Want to setup a NAS

[Drac]

Part is the heat build up. The current one has all the lights because of the fans I have running in it. I also want to do 5-7 drives. I currently have 1.5T of data and I want enough room for expansion as more media is digital. I am also going to use the server as a back for the other machines in the house which would include (right now) the HTPC, home, 2 laptops and posibly a niece who is coming down here for college. I figure we will have one tower in her guest room and she will probably have a laptop.

Also since I will be doing ripping (from old disks in my collection) and video work I will need to have room for a huge video card. That will also add some major heat. When ripping I use to watch the heat fly up. Same with the CPU & GPU usage. The current system has 8 fans. On the server I would like to go to water cooling to cut down on noise but also to improve cooling. Also looks really cool. The case is very low profile so anything outside the H70 probably wouldn't fit.

On the case for hotswap I am drooling over -



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-YT11-133-188



Jim

[Joshua]

Well my advice is probably not what you want to hear, but...

If you want a NAS, build a NAS.

If you want an HTPC, build an HTPC.


You can make an HTPC with plenty of storage, but if you want that kind of redundancy you'll need fans, swap bays, etc... and it won't be running an OS that is friendly to being a NAS. So you won't have a quiet machine (using 850w+ PSU's will be absolutely required to run a bunch of disks AND a capable graphics card, fans), you won't have the best OS for a NAS (Windows really does suck in this regard, it's just not made for it), and if you did run a Windows OS that is made for it (Like Windows Home Server), you wouldn't be able to use it as an HTPC, it would lack all the kick butt home media stuff.

If you build a NAS, I would do some reading over on Freenas.org about a stand-alone NAS machine, one that you could run a cable to, and shove in a closet somewhere. The benefit of going with freenas is the storage is very scalable... and the platform is very robust as well.

[Drac]

Well my advice is probably not what you want to hear, but...

If you want a NAS, build a NAS.

If you want an HTPC, build an HTPC.


You can make an HTPC with plenty of storage, but if you want that kind of redundancy you'll need fans, swap bays, etc... and it won't be running an OS that is friendly to being a NAS. So you won't have a quiet machine (using 850w+ PSU's will be absolutely required to run a bunch of disks AND a capable graphics card, fans), you won't have the best OS for a NAS (Windows really does suck in this regard, it's just not made for it), and if you did run a Windows OS that is made for it (Like Windows Home Server), you wouldn't be able to use it as an HTPC, it would lack all the kick butt home media stuff.

If you build a NAS, I would do some reading over on Freenas.org about a stand-alone NAS machine, one that you could run a cable to, and shove in a closet somewhere. The benefit of going with freenas is the storage is very scalable... and the platform is very robust as well.

That is what I want to do. I want to have an HTPC for the living room and to store the data on the NAS.

Jim