CountCrackula

I'm currently thinking 2xReds to start, then later bump it up to 4 and clone/mirror the drives basically. Is wi-fi actually fast enough if I have solid Wi-Fi or should i still plan on ethernet or some kind of adapter/extender, etc? Any recommendations on what MoBo would work well with a NAS? also should I use the i5 4690K in the NAS or is it pointless? Should I save that for the HTPC and buy like an i-3 or perhaps even a Ryzen (even though I'm not much of an AMD guy)?

At the end of the day, I would like to have a NAS (mainly for storage and backup, but also some streaming), an HTPC able to handle 4k (video playback, not necessarily gaming), and I already have my gaming rig that is capable for 4k gaming as well as VR. I am not sure of the smartest or most cost efficient way to do this, and am getting lost ready forums, watching videos, etc... I would like this to be as seamless as possible, and would like to not spend too much while still building a very solid setup. Current Rig Windows 7 3x512 SSDs 1x4 TB HDD 2x3 GB external HDD ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero 980TI hybrid CX750M power supply i5-4690K OC'ed to ~3.9 (water cooled by Corsair H115 4x8 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM This is currently being shared between my Samsung SUHD 4K TV, and several other monitors for gaming and regular use. I have thought about the Steam Link and other things but feel that a NAS and HTPC are a better long term solution. Ideally I would like to be able to spread out my systems through the house, and not suffer from wifi latency or anything like that. With a NAS is it essential to go with such a high end drive like a WD red or green? I would prefer cloning (Raid 0?) with slightly cheaper drives and then if one dies it isn't the end of the world. I would like to start off with around 4-8 TB for my NAS with room to expand. Being able to steam to other devices (phone, kindle, ipad) from NAS would be kinda nice but not essential. One thing I have been thinking about it (although it is a bit over my head ATM), would be to use virtualization to simply turn my gaming rig into a NAS (per the linus video), and then just build a reasonable HTPC but am just not sure if that is the way to go. I would like this to be reasonably simple to setup, with as little maintenance over time required as possible. Extra Parts I have to work with: EVGA 960 superclocked Corsair 500W psu 256 GB SSD i5-4690K Thanks for any help that you guys/gals can give! I'd be grateful from anything from common knowledge/tips, to complete build guides, or even options that I am not aware of!

Thx. 1 Last question. I have heard that Kaby Lake is the only CPU capable of (I believe) streaming 4k Video. Does that apply here or is that only for like netflix, or what? If that's the case do the new AMD cards allow 4k streaming?

Ok cool. How many Linux server distros are out there? Is any one obviously the best?

Does that mean I'll need to upgrade from 7 to 10? I'd rather not, but figured I would probably have to eventually

Isn't windows server ed like several hundred $?

Is there anything else I can do since I'll have an OP CPU inside of it that I'm not thinking of?

Windows drive sharing client side? I imagined I'd run some Linux veriant as the actual server since its free

So do you think it would be easy enough for a novice to set up the gaming rig/NAS and keep it stable?

Noise isnt a huge issue for me... I have loud surround sound speakers

Fair enough. I should use my i-5 instead since I already have it right? Then could I theoretically use my weaker PC as a sort of "steam machine" utilizing my main rigs graphical prowess?

I like the general idea but I believe that the smaller the pc case in the living room, the happier my lady will ultimately be...

At the end of the day, I would like to have a NAS (mainly for storage and backup, but also some streaming), an HTPC able to handle 4k (video playback, not necessarily gaming), and I already have my gaming rig that is capable for 4k gaming as well as VR. I am not sure of the smartest or most cost efficient way to do this, and am getting lost ready forums, watching videos, etc... I would like this to be as seamless as possible, and would like to not spend too much while still building a very solid setup. Current Rig Windows 7 3x512 SSDs 1x4 TB HDD 2x3 GB external HDD ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero 980TI hybrid CX750M power supply i5-4690K OC'ed to ~3.9 (water cooled by Corsair H115 4x8 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM This is currently being shared between my Samsung SUHD 4K TV, and several other monitors for gaming and regular use. I have thought about the Steam Link and other things but feel that a NAS and HTPC are a better long term solution. Ideally I would like to be able to spread out my systems through the house, and not suffer from wifi latency or anything like that. With a NAS is it essential to go with such a high end drive like a WD red or green? I would prefer cloning (Raid 0?) with slightly cheaper drives and then if one dies it isn't the end of the world. I would like to start off with around 4-8 TB for my NAS with room to expand. Being able to steam to other devices (phone, kindle, ipad) from NAS would be kinda nice but not essential. One thing I have been thinking about it (although it is a bit over my head ATM), would be to use virtualization to simply turn my gaming rig into a NAS (per the linus video), and then just build a reasonable HTPC but am just not sure if that is the way to go. I would like this to be reasonably simple to setup, with as little maintenance over time required as possible. Extra Parts I have to work with: EVGA 960 superclocked Corsair 500W psu 256 GB SSD I also have an i5-4690K that I just found! Thanks for any help that you guys/gals can give! I'd be grateful from anything from common knowledge/tips, to complete build guides, or even options that I am not aware of!