Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

[Mark42]

Looking at getting a Network Attached Storage system for the home network. They are like external USB drives, but not USB connected. Instead they connect with an ethernet cable (so its limited to 100Mbps on my system, less if accessed wireless). Looking at the MacAlly brand NSA2-2350NAS http://www.macally.com/EN/Product/ipod4show.asp?ArticleID=225 . Also the Netgear MS2000, http://www.netgear.com/home/products/storage/simplesharing/MS2000.aspx which seems to be a bit more sophisticated than the MacAlly.

Plan is to get two 1 terrabyte drives, and install in the NAS case using the RAID 1 setup so one drive mirrors the other, and keep all the video and photos there.

Any suggestions on a good NAS case to get started?

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

Been doing some more research into the best way to organize music, photos and video. Maybe a wireless N router with USB port(s) to an external hard drive raid array will do the same. Makes the external drives accessible by all users, and it runs at faster speeds, both 480 Mbps usb2, and a newer router supports 10/100/1000 Mbps ethernet speeds. Plus some of these routers have a built in UPnP AV media server that will stream to compatible devices like media players, xbox, etc. Streaming HD family video shot in 1080 to the big flat HD tv is a goal. I'm really loving this new Nikon P100 digital camera that also shoots 1080 hd video. Got to store it all somewhere and make it easy to access when we want. Also want to load all those digital video tapes onto the same drives and have access to those too. No sense in letting the video cassette sit around and go bad. And I don't have time to edit them all into nice DVD's. Tried that.. Made about 5 DVD's and realized it talkes a lot of time to edit video. But I can just copy the tapes to the drives, and just skip through it all when streaming it back. Plus the old video will be backed up on a raid system.

The Linksys e3000 wireless N router will support all this stuff if you want to check it out. About $140 at online retailers.

This does have the big advantage that the usb attached raid drives are much cheaper and reliable than the ethernet NAS style drive. The NAS requires that a "better" grade product be purchased for it to be reliable.

Hmmmm. More to think about.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

I did a lot of research on this and had decided to get this one http://www.buffalotech.com/products...nd-small-office/linkstation-pro-duo-ls-wvlr1/ I believe its performance is better than most of the others. I was planning on getting rid of my upstairs computer whose main duty is backup and storage. In the end though, I decided to just stick with a PC.

 

[nikon]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

Just be careful with the NAS drives, typically unless you get something really powerful with gigabit the transfer speeds are painfully slow...even with gigabit networking you may only see 20-30Mb/s transfer speeds...which isn't terrible, but I get 50-60Mb/s on my gigabit networked pc's.

And since you said you only have 100mb network expect maybe 2-3Mb/s transfer speeds....my comcast internet gets 1.8 Mb/s transfer speed so that should give you some kind of perspective.

IF you upgrade to gigabit, which isn't that hard, as long as your current cabling is cat 5e all you need is new switches and a couple NIC cards....you keep your current router and just plug one of the cables into the gigabit switch.

And for all your electronic needs, goto www.newegg.com if you wanna find the best stuff the geeks buy click 'top sellers' under the category your on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=100008028 4802&IsNodeId=1&name=Top Sellers

the d-link dns-323 would be great for you if you upgraded your network.....just read the reviews.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

After spending a lot of time on this, I think I'm going to just build a server and install Microsoft Home Server on it. The throughput with a 2.5 duo core cpu and new motherboard will out run the vast majority of the NAC boxes by a wide margin. Guys running MHS are reporting 200+Mbps on a gigabyte ethernet connection. And speeds of 80 Mbps are not uncommon on a 100Mbps ethernet system.

The price is compareable, and with the MHS software it should be rock solid dependable.

 

[nikon]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

It really is cheap to build a computer nowadays...I think you may be going a bit overboard though..it doesn't have to be that powerful of a computer...If you have an old laptop laying around get an esata card and some esata hd's and you'll be set.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

It really is cheap to build a computer nowadays...I think you may be going a bit overboard though..it doesn't have to be that powerful of a computer...If you have an old laptop laying around get an esata card and some esata hd's and you'll be set.

I agree, but if you shop for components to build your own, things are so cheap now its ridiculous and actually hard to not build a good machine! This is what I put together following the latest "home server build" specs gathered from a few server forums. Plus it has to support 64 bit for the Windows Home Server software . This far exceeds the hardware in the commercially available home servers from HP and the like running the same software. The machine supports 64 bit processing and high speed throughput:

- Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 4000MHz Socket AM3 Dual-Core
45nm Processor. ($62)
- Main Board: ASUS M4N68T-M V2 Socket AM3 uATX Motherboard, NVIDIA nForce 630a Chipset, Supports AMD Socket AM3 CPUs, Dual DDR3 800, 1333, 1800(O.C.), SATA 3Gb/s RAID, PCIe 2.0 x16, Onboard Video, Gigabit LAN, 10 USB2 ports, 3 expansion card ports ($52)
- Memory: ONE Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR3 1333 System Memory, 240-pin DIMM, CL9, Non-ECC, Unbuffered ($24)
- Hard Disk Drives: TWO Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 3.5in 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive HDS721010CLA332 (0F10383), 7200RPM, 32MB Cache. ($120/pr)
- Case: Supper Cheap-0 "Broadway.com" m-Micro ATX, with good 500 watt power supply, Card Reader in front panel, and space for 4 HDD and 2 more if the external drive bays are used. Model 943PK-CardRead... ($29.99)
- Extra cables for future expansion of SATA drives, and some Y converter/extensions for the case power supply wires, and 2 additional 120mm ball bearing fans... ($14).
- Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 OEM ($100)

Whole order comes to $416.62 w/o shipping. $432.06 w/shipping. (directron.com). A home/small business server will cost nearly twice that running this same software with those specs. This machine will run roughshod over any NAS device costing less than $1200 and the NAS does not even come close to supporting the amount of add on software packages available to Windows Home Server.

Well, hope all is well. Parts should be here in a few days. Should take about 2 hours to assemble then an hour or two to boot up and install the software. Then sit back for 10 hours while it verifies 2 TB of drives and eliminates any bad sectors. Then we are off to the races! Woo Hoo!

Next items needed:

- Wireless N router wth Gigabyte support. Linksys E3000?
- Digital Media Server to stream 1080hd over wireless N... Asus Air?

Suggestions are appreciated for the router and DMS.

Thanks!

Mark.

 

[nikon]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

The only thing I would've spent a bit more on is ram, granted I have valueram running in my current htpc/server and it's lasted years...I've also had some crap out quite early....curious why you spend the money on home server when ubuntu server is free and more powerful....also I know nothing about hitachi drives, I'll only run WD after a few bad experiences.

As far as a router, find something with open source software (DD-WRT)

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices_802.11n#Linksys_.28Wireless_a.2Fb.2Fg.2Fn.29

those are the N routers that support DD-WRT, it really opens the possibilities up with your router.

I have no experience with the asus air, I do know some of those devices get finicky when it comes to certain formats.....If you want the most versatility pick up a acer revo and put xbmc on it, or for the easiest experience pick up a boxee box.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127319

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

The only thing I would've spent a bit more on is ram, granted I have valueram running in my current htpc/server and it's lasted years...I've also had some crap out quite early....curious why you spend the money on home server when ubuntu server is free and more powerful....also I know nothing about hitachi drives, I'll only run WD after a few bad experiences.

As far as a router, find something with open source software (DD-WRT)

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices_802.11n#Linksys_.28Wireless_a.2Fb.2Fg.2Fn.29

those are the N routers that support DD-WRT, it really opens the possibilities up with your router.

I have no experience with the asus air, I do know some of those devices get finicky when it comes to certain formats.....If you want the most versatility pick up a acer revo and put xbmc on it, or for the easiest experience pick up a boxee box.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127319

There are half a dozen open source / freeware server packages available. I just don't have time to research them all, and my experience with open source software in the past is it ends up being a bigger headache than it saves in cost. I know what Windows Home Server does, and is all I need at this point. One big point to use MS software on the server is if the machine dies, I can just take the drive and stick it in any Windows PC and access the drive because its NTFS format. Those free server packages all use different file systems, and if the machine dies, I'm stuck waiting to get a new machine built with the same OS before the data on the drive can be accessed. To me it is very important to be able to pull the drive and stick it in another machine on a moments notice and have it work. WHS does not stripe array the data on multiple drives.

Same with installing DD-WRT on the router. If it works as it came from the manufacturer, I'm not going to mess around with it just for the sake of having something different. If I specifically needed a feature that DD-WRT offers that is not in the OE code, then I might try it. But it's nice to know there are those options available if I ever need them.

I checked out the Boxee box earlier, and it has so many reported problems that even though it supports nearly every file format, It just isn't polished yet. And that stupid angled box shape alone...... what were they thinking? "Hey! Lets make this look really stupid and we'll sell millions of them!" yeah....

I'm trying to stay away from any media player that has a hard drive inside. That defeats the whole purpose of having a media server setup. I just want to stream the data to whatever device I want and not have to store data at the player. Plus the drives just increase the cost of the DMP's, and its another thing to go bad or fill up and need maintenance.

The Asus O!Air is the type of DMP that fits my needs, just want one that has a more sophisticated interface.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

I'm still researching what add ins to get to support media streaming and organization. Still have not loaded up the server with data just yet as I play around. Just a few files to test streaming rates over a 10/100 ethernet. So far its doing OK.

Hit 72% bandwidth copying a 640 video file to the server, and streamed it back using only 15%. That performance can probably be improved by testing with a PC that has better capabilities (its using Fat32 drive formats, less than 1 gig memory, and a 1.4 gig pentium processor - its old).

Tonight I connected a 1.8 gig laptop to the server using wireless G. A 1080p hd video was copied to the server using about 60% of the wireless bandwidth, having negotiated a speed of 48Mbps. It played back using ViewNX application full screen smooth, but there were drop outs in the audio. The drop outs coincided with 100% CPU utilization. The CPU was running 90% or higher throughout the entire video. The wireless network was being used at a consistent 40% - 50% with a 54Mbps bandwidth negotiated (that would occasionally drop to 48Mbps). There were some spikes to 60%.

Next test was with a high action 1080 video (.MOV). Closed all the apps on the laptop, and ran the video. The cpu war running at 100% nearly the entire time. The wireless G spiked to 100% (54Mbps) twice in a 3 minute video, and ran at about 45 Mbps for most of the action scenes. It still played pretty good, but had audio drop outs and some frame drops. Surprisingly, in neither test was there any video freezing. If wireless G can perform this well, wireless N should handle it with no issues.

Considering this is an aging laptop with onboard graphics and sound, to be able to play back 1080p fairly smooth with just an occasional frame drop and audio problems is just amazing, especially over a 54 Mbps wireless G network.

I can't even get apple's Quick time (free version) to play the 1080p video, it plays it back at only about 12 frames/sec so its losing more than half the video!!! ViewNX is the only player I have that will play 1080p 30frames/sec 100% smooth, and that is on a PC with a nice graphics card.

The HD video was shot with a Nikon P100 set to 1080p, 32 f/s. The format is .MOV

I doubt I would be able to do that with the small Synology NAS that I was looking at for the same money. And the WHS supports so much more than what the Synology can do.

I think for my needs, I made the right choice.

Next is a wireless N router (probably the Linksys E2000) and a media player that can handle wireless N and 1080p.

I am just thrilled at how well this whole home server project is turning out. Last night I tested the Wake on Lan settings so the server goes to sleep when not accessed, and wakes up when needed. It works great (after making a few setting changes on the server) and extends the life of the fans, drives, and CPU's, plus the savings on electricity for a machine left on 24/7. Restart time from sleeping is about 5 seconds. Amazingly fast. Seeing as it sleeps when not in use, two more fans will be used to keep the whole box cool when its running.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Network Attached Storage... Suggestions for home product?

Found these pics when I was uploading some photos off the camera. Thought you might enjoy them:

How to Build A Server in 4 Easy Steps:

1) Buy a cheap case:

Check inside to make sure there were no extra parts shipped by accident.

2) Install Some Components:

3: Install Some More Components:

4: Close it up and Your Done!

The next session will cover the intricate details of installing an operating system!!!