Spec Me A Multimedia Network Storage Thingy !

[No1Jew]

I need lots of storage capability or the ability to insert at least 3x HD's as we have hundreds of BluRay Rips which we can't watch at the moment as they are on 2x Samsung F3's which are currently sat in a box in the garage and the collection of films is growing by the day. I don't mind if it comes with HD's pre-installed or I have to insert my own.

I want it to be able to;
Connect to my router (Ethernet),
Have at least 1 USB port,
HD's must be NTFS to accept BluRay rips over 4.1Gb,
100% guaranteed that my PS3 will be able to see it on the network to access the films,
Be compatible on my Win7 Home Network so that even the Mrs can add files to it using her Wi-Fi (via the router)
And finally, the HD's setup in such a way that if one of them dies I don't lose access to the Data on the others.



Cheers.

[No1Jew]

Or would I be better off building my own Mini ATX PC, such as;

Lian Li PC-Q08B Mini-ITX case or Fractal Design Array R2 Mini ITX NAS Case with 300 Watt SFX Power Supply Unit
Zotac IONITX-G-E NVIDIA ION Integrated Intel Atom N330
Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400
CIT MICRO 400W PSU
2 x Samsung 2TB Spinpoint F4EG (plus my 2 F3's)
1 x crappy DVD drive to install OS

Only installing required drivers, Win7 HP 64bit, AVG Free and PS3 Media Server.

Rough Price £340

[FatherJack]

Something like an Icy Box media server with a either a couple of enclosures or swappable docks for the two F3's connected via USB would probably do the trick.

Losing one disk wouldn't affect the data on the other two, but if you want a more secure method, where losing one disk doesn't affect any of the data at all you'd need a hardware RAID setup like a Drobo, which I've been lusting after since they came on the market. They do a version with built-in filesharing, too - but that actually costs more than running a standard one off an Icy Box.

I assume all those solutions work like a PC with Windows Media Player sharing, but worth checking that they are visible to a PS3.

[ProfHawking]

hp microserver : £138 = steal. (use the cashback offer)
It comes with a 250gb drive, so pull that out and use/sell it. Add 4 hdds, something like this, sweep and install server 2008 or something. You'll need to use software raid on the drives unless you want 1 or 0, so raid 5 probably best.

You'll end up with a nice and tidy, powerful enough, flexible server with ~6tb of reasonably resilient storage for £360, and it should connect to anything and everything.

[buzzmong]

Eeek, even though I'm not in the market or even thinking about anything like that, I'm really tempted. If I wasn't dole scum at the moment I'd snap one of those up.

[No1Jew]

What do you think of these specs, Any recomendations?

[fabyak]

moar hard drive space for a start!

[ProfHawking]

yeah, u sure you got your requirements right?
are you building a network storage thingy or a media center pc??
u certainly dont need an ssd in a nas drive, or pretty much any of those other higher spec components

[No1Jew]

So I went and done it, a bit different from the specs above but trust me it's working Fantastic as a HTPC. Full 1080p to my 42" Sharp Aquos and DTS/Dolby Digital via Optical to Surround Sound Amp.

MSI E350IA-E45 AMD Hudson M1 Zacate-FT1 Dual Core Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 1333
Silverstone Milo ML03B Micro ATX, Black, Slim/HTPC Case
Enermax ENP350AGT NAXN 350W Power Supply
1x Western Digital Scorpio Blue 120GB 2.5" (Just for O.S. Win 7 Ultimate 64bit)
1x Western Digital WD20EARX 2TB
2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
QED Performance HDMI-E Version 1.4 High Speed
IXOS Studio XHD208-100 1M Fibre Optic Cable
XBMC as Media centre

£380 Well worth the cash, highly recomended set-up for anyone considering building a HTPC.

[FatherJack]

Any build shots/documents would be handy. Not really sure what your goals were, which was why I initially recommended a prebuilt solution. Be interested to see how what you ended up with fit your requirements.

[No1Jew]

I think deep down I always wanted a HTPC and not NAS. NAS was more tempting due to the price difference, but the Mrs gave permission for the cost of a custom HTPC so that's why I went with the above specs. The 2x F3's have been sat in a box for 6 months but still working 100% and all of our 300 BluRay rips niceley added to XBMC library !



Full Size Build Images

Full Size Final Product