Just picked up a HTPC with XBMC pre loaded. Looking at putting my blu-ray collection onto storage, can anyone recommend an appropriate (read good but cheap) NAS?
another option - if you have some old hardware sitting around you could reconfigure it as a nas
i have had unraid running for 4 months now (8x3tb drives - with 21TB of storage available - unraid pro license good for up to 24 drives) and I am EXTREMELY happy with it as a media server serving 3 xbmc media clients, media player and several android devices as well - you can even try a free version first to see if it suits your needs which would allow 2 data drives and a parity drive - depending on what hw you already have / and what you need in terms of storage - you could even do this for free.
there are other options like freenas - haven't tried it myself but it seems to get good reviews too
suggest a quick google will throw up some options worth considering
Another happy synology customer here. I've got the DS211j with 2 x 2Tb in it. I've got it on a UPS and it has been up since I got it about 18 months ago.
Kopkiwi: Just picked up a HTPC with XBMC pre loaded. Looking at putting my blu-ray collection onto storage, can anyone recommend an appropriate (read good but cheap) NAS?
Some more information might help you get advice. For example: - How big is the collection? It's kind of hard to recommend a file storage solution if you don't say how much you are trying to store. - Do you care about drive redundancy? Multi-bay costs more, but can be more resilient
Drobo was good at first, but became really slow and a drive bay died, i wouldnt touch another drobo.
unRaid, Ubuntu, FreeNAS are all pretty good, but i ultimately didnt want a full system just for the NAS and i found they had higher maintenance requirements than I wanted. But still good options
ReadyNAS, what I'm using now and have been for over a year. Really good NAS, zero maintenance required, fast, has NFS options, plenty of storage space (I got the 6 bay model), dynamic storage so I can add more drives later (which i've done so twice, now using 4 out of the 6 drives). I've got it running a mysql server that I use for xbmc databases. It does have a plex server as well thats running but i barely use this (only when i need to use my xbox or ps3 to watch something).
Thanks for the info guys, looks like I?ve got some reading to do. Much appreciated.
In terms of storage size. I have at present 150GB of music and then around 200 blu-rays that I intend on full rips for (full HD audio and 1080p) that I want to store as well.
Throw in a WHOLE lot of TV Shows as well, some in 720p, that mounts up as well.
I think you'll likely want to look at 4+ bay NAS for all that. You're probably looking at 3-6TB (EDIT: Depending how you choose to rip them) for the blu-ray rips alone.
(I've been very happy with Amahi with Greyhole for my home storage needs, though as Reven touchs on above the maintenance\setup requirements are higher than a straight NAS solution)
if you're only think 4-9TB, I'd suggest considering skipping a NAS and just purchasing a couple of external 4TB drives. or, even more cost effective 3 x 3TB drives (only about $229 ea).
Unless you ABSOLUTELY must have fault tolerance, external drives plugged directly into your HTPC are cheapest, by a mile, and make the least amount of noise.
I have a 4 bay ReadyNAS and while it's rather good, I wouldn't do it again.
rp1790: if you're only think 4-9TB, I'd suggest considering skipping a NAS and just purchasing a couple of external 4TB drives. or, even more cost effective 3 x 3TB drives (only about $229 ea).
Unless you ABSOLUTELY must have fault tolerance, external drives plugged directly into your HTPC are cheapest, by a mile, and make the least amount of noise.
I have a 4 bay ReadyNAS and while it's rather good, I wouldn't do it again.
Reading all the set up work required for unRAID I am thinking this might be the best option for me..
"Reading all the set up work required for unRAID I am thinking this might be the best option for me.. "
yeah i read a bit - and i don't know much about computers, hence why i got clounge to build my unraid box - but installing unraid was easy i was up and running in 1/2 hr...
i hear what people say about potential maintenance time with a dedicated machine - that said i have only run it for 4 months - but have done no maintenance other than an auto parity check - and adding more drives - as you do :)
the key pluses for me are:
1. easy expandability 2. a certain degree of redundancy / back up 3. user shares for easy media amalgamation and access by streamers / clients 4. low power use via spin down and 5. pretty much the fact it's designed for local media storage
(note: i also have syncback free running on other machines on the network for regular back up purposes.)
i really do reckon the free license is worth a crack if you had an old / spare box sitting around as a test ....i used this, played for 1 hr and was sold on the concept
that said there is a lot to be said for pre-configured 2/4 bay nas's in terms of plug and play simplicity
as noted above it really does depend on how much storage you need now and will likely need in the future
but for me - 4 x 3TB = 12 TB wouldn't have been enough - or even 6 TB if i had mirrored the drives....
fyi - old thread re my unraid journey: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=84&topicId=106329
billgates: Synology DS212j or above models. Have one running 24/7 for past 7 odd months with 2 x 2TB Green drives from Western Digital without any issues.
This is a timely thread as it is something I am currently looking at doing at home.
Storage would be for a combination of blu-ray, DVD and CD full uncompressed rips as well as HD downloads.
I was leaning towars the Synology DS212j due to all the good reviews but as always I started wondering whether 6TB would be enough and started looking 4 bay units. The Netgear RND4000 v2 looks like a good priced 4 bay unit and I was wondering whether anybody has had any hands on with this one (can be found here);
It's only $60 dearer than the DS212j but provides for much more future proofing as long as it's not a POS.
Any comments would be welcome.
I'll probably just have a WD TV Live media player in my main lounge attached to a full HD 50" plasma. In my 2nd lounge I have both Xbox 360 and PS3 attached to 42"plasma and also 100" projector. Everything is attached to a wired network so I'm thinking a NAS would be a great way to store all my media for easy access anywhere.
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