Home NAS Box

[rah]

I've built my own network attached storage system (NAS) out of old parts from previous computers I had collecting dust, but I'm always on the lookout for something better.

My frankenstein machine:

Freenas / FreeBSD OS
MSI mobo
AMD Athlon X2
512mb DDR Ram
2 500GB IDE hard drives (non-raid config)
500 watt power supply
HUGE full size case

Basically I'm out growing this setup and instead of just upgrading it I want something a little more compact in size and less power hungry as it will be on 24/7. I've looked at drobo solutions but I don't want to put that kind of money into it.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[imvain2]

I'm not sure what your specific needs are, however I use the following device with external drives hooked up to it. The device has multiple protocols built in (like Itunes Server, WebDav, Bitorrent just to name a few). My laptop recognizes the device also my 42LD550 LG TV recgonizes the drives and I can stream media from the drives directly to the TV.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037NYKW6

[rah]

Thanks for the link. I guess this hooked up to an external hard drive would work. How well does that work when multiple people access it at the same time?

[imvain2]

I can't really give any actual experience on the device, I just hooked it up a few days ago. However, my TV is able to stream media without lag.

Also, I don't typically have many people in my house trying to access my files at the same time.

I like the idea of not having an additional computer hooked up that doesn't need to be hooked up. Although, I'm planning on hooking on a linux arcade machine to the TV, but that wouldn't be used for storage as much as it would be used for games and surfing the internet on the big screen.

[rah]

After doing a little more research I've come across the Buffalo CloudStor (http://buffalocloudstor.com/) and the Synology DS211 (http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS211/index.php). These seem to be similar to the drobos but at a much cheaper price point and offer some great features that could be useful even when I'm not at home. I don't know if you are in the market for such a thing, but might be of intrest to you as it is for me. I'm leaning at going with the synology nas because of it's support for being able to also stream media to phones.

[imvain2]

For my specific needs, it maybe a little overkill. But thanks.

Yeah. the device that I have actually lets me stream media to phones utilizing free WEBDAV apps that are available for the Iphone and Android phones.

[netman4ttm]

I have had god luck with NetGear's ReadyNAS line.

[rah]

I ended up sticking with FreeNAS in the long run. I was given another throw away computer that was actually fairly new so had some good hardware to reuse.