Building Home Media Server - Need suggestion

[HunterSailor]

Hi,

I want to build a home media server mainly to centralize all the media in my house. I tried to get suggestions from tutorials on youtube but I can't really decide what parts do I need for my use case.

Basically, I want to centralize all media and would like to access it through the internet from anywhere.

Right now I only plan to use a single 2TB hard drive as there will be nothing mission-critical stored in it and later add additional drives if the need arises. The server is going to be connected to a network switch with a Gigabit line and it is going to be accessed from two desktops as well as 4-5 mobile devices.

I want it to be on a budget so I can't get anything crazy. I'm open to consider used parts as well.

Can someone suggest to me what processor do I need, how much RAM do I need as well as the operating system (I'm inclined towards FreeNAS mainly it's free) and also do suggest me if I'm forgetting anything?

 

Thanks

 

[Dedayog]

20 minutes ago, HunterSailor said:

Hi,

I want to build a home media server mainly to centralize all the media in my house. I tried to get suggestions from tutorials on youtube but I can't really decide what parts do I need for my use case.

Basically, I want to centralize all media and would like to access it through the internet from anywhere.

Right now I only plan to use a single 2TB hard drive as there will be nothing mission-critical stored in it and later add additional drives if the need arises. The server is going to be connected to a network switch with a Gigabit line and it is going to be accessed from two desktops as well as 4-5 mobile devices.

I want it to be on a budget so I can't get anything crazy. I'm open to consider used parts as well.

Can someone suggest to me what processor do I need, how much RAM do I need as well as the operating system (I'm inclined towards FreeNAS mainly it's free) and also do suggest me if I'm forgetting anything?

 

Thanks

 

My Plex box (in sig) can stream 3 movies at the same time without issue.  Not sure how much more you need than that.

 

 

[HunterSailor]

23 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

My Plex box (in sig) can stream 3 movies at the same time without issue.  Not sure how much more you need than that.

 

 

okay

[Myx0x3]

If you are only going for one drive i would go for a small Synology from the Value-series

 

https://www.synology.com/products/series/value

 

If you want to go for an unRAID or FreeNAS things gets expensive fast..

 

[HunterSailor]

56 minutes ago, Myx0x3 said:

If you are only going for one drive i would go for a small Synology from the Value-series

 

https://www.synology.com/products/series/value

 

If you want to go for an unRAID or FreeNAS things gets expensive fast..

 

2

Maybe in the future, I will add additional drives, be it for redundancy or more storage. Also, I'll be using used parts so it's going to be cheaper than a single bay Synology as they are not available where I live.

[Myx0x3]

18 hours ago, HunterSailor said:

Maybe in the future, I will add additional drives, be it for redundancy or more storage. Also, I'll be using used parts so it's going to be cheaper than a single bay Synology as they are not available where I live.

Alright, i would just go for any old computer you can get your hands on, an old 2500k with 16GB RAM (2x8GB) and possibilites to upgrade to 32GB RAM is a really nice setup.

RAM is almost more important then CPU power, since transferspeed are more important then fast calculations.

 

After you get an old computer you install FreeNAS or unRAID. I personally perfer FreeNAS, but unRAID is not bad. try yourself first