Gaboris

Hello LTT forums! So I got my first NAS with ZyXEL's NAS326 that I've been setting up and messing around with for a while now and am really liking so far. Originally I just planned to use it as a more advanced backup storage than my old HDD connected through a USB dock, but while messing around I kinda ended up uploading all my parent's old movies as a safe keeping method, but after I also connected my mother's smartphone to it so she can watch them anywhere I got the urge to go even further and started looking into a WiFi based HTPC for them to use on their TV. After checking out reviews, guides, benchmarks and my local retail offerings since there are only a few RPi retailers in Hugnary I came up with this setup as a first try. Raspberry Pi 3A+ https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-a-plus/ It's just as powerful at the 3B+, but I have no "real" use for wired Ethernet or extra USB ports so this compact little thing is more appealing. Also it might be "too much" for just an HTPC/streaming box and maybe a Pi Zero would be enough, but if it doesn't work out in the end I'd want to have the overhead in case I want to use it for something else. The official 3A+ case https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-a-case/ Personally I love this design, but I'm getting it mainly because I can't get anything else that fits the 3A+. The official Pi power brick https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-universal-power-supply/ They say that the Pi 3 is power hungry and might not work off of just any USB plug or adapter and since the fixed EU plug isn't sold separately I have to go with this one. Things that I'm not sure about are: - System compatibility Probably going to install OSMC to run Kodi without the extra hassle of keeping a full distro running or having to mess with keeping things updated, but is there anything that would cause a problem? The lack of the Ethernet port, memory being limited to 512Mb, WiFi not being strong enough to stream off of NAS or it just doesn't support connecting to a LAN NAS out of the box or the likes? - Cooling The case I can get has no ventilation what so ever so even if I got a set of heat sinks they might not help, but if they do are there any meaningful differences between all the sets they sell online? Is there a point to buying one of those single copper blocks compared to a dozen of those aluminium grills they sell in bulks? Same with those flat copper plates that are meant for the chip on the underside of the board. I just don't want it to fry in case my mother wants to re-watch all the seasons of GoT in summer... or just general problems with thermal throttling. - Control I can guess that there are a lot of options for controlling or at least connecting to the Pi, but the ideal thing would be to use a remote. Heck, the shop I'm looking at sells a mini remote with the Pi's own IR sensor, but again the case has no holes for it so I'm kinda bummed out about that. Are there any HDMI passthrough options that could allow the Pi to use the TV as a sensor or something? I know about CEC and our Panasonic actually supports it with Viera Link, but so far I got the impression that that's about the system being able to control other devices and not "detect" the remote through a device. Did I get that wrong? Luckily most things about RPi are quite straight forward by now and after just a few guides and store listings I'm pretty confident I'd be able to set things up, but what I'd be interested in is anyone that has any experience with some of the pitfalls and maybe help with these questions I had. Also I'd just like to have this thread be here in case someone else thinks about doing the same and would like to find people talking about it. I know I would've loved to find something about this before.

Yeah took me a good while to find this baby. Been browsing reviews and tests all across the net for it. No I deliberately kept all extra functions off to not stress the router any more than needed. Also QoS is still a mystery for me and I'm not even sure if it would be useful for me in the long run to set it up. ?

Well its warm, but I wouldn't say hot. I actually upgraded to an Asus RT-AC58U just a year ago and didn't have any real problems since I got this baby. Luckily I already stopped cheaping out on my stuff, but still that's a good point. P.S.: Hope it's okay, but I'm stealing your signature's setup. I always end up needing to look up my HW names whenever someone asks for them so this might help in the future.

DARN! I just sent the report in. Sorry. ? HECK NO! I couldn't call myself a tech guy if I did, but we have several smartphones and laptops in our household so we need it running non stop. Just upgraded a Cat5e to a Cat6 cable just for pointless science. Just did, thanks. Problem is that a mod moved it just as I made my report so I hope that won't be a problem. Good saying and I keep saying something similar to my brother who keeps complaining about his PS4, PC AND TV having poor speeds with his router being a whole room apart from them... ? My modem is some Huawei model that my ISP provided and REALLY hope it actually has the proper throughput and my router is an Asus RT-AC58U which is my most expensive router yet so it's still a big upgrade. I deliberately did the test at night when only my PC, my laptop a "sleeping" 2 in 1 and my brand new NAS were on it cuz this was just about checking "tech stuff". In the day my speeds fall right down to 30% probably due to "local traffic".

DANG IT! I just noticed that there's a Networking category over here. I swear those did not load for me when I made this thread so could I request an admin to move this over there somehow or should I repost it and delete this one?

Hello LTT forums! Sorry if I got the wrong idea for my title and tags so if you have a better idea for them then just tell me. I'm trying to make this thread since I couldn't find any on the subject when I originally looked for it earlier. I've been trying to optimize the cabling of my network for a while now and I've found some good 2m(6feet?) long patch cables at a store and just bought a pair of Cat6 ones "for science". As a bonus one was a normal cable and the other was was the flat design that doesn't even seem to be able to fit any proper shielding. I live in Hungary and have a Gigabit connection but even with everything else that net related is disabled I can "only" get the 55-65% of the bandwidth and even thought I KNOW I wouldn't notice it if it was at full speed the tech guy in me just wishes to see what could be the bottleneck. ? My router and modem both rest in a hellscape of power/data cables and other clutter behind my monitor with WiFi running all the time. It also just turned out that my router was connected to our modem with a simple Cat5 cable so I was actually excited to see what can an upgrade do. I ran almost 2 dozen test by pairing different categories with each other and after I went from Cat5+Cat5e all the was to Cat6+Cat6 it turned out that it all meant NOTHING. My speeds didn't change at all, not with the basic Cat5 nor with the flat(I can't believe these are shielded) Cat6 cable. They stuck around 60% and the only time it shot up to 70% was when I did a last test late at night which probably just means that other people have went to sleep. ? So I know that these categories are meant for REAL distances that span whole rooms or buildings and my 2m long cables might as well just be PCB level connections, but still I feel like a place to collect such experiences could be useful for those who are lost in the sea of definitions and marketing. So if you had any positive or negative experiences with different distances or were able to pull off an upgrade that wouldn't have made sense then please leave a story here for people to find. ?