using an old laptop as NAS

[saroele]

Hi,

I need a network storage solution for my home. Typical use/wishlist:

• store data, movies, foto's and MP3's centrally
• stream them to an a/v receiver or other streamer.
• automatic online backup for disaster-prove storage
• extremely low power consumption
• easy to use and minimal maintenance

Some friends advice me to use an old laptop (eg with windows xp) and share a folder. Done. All the things I can imagine I want to do with my 'NAS' seem to be possible according to them.

Is this really a viable solution for my case? What would you suggest me to do? Are there important drawbacks or limitations to either solution?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

 

[GregN]

Hi,

I need a network storage solution for my home. Typical use/wishlist:

• store data, movies, foto's and MP3's centrally
• stream them to an a/v receiver or other streamer.
• automatic online backup for disaster-prove storage
• extremely low power consumption
• easy to use and minimal maintenance

Some friends advice me to use an old laptop (eg with windows xp) and share a folder. Done. All the things I can imagine I want to do with my 'NAS' seem to be possible according to them.

Is this really a viable solution for my case? What would you suggest me to do? Are there important drawbacks or limitations to either solution?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

A proper NAS appliance offers high capacity ( larger than any single disk ), RAID recoverability ( if your laptop disk fails, you lose data ), and higher performance.

It is a trade off. How Reliable? How much Storage? Need performance?

 

[saroele]

Thanks for your comment. I'll try to specify:

It is a trade off. How Reliable? How much Storage? Need performance?

- Reliability: having a full automatic online backup seems more important than a second drive in the same NAS. Maybe I'm wrong on this?
- How much storage: 1 TB of data will be enough for some years to come
- Need performance: no idea, really. Let's say I want to stream MP3's and a movie simultaneously? Is that possible?

 

[GregN]

Thanks for your comment. I'll try to specify:



- Reliability: having a full automatic online backup seems more important than a second drive in the same NAS. Maybe I'm wrong on this?
- How much storage: 1 TB of data will be enough for some years to come
- Need performance: no idea, really. Let's say I want to stream MP3's and a movie simultaneously? Is that possible?

Sounds like the old laptop would work better for you, if:

You already have an old laptop with 1TB free.

You use it just for backups, or can lose the data stored there ( a NAS with RAID will tolerate disk failure ).

Aren't looking for high performance streaming.


Otherwise a NAS appliance might work better.


.