XBMC/HTPC.... FreeNAS or Local Storage?

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ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#108249 27-Aug-2012 21:42

Hi,

I run a XBMC HTPC.

I am in desperate need to add storage, what do people recommend?

Should I use a spare AMD Phenom II x4 CPU to create a NAS based on FreeNAS? (RAID5)

Or should I just get a motherboard for my HTPC that supports RAID 5 and add the 3x3TB drives locally?

Any suggestions?

Does FreeNAS work well with XBMC?

Help Please...

Thanks

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557 posts

Ultimate Geek

#677866 27-Aug-2012 22:21

Hard to know without knowing your setup, but I would go local unless I could use the NAS with other things as well. In my case I have a cupboard with my NAS then my XBMC box in the lounge connected to the TV with a gigabit link between the NAS and XBMC.

So the noise of the NAS (and hard drives) is out of the lounge which is important to me. But if the NAS and XBMC will be next to each other anyway I probably wouldn't bother with a NAS. Also you could get an eSATA addon card and an eSATA drive if you didn't want to get a new motherboard.

XBMC should be fine with FreeNAS, you just put the UNC path (or mapped drive path) into XBMC.

bodysoda

95 posts

Master Geek

#677901 28-Aug-2012 00:02

ping182nz: Hi,

I run a XBMC HTPC.

I am in desperate need to add storage, what do people recommend?

Should I use a spare AMD Phenom II x4 CPU to create a NAS based on FreeNAS? (RAID5)

Or should I just get a motherboard for my HTPC that supports RAID 5 and add the 3x3TB drives locally?

Any suggestions?

Does FreeNAS work well with XBMC?

Help Please...

Thanks

I recommend you should give a serious thought on getting Raspberry Pi (nz.element14.com).

sidefx

3711 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#677985 28-Aug-2012 09:22

I would go the FreeNAS (or similar) route. XBMC should work fine with it. I'm running an Amahi server and it works flawlessly with my XBMC based HTPC. I also find the greyhole system it uses very flexible compared to the alternatives.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

dpw

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#677988 28-Aug-2012 09:28

We use WD My Book World Edition with 3 external HDD hanging off it - works a treat with XBMC, and a couple of the external drives are shared storage for other purposes too.

Android user, software developer, a semi-typical (not a gamer) geek, and a Bernese Mountain Dog nut!

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reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

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#677989 28-Aug-2012 09:30

personally i like a NAS, freenas is good.

i would setup a nas and a mysql server and then use mysql for your videos/music xbmc databases.

share everything using nfs instead of smb aswell, nfs is less cpu intensive. so if you get a thin client like a raspberrypi its easier on the pi.

wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678255 28-Aug-2012 16:31

I've just been through this exercise, so I know how hard it is to choose the way to go!

While my overall goal is to keep my home network as simple as possible, the fact that we wanted to share media between devices in different rooms within the house tipped me over the edge towards putting in a NAS (in my case FreeNAS).

This NAS box will also (very shortly) run MySQL so that even the playlist information from XBMC is centralised. That'll allow someone to carry on watching something in another room from where they left off.

I'm also using the NAS box to centralise our general data collection (home movies, photos etc.) so that they can be viewed anywhere across the network.

FreeNAS has worked very well using SMB shares which was chosen because the primary XBMC installation is a Windows 7 Pro based PC as it's also used for gaming.

As far as hardware is concerned I used a spare AMD Phenom II x4 985 system with 4GB RAM and 3x WD20EARX drives configured in ZFS RAIDz1, booting FreeNAS off a 4GB USB Memory stick. The 1Gbps NIC is maxed out before the drive throughput is anywhere near the maximum.

PANiCnz

989 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678264 28-Aug-2012 16:43

I'm using FreeNAS + XBMC at home, would highly recommend it. If you interested in ZFS the other option is Solaris + Nappit.

Only ever had one problem, I've been trying to virtualise my FreeNAS build for the last six months with numerous issues, ultimately it boils down to the fact that FreeNAS doe not play nice with VT-d and HBA's.

wsnz: This NAS box will also (very shortly) run MySQL so that even the playlist information from XBMC is centralised. That'll allow someone to carry on watching something in another room from where they left off.

FreeNAS + mySQL? I didn't know that was possible?

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wsnz

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678265 28-Aug-2012 16:46

PANiCnz: FreeNAS + mySQL? I didn't know that was possible?

I'm running it on my FreeNAS VMWare dev environment in a jail. Works fine, but I'm still testing it as I don't want to screw up either the XBMC data nor the FreeNas box!

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#678384 28-Aug-2012 20:31

Ok thanks everyone...

I dont want too many PC's running 24/7.

I was thinking about putting my ATX motherboard capable of RAID 5, in a SiverStone's LC13-E (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=199&area=en)

I have a 2.85 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad - Q9550 to put in there also.

Then Run Win 7, with XBMC and MySQL on top.

The 4 x 3TB drive will give around 8GB of Protected data.

Can I still use NFS shares with Win7 with local disks?

Thanks Heaps!

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#678390 28-Aug-2012 20:48

nfs under windows 7 isnt easy, chances are you will have to buy a NFS server application.

its not really worth it, SMB is fine, NFS is just a bit better. its not worth spending money to get NFS under windows for your setup. and if you are storing the media locally you dont need any shares (might be best to set them up as a share so when imported to mysql via xbmc the file paths are available on the network, incase you want to add another client in the future).

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#678431 28-Aug-2012 21:41

reven: (might be best to set them up as a share so when imported to mysql via xbmc the file paths are available on the network, incase you want to add another client in the future).

Yes that is what I was thinking...

My question, what happens when I want to add more space to my RAID setup.... I cannot just plug in another hard drive and it will increase itself right?

Anyone have any suggestions on a better than the case than mentioned above?

Does anyone have any RF remote suggestions?

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#678436 28-Aug-2012 21:45

not sure about RAID setups in windows, never used this myself.

for a RF remote i highly recommend the Motorola NYXboard Hybrid, i purchased one, loved it and quickly bought a second one. it really is the best remote ive used for a HTPC.

blair003

557 posts

Ultimate Geek

#678438 28-Aug-2012 21:47

I use the official XMBC remote from the android market to control XMBC. If your XMBC box and phone are on the same network, you can control XMBC from the phone. The XBMC remote is very slick. I also use the wake on lan function so I don't need an RF remote.

If you actually need a RF remote I have no idea.

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#678469 28-Aug-2012 22:32

if you were looking at a separate server - i have just installed unRAID and am liking it so far - there is some info in a thread i started re this and loads more info on the net

from the research i did freenas seems like a good free option - but it falls down vs unRAID when it comes to expanding the array size - unraid wins this hands down as with free nas you have to destroy the array and rebuild it - whereas with unraid you just add more disks : )

unraid also wins when it comes to share management and power usage via hdd spindown etc

i guess it depends on what you are prepared to pay for your server/nas sw

fyi unraid has a free 3 hdd license available which you could you use on a test server

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#678489 28-Aug-2012 23:02

I was thinking about putting my ATX motherboard capable of RAID 5, in a SiverStone's LC13-E (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=199&area=en)

Any real reason you want RAID 5? Its not that great in consumer gear, and requires expensive hardware to get decent performance from due to the XOR calculations needed on the parity data.

If you have 4x3TB, I would recommend RAID10. It will only give you 6TB but can work with 2 failed drives (under certain conditions). And it gives great performance in both read and write.

Plus RAID 5 is subject to 'write holes' which can lead to data loss.

I run RAID1 in software RAID on my Windows Home Server, which my Windows 7 HTPC uses to copy recordings too, and never had an issue. One BIG advantage of Windows RAID arrays is the disks are NTFS format, not some proprietary format you cannot read.

Or you can live on the edge and have 12TB of RAID0 ;-)

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