Best option for media storage

[sunstudio]

If you were setting up HTPC's in 4 rooms (all with wired connections), would you:

1. Opt to keep the most commonly used media files on each of the individual PC's then have them open to share across the network with one another.

2. Use the most least used HTPC (in our case in our bedroom as it would only be used when all the others are off) to act as the main "storage central" and use it as a HTPC plus as a media "server" to the other 3 HTPC's.

3. Have nothing stored locally (except maybe HDTV recordings; which can then be relocated later), and have a NAS as the "storage central" for all media.

It's all starting to drive me a bit batty trying to setup our home network as effectively and as efficiently as possible...

[ozbear]

Part of your answer and stratgy would depend on what, if anything you plan on backing up, when, and how often.

Your question cannot be meaningfully answered without that little piece of information.

Oz

[sunstudio]

Our media collection would consist of a few hundred movies and tv-shows as well as our music collection.

We don't record an awful lot of tv so when we do I could easily just rip it to dvd and archive or share etc.

[bella]

Hi Sunstudio,

I only have 2 MCE's connected via a wired network, MCE1 in the living room functions as server and has all the music and movies stored on 3 hdd's and also does most of the recordings.

To answer your questions:

1. No need to do this. Use 1 pc as main server, make sure you store your important OS backups on an external hdd (that's what I am doing).

2.Bad idea unless you build a real silent, quiet PC.

3.Expensive, but if you have the money: excellent.

Cheers,

Eddy

[aswigon]

The other option is you want some redundancy and just a device sitting on the network is to look at something like the Thecus boxes. It isn't the cheapest option but a NAS device may be what you are looking for.

[sunstudio]

Originally Posted by bella

Hi Sunstudio,

I only have 2 MCE's connected via a wired network, MCE1 in the living room functions as server and has all the music and movies stored on 3 hdd's and also does most of the recordings.

To answer your questions:

1. No need to do this. Use 1 pc as main server, make sure you store your important OS backups on an external hdd (that's what I am doing).

2.Bad idea unless you build a real silent, quiet PC.

3.Expensive, but if you have the money: excellent.

Cheers,

Eddy

If I were to use say the HTPC in our media room as our main server does it need to be higher spec'd than the others (as in AMD 64 Dual Core) or can I still get away with AMD 64 3200+ or the like which I was planning for the others?

Also, I was looking at locating the Bedroom HTPC in the walk-in-robe and hiding the wiring in the ceiling and then down to our wall mounted LCD so noise wouldn't be an issue there. If this is the case does it make sense to then use this as the main server instead of the media room pc?

Also, what would you recommend as specs?

[sunstudio]

Originally Posted by aswigon

The other option is you want some redundancy and just a device sitting on the network is to look at something like the Thecus boxes. It isn't the cheapest option but a NAS device may be what you are looking for.

Hhmmmm...

I've looked at the Thecus option, slotting in a couple of 320Gb drives, would give me all the storage I'd need. It also seems to be the cheapest Gbit NAS out there.

I just can't get my head around wasting all the HDD space on the 4 HTPC's (although I do appreciate that every PC needs a Hard Drive to run; I know, I know). Plus if I used one of the PC's as a "server" all I'd need to do is slot in a few extra drives.

Still concerned about bottle necks with multiple streaming though!?!

My wife has agreed to the set up but it has to run as smooth as a babies bum or I'll never live it down...

Any ideas for the ideal 4 room HTPC set up?

[db]

If you are keen on the NAS option, there is FreeNAS (www.freenas.org/) as a way of getting a basic NAS using old hardware. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it looks interesting, and the review on NewsForge (http://hardware.newsforge.com/articl...49206&from=rss) sounds promising.

[aswigon]

I would be more likely to use the NAS device as a location for stuff that you don't discard. I would put music, pictures and videos that I wanted to keep on there. That way it is benefiting from the RAID configuration as far as data protection goes.

[sunstudio]

Originally Posted by aswigon

I would be more likely to use the NAS device as a location for stuff that you don't discard. I would put music, pictures and videos that I wanted to keep on there. That way it is benefiting from the RAID configuration as far as data protection goes.

Would you go for a Gbit enabled NAS like the Thecus N2100 or would something like the netgear toaster or Maxtor shared storage be the go?

[BazCal]

Originally Posted by db

If you are keen on the NAS option, there is FreeNAS (www.freenas.org/) as a way of getting a basic NAS using old hardware. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it looks interesting, and the review on NewsForge (http://hardware.newsforge.com/articl...49206&from=rss) sounds promising.

Hi,

I've been using FreeNAS at work for a while now and it does pretty well and its nice that you can install it to a USB memory key so that all 4 ATA connections can be used for disks (newer MB's only through for booting to USB key).

The main outstanding problem for me though is the bugs in the software raid i.e. if you have e.g. 4 drives at 80Gb each, it should be possible to present them as 1x 320Gb set (striped) or as 1x 240Gb raid 5 set (some redundancy). This config doesn't tend to survive a reboot on the hardware I've tried. Using them as individual drives works well, though.

Alternatively have a look at http://www.openfiler.com/ which promises to do the same kind of thing. I haven't tried it yet but it looks pretty interesting. It also says it can do replication so if you are worried about losing stuff, you could have two

Both these systems are freeware and based of different flavours of Linux but the Network card support is based on what the OS understands and is being updated all the time i.e. Gigabit should be pretty easy unless you have really obscure NICs.

*** Update on OpenFiler ***
I've had a look at this and it is a bit too serious for home use i.e. it required an external authentication server such as NT4 domain controller, Active Directory, LDAP, NIS etc. unless you're also a networking enthusiast as well as MCE then its totally OTT.

Someone mentioned NASLite previously, how's that working out for you?

Cheers.