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High perfomance NAS/ HTPC

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Alpha101

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Any thoughts or feedback on building a high performance NAS / HTPC, basically
I was just wondering if anyone has built one with success. Ideally instead of building a NAS attached to a HTPC one that could do both with raid 5 support. I guess my main concern is what would be the best OS/app that would allow you to play/stream media file but also act a fast file server. Performance and low power consumption being of priority.
 
Have you gotten a chance to read through the "How To Build a Really Fast NAS..." articles? If you haven't go take a peak and see the results so far.

Beyond that... How fast do you want file transfers to be? 30 MB/sec, 60 MB/sec, 90 MB/sec.

On my home network I usually see around 55 MB/sec reading from my sever and about 75 MB/sec writing to the server. This is using the copy/paste functions in Win XP and file sizes of around 1-2GB. No raid for the current setup. I have done some recent testing with raid 0 though. Using a newer computer I built and my current computer with raid 0 I only see higher speeds if I use FTP to transfer files. Using FTP with a two drive raid 0 setup on both ends I saw about 90-100 MB/sec. From reading through some other peoples results it looks like Windows Vista might offer the higher speeds I have seen with FTP while not having to resort to setting up FTP.

I can't comment much on media streaming setups as I just use my server as a file and printer server.

00Roush
 
Yes I was looking at Part 1 of the article. Ideally I would like to have write speeds of about 50-60MB/sec. I have my own hard drives but a hot swappable design would be desirable. Looking at approx $1000-$1250 budget without Hdds. The article had the below prices for their build.

Case Foxconn TLM776-CN300C-02 $50
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 $120
Motherboard ASUS P5E-VM DO $117
RAM Corsair XMS2 (2x1GB) DDR2 800 $57
CPU Cooler ASUS P5A2-8SB4W 80mm Sleeve CPU Cooler $11

Total $355 without hdds.

Unfortunately I was more after a low power consumption NAS as well. I would assume the Foxconn case would use more power than the average ready built NAS.

The Chenbro's ES34069 "Mini Server" looked good (if it supported micro ATX) But only a Mini-ITX or Mini-DTX motherboard could be used. They also retail for $200.

The easy route would be buy eg Sans digital MN4L+B $695 attach it to a HDX 1000 NMT Player $219. Approx total $914 without Hdds.

Like I said Im still brain storming ATM, I will post more ideas & facts once I do more research.
 
Take a look at this review. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article869-page1.html

I am not sure how low you were wanting the power consumption to be but in the review they noted about 35 watts at idle using the E7200 on the reviewed board. They even have it compared to the ASUS P5E-VM. I am fairly sure that is within striking distance of most NAS units.

The case itself shouldn't affect your power consumption just the power supply that is used. With any case you buy you would probably want to replace it with a higher efficiency unit like the Antec Earthwatts 380 or Seasonic S12 330 to help minimize power consumption. That Chenbro ES34069 looks badass even though it is a bit spendy.

00Roush
 
00Roush you know your stuff! thats an awesome board esp for a HTPC has all the bells and whistles. Prices will probably be a bit higher as Im from Aus

Chenbro ES34069 - $AUD 220 - 280 shipped
Intel DG45FC - $AUD 185
Intel E8400 - $AUD 210
DDR2 2B 800MHz Kingston ram - $AUD 38 each

Approx total = $AUD 749

Looks very tempting
 
You'll want to read the recommendations here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

I've been researching the same topic and the hardware choices in that thread are justified and there for various performance considerations. Note that the P5E-VM board is not recommended. You'll likely want full H264 acceleration and therefore the video card choice will be important...again covered there.

Taking into account driver support etc, I'd look at just using Vista SP1. It's very fast, particulary if your workstations use the same OS and therefore SMB2.

A hardware list:
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz Socket 775, $163.
CPU Cooler: Scythe NINJA MINI SCMNJ-1000, $33.
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-EM Intel G45 chipset microATX, $135.
Memory: A-DATA ADQVE1B16K DDR2-800 2 x 2GB Kit, $75.
Graphics Card: ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850, $158 (after rebate). An alternative is ASUS EN9800GT HB/HTDI/512M GeForce 9800 GT, $145 (after rebate).
HDD: Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATA, $64.
PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX, $52 (after rebate).
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black, $147.
Total Cost: $827

The Antec case supports up to 6 hardrives. One thing I'd look at is the P5Q deluxe board due to it's SATA and eSATA port complement, and dual LAN PCIe ports which support teaming.
 
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00Roush you know your stuff! thats an awesome board esp for a HTPC has all the bells and whistles. Prices will probably be a bit higher as Im from Aus

Chenbro ES34069 - $AUD 220 - 280 shipped
Intel DG45FC - $AUD 185
Intel E8400 - $AUD 210
DDR2 2B 800MHz Kingston ram - $AUD 38 each

Approx total = $AUD 749

Looks very tempting

Well I try to stay informed.

Another option would be an AMD platform. Not sure if you are and Intel only person but the new 790GX or 780G boards look like they might fit the bill for HTPC quiet well. I have not been able to find any reviews online about power consumption with a midrange chip but from what I recall the boards are supposed to be fairly good in the power consumption department. On top of that the integrated graphics has better performance than Intel variant.

I imagine either setup could provide what you are looking for. The AMD setup might cost a little less. Then on the flip side the integrated network adapter on the Intel board is second to none in support and performance. So it really depends on your preference.

00Roush
 

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