Advice for future storage

[olan1225]

Hi! 

 

I need to expand my storage in the near future and need some advice! 

 

The criterias i have for the solution is that I should be able to access to the files from anywhere (including streaming video to other places around the world, bandwith is not an issue), preferably having the hard drives show up under network location. It should be able to stream .mkv files to iPads with live conversion. It should be able to download/seed torrents at high speed. It should be quiet! 

 

The options I have are: 

 

1. Expand my main system storage and upgrade some hardware to make it quieter. 

2. Build a new computer and use it as a server.

3. Get a NAS. (if there is any that work with my needs and have room for 4 hard drives) 

 

 

Do you guys have any ideas on which option I should opt for? 

 

olan1225

[Benjamin]

If you are planning to use the system for streaming and transcoding videos, you might want to take a look at Plex.

You use Plex Media Server on your NAS/server and a Plex client on your iPad. For watching videos from outside your local network, you can use myPlex (didn't test this myself).

This is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux; but also for NAS appliances as QNAP and Synology.

A lot of NAS appliances also have the option to install a torrent client (eg. Transmission).

So the three options you listed, will do what you want.

If the server will be on 24/7, you may want a dedicated system. The power consumption of your main system will probably be too high.

I am also planning to expand my storage. Now I have a simple NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS NV+).

I am going to build a server and use an operating system which supports ZFS (probably FreeNAS or ZFSGuru). And I will run the services I need in virtual machines on this server.

Of course, there are a lot of other possibilities for building your own server.

[olan1225]

If you are planning to use the system for streaming and transcoding videos, you might want to take a look at Plex.

You use Plex Media Server on your NAS/server and a Plex client on your iPad. For watching videos from outside your local network, you can use myPlex (didn't test this myself).

This is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux; but also for NAS appliances as QNAP and Synology.

A lot of NAS appliances also have the option to install a torrent client (eg. Transmission).

So the three options you listed, will do what you want.

If the server will be on 24/7, you may want a dedicated system. The power consumption of your main system will probably be too high.

I am also planning to expand my storage. Now I have a simple NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS NV+).

I am going to build a server and use an operating system which supports ZFS (probably FreeNAS or ZFSGuru). And I will run the services I need in virtual machines on this server.

Of course, there are a lot of other possibilities for building your own server.

 

Thanks for that Benjamin :) 

 

So you are saying that you can have a server with FreeNAS and have a virtual machine at the same time? Because thats seems very clever! 

I am more used to windows where you can just install something like Air Video server and other programs which will fulfill all my needs. But plex seems to be a strong contender to Air Video! 

Perhaps I should do the same as you and build my own server with a low power haswell server for the sake of flexibility. 

[Benjamin]

Thanks for that Benjamin :)

 

So you are saying that you can have a server with FreeNAS and have a virtual machine at the same time? Because thats seems very clever! 

I am more used to windows where you can just install something like Air Video server and other programs which will fulfill all my needs. But plex seems to be a strong contender to Air Video! 

Perhaps I should do the same as you and build my own server with a low power haswell server for the sake of flexibility. 

 

I haven't tested the virtual machines yet. But I've seen that you can install some services on ZFSGuru, and VirtualBox is one of those. And FreeNAS offers some plug-ins.

 

If you are more comfortable using Windows, you can build a server and use Windows Server as operating system. I have no experience with this, so I hope someone else can tell you more about this.

[olan1225]

I haven't tested the virtual machines yet. But I've seen that you can install some services on ZFSGuru, and VirtualBox is one of those. And FreeNAS offers some plug-ins.

 

If you are more comfortable using Windows, you can build a server and use Windows Server as operating system. I have no experience with this, so I hope someone else can tell you more about this.

 

Alright! Thanks for your help :) 

[looney]

Hey olan,

 

I would recommend that you take a look at the LTT 10TB+ topic for some inspiration (link in my signature)

 

And I recommend you to take a look at FlexRAID if you want to stick with windows.

[olan1225]

Hey olan,

 

I would recommend that you take a look at the LTT 10TB+ topic for some inspiration (link in my signature)

 

And I recommend you to take a look at FlexRAID if you want to stick with windows.

 

Hi looney

 

I have seen your thread and it is amazing! :) I am not quite up to that standard yet though. I will investigate more in FlexRAID, thanks for your advice!