Hi,

So I am unsure how many of you are familiar with what NAS is, pretty self explanatory. Network attached storage. I am looking to get one for my self but I am unsure which route to goo. Theres the build to order has such as Synology ---> http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16822108095

But those seem very limited.

My Plan was to spend a little more and build my own with one of the low power i3s. The only thing I can decide on is the operating system. There is http://www.freenas.org or I was thinking I could setup Windows Server or something, with the benefit being I can run iTunes on it and it can stream all the stuff stored on my NAS to Apple TV

Freenas would be easier to use but windows would give me iTunes. :\

oh.. not what i was expecting ... *backs out slowly*

Originally Posted by Crzyrio

Hi,

So I am unsure how many of you are familiar with what NAS is, pretty self explanatory. Network attached storage. I am looking to get one for my self but I am unsure which route to goo. Theres the build to order has such as Synology ---> http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16822108095

But those seem very limited.

My Plan was to spend a little more and build my own with one of the low power i3s. The only thing I can decide on is the operating system. There is http://www.freenas.org or I was thinking I could setup Windows Server or something, with the benefit being I can run iTunes on it and it can stream all the stuff stored on my NAS to Apple TV

Freenas would be easier to use but windows would give me iTunes. :\

I use a Linux server running Arch for this. To stream to my parents Apple TV, I installed a third-party 'hack' called FireCore which allows the Apple TV to play media off of ordinary SMB/NFS shares.

Also, I'd recommend AMD CPUs just because you tend to get more power for cheaper (especially if you ever want to do something beyond making a file server with the computer), since i3s are already low-end.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I use a Linux server running Arch for this. To stream to my parents Apple TV, I installed a third-party 'hack' called FireCore which allows the Apple TV to play media off of ordinary SMB/NFS shares.

Also, I'd recommend AMD CPUs just because you tend to get more power for cheaper (especially if you ever want to do something beyond making a file server with the computer), since i3s are already low-end.

Only problem is I have an Apple TV 3 so no 'hacks' yet

Will take a look into AMD's any in particular?
I was thinking of going for this i3-2120T -->http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...16819115094CVF - Suppose to be low power.

I plan on putting this system in a Box built by myself with no monitor and use it just as a server.

Originally Posted by Crzyrio

Only problem is I have an Apple TV 3 so no 'hacks' yet

Will take a look into AMD's any in particular?
I was thinking of going for this i3-2120T -->http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...16819115094CVF - Suppose to be low power.

I plan on putting this system in a Box built by myself with no monitor and use it just as a server.

Oh wow, that's a really low power CPU lol. Ya, maybe just go with that.

I do the same thing without a monitor or keyboard. Because of that, I find BSD/Linux in general is better because of the low overhead and remote control/monitoring through SSH.

Originally Posted by Crzyrio

Will take a look into AMD's any in particular?
I was thinking of going for this i3-2120T -->http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...16819115094CVF - Suppose to be low power.

I plan on putting this system in a Box built by myself with no monitor and use it just as a server.

Well keep in mind, for the same price with amd you can get something like

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16819113287

(I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, but the specs are nearly doubled for the same price)

They tend to be a bit less efficient power wise and may run a bit hotter, but if you want better specs should you run something a bit more intensive, they do fine

Originally Posted by Snowman

Well keep in mind, for the same price with amd you can get something like

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16819113287

(I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, but the specs are nearly doubled for the same price)

They tend to be a bit less efficient power wise and may run a bit hotter, but if you want better specs should you run something a bit more intensive, they do fine

By a bit less efficient, you mean uses nearly three times as much power, lol.

If this is strictly a NAS and nothing else, then he's better off looking for efficiency than performance.

If you decide to go the windows server route make sure to get it free from dreamspark. Just Google mcmsater dreamspark and you get Visual Studio Premium, Win Server 2012 and other development stuff for free as a university student.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Oh wow, that's a really low power CPU lol. Ya, maybe just go with that.

I do the same thing without a monitor or keyboard. Because of that, I find BSD/Linux in general is better because of the low overhead and remote control/monitoring through SSH.

I was surprised my self to see it at 35W.

I was thinking of going with Freenas instead of Linux, it is based on FreeBSD and it has its own web interface and everything, so it makes it a bit easier. and it supports software raid, zfs. But yeah, only thing keeping me from Windows is the added overhead and added power usage.

Originally Posted by qwerty91

If you decide to go the windows server route make sure to get it free from dreamspark. Just Google mcmsater dreamspark and you get Visual Studio Premium, Win Server 2012 and other development stuff for free as a university student.

Yup, took that into consideration

Another Quick Question.

My parent currently use a computer that has a Amd Sempron 3000+ and 1.5GB Ram which is horribly slow but this is more than enough for them and they have been perfectly fine with it. Heck my dad even uses it to encode movies lol. It would be nice if I could build a nas as well as give them a slightly faster computer.

Would the low powered i3 be able to handle the Raid operations as well as their occasional use? Just web browsing, email and the occasinal encode and burn video. If I went this route then I would obviously have to go with Windows.

your thoughts?