Nas vs desktop comp

[XFalconX]

Hello All

I am trying to figure out the greatly increase in cost difference between a Nas tht can transcode on the fly vs just getting a I5 CPU desktop with a few drives and raid controller. An I3 equipped NAS cost over 2k and the desktop would be less than 500 (not including drives for both). I am new to this but can someone explain in further detail.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[stevech]

best to do infrequent transcoding on a powerful desktop PC.
NASes don't have enough CPU speed to do that and keep up with other NADly duties.

 

[tipstir]

Not necessary, the NSA 325 can keep up with media of 1080p but some PCs with less than 8GB or have slower CPU of less than 2GHz won't be able to keep up. If the NAS has 1.6GHz, 1GB ports at least 512MB of RAM. Internal TB are running at 7,200 RPM plus have large cache buffer then if all goes well? The NAS can preform very well.

PC to NAS
Network Media Player to NAS to use Windows 7/8 Shares

I had to watch a video save it to NAS (NSA 325) playback over a laptop but started to see jitter or freeze-up. Laptop couldn't handle 1080p video clip using MKV format.

Switched over to my Network Media Player from SONY SMP-N200, no issues from the NSA 325 the video clip played even better over my HDTV than using the laptop to the HDTV.

Again depends on the playback media your using.

 

[coxhaus]

I would look for a 35 to 40 watt thermal factor CPU at most. Keep the power requirements down since you are running it 24/7. If you don’t need the extra power of the bigger CPU then you can look at an Intel Atom motherboards. They are very low power draws just not as much horsepower.

 

[Clive.B]

I think it is a great idea, check the freenas community. Seems very popular most guys are just building their own NAS boxes and using freenas distro on it.
You save money and get much more performance, but yeah the tips I guess is to make it eco friendly especially if you run it 24/7.

One can use hibernate etc, a Nas from synology or others would have that nice benefit of saving electricity, but then again the balance between performance and green is a tricky one for any Nas, there is always that trade of with going green and loosing performance or vice versa.

 

[Kazuya07]

sultan

This is foremost a question of the internet service provider's UPSTREAM speed. Some cable modems (like mine) are restricted to 1Mbps though the downstream is 15-20Mbps. The home with the NAS will be limited by that ISP's uplink speed.