DIY NAS+Media Player on iTX (Atom)?

[terion]

Hello All,

I would like to buy/build mini-server which will serve as NAS and media player/DLNA server. Does it make a sense to mix those two functions in one device? Will Intel Atom or AMD counterpart be enough for this setup?

My requirements are:
- small form factor (probably iTX, limiting factor is that I want to use 3,5'' HDD)
- quiet - passive if possible
- one 3,5'' HD bay in case of DIY (can be more, but box size does matter)
- HDMI, playing at least 720p, best 1080p
- price!!!
- works as DLNA server
- has torrent client
- RAID is not required
- NAS performance is not that much critical (but nice to have)

I haven't seen any commercial device which would fulfill all my goals. Probably I could buy off-the-shelf barebone PC, but I am not sure which one are worth looking at. I am also fine with building one myself, but I need advice what is minimal hardware that can handle my requirements. I also don't have experience with economical SFF power supplies and chassis.

For DIY thin-iTX sounds really good:
http://www.mini-itxstop.com/intel-dh61ag-apple-glen-ultra-flat-thin-itx-sandy-bridge-motherboard/
but going into SandyBridge components instead of Atom is more expensive. On the other hand there seems to be quite big price gap between Atom boards with and without HDMI support (or I am missing something).

 

[stevech]

Hello All,

I would like to buy/build mini-server which will serve as NAS and media player/DLNA server. Does it make a sense to mix those two functions in one device? Will Intel Atom or AMD counterpart be enough for this setup?

My requirements are:
- small form factor (probably iTX, limiting factor is that I want to use 3,5'' HDD)
- quiet - passive if possible
- one 3,5'' HD bay in case of DIY (can be more, but box size does matter)
- HDMI, playing at least 720p, best 1080p
- price!!!
- works as DLNA server
- has torrent client
- RAID is not required
- NAS performance is not that much critical (but nice to have)

I haven't seen any commercial device which would fulfill all my goals.

A one or two drive Synology or QNAP does all that you list, and much more. Or what did we misunderstand?

 

[terion]

A one or two drive Synology or QNAP does all that you list, and much more. Or what did we misunderstand?

I haven't seen anything from Synology with HDMI output. QNAP has NMP-1000P (http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=171) with nice feature set, but it seems that its performance as NAS is poor, especially for this price:
http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/qnap_nmp_1000/4

 

[GregN]

It appears you are combo'ing an HTPC with a NAS.

I recommend against this kind of overloading, you end up with, in the end, a neither good NAS or good HTPC.

If you drop the HDMI requirement, you can build a nice box cheap. I personally recommend the SuperMicro D525 Atom boards (Intel gigabit LAN, and 6xSataII). Other folks like AMDs E350.

If you have to combine the functionality, go with a NAS low end server MB, and add an ATI HD video card, it will handle the video better than any low end Intel or Matrox chipset, and will also handle audio for you.

Have you considered the OS at all? Most DIY NASes run a Unix variant (Linux, BSD), most DIY HTPCs run a windows variant.

( Please WHS and XBMC folks, don't yell at me, I'm saying most.... )