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January 4, 2007
To NAS or Not To NAS [geek]
This is [hopefully] the year of the new computer. Mine has been chugging along with constant heavy use for nearly 4 years now (with lots of upgrades along the way) and it will soon be completely replaced (assuming I can find the money to fund it). I've recently started thinking a lot about the storage for the system and was wondering if anyone had any experience with a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device.
I'm currently running a RAID 1 (two large drives mirrored) setup on my computer because that's about all my motherboard can handle. That mixed with a drive for the operating system and another for recording tv makes for a lot of hard drives crammed into a small amount of space with no room for expansion.
My storage goal on the new system is to have a fast drive for the OS, as much space as possible for recording television (with no need for redundancy), and at least 1 TB of redundant storage--preferably all in a package that could easily fit in the Jeep in case of an approaching hurricane. What I want to do requires a lot of hard drives in a large case with a motherboard and power supply that can handle it. This is where the idea of a NAS device comes into the scheme.
I imagine if I got a NAS device capable of gigabit transfer speeds, it would allow me to move the terabyte of storage out of the main computer, giving me ample space for my DVR needs. At gigabit speeds I would hope to have no problem streaming media from the device.
So, does anyone have any advice on NAS? I've looked at a couple consumer NAS devices online and they are a bit pricey, but I'm not sure I'd be any better off building one myself. Though, depending on my monetary situation when I start collecting parts for the new computer, I might not have a choice..there are so many other things to spend money on!
Posted by mhader at January 4, 2007 9:40 PM
Comments
Unfortunately the only experience I have with something like NAS is from 10 years ago with a multi-thousand dollar system. I think they had a "huge" 50 or 100 GB RAID setup back then.
Another option you may want to consider: I just discovered that the Western Digital 1TB MyBook Pro can be found for $400-450. You can barely buy the hard drives for that price! It's not going to be as fast as something connected through a gigE network, but if you used Firewire you supposedly can get 800Mbps.
If I were doing this, I'd probably go with an ultra portable (evacuatable) external HD like the MyBook for the important stuff, and load up my old PC as a DVR encoder\server. Then I'd build a nice desktop with a relatively small and fast HD, lots of ram and a nice video card. I'd rather save the processing power and pull the TV stuff through the network.
I'm a big fan of smaller cases now. For my desktop PC I'm using something similar to the APEVIA X-QPACK cases. I'd love to get another and just fill it with HD's and DVR encoder cards. :) If you stack two together they are about the size of a fat Mini-tower case.
Posted by: Ben at January 5, 2007 1:17 AM
I'd almost like to (and have considered it) build a separate computer just for the tv stuff..I just don't want to pay for two computers at the same time. The APEVIA X-QPACK cases look like they my be good for this purpose..
I've thought of using the old computer as the tv capture device (and I still may..at least for a while), but I have a couple concerns. The two things that worry me most are 1) I've been thinking it's on it's last leg for a while now (though it does keep running) and 2) I'm not sure if it is powerful enough to be able to capture over the air HD--though I suppose it's not too expensive for a card to try it out before I make my final decisions. Mmm..OTA HD would be so nice..
The WD My Book Pro Edition II does look nice and I'll definitely consider that over a NAS. It's much cheaper and it looks like it would be easy to leave it connected and have it do scheduled backups, rather than running everything from a separate drive.
Posted by: michael at January 5, 2007 9:44 AM
We have a NAS that we use as our "server" for our office. Haven't had any problems with it. Not sure the brand or price offhand right now, but I can find out if you want.
Posted by: Jeremy at January 5, 2007 12:18 PM
Don't forget to leave room in your Jeep for clean underwear too.
Posted by: Sean at January 5, 2007 1:19 PM
@Jeremy - It'd be interesting to know what you use, though I have a feeling that whatever it is is probably way out of my price range and probably overkill for just me.
@Sean - With my kayak (I might need it to get back to my house) on top and my computer in the lock box I think I'll have plenty of room for the clean underwear..
Posted by: michael at January 5, 2007 5:26 PM
We just got a pair of HP EVA 6000's...
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/eva/specs.html
You might also want to look at mounting your drives differently to get more in the box. Also, I'd consider distributing your roles to different boxes: your main system would record the shows, but have a separate box for storing/serving them. You'll see better performance and you won't have to cram it all in one box... ergo, one of the primary benefits of a NAS.
Posted by: Jonathan at January 5, 2007 7:22 PM