New nas/mediacenter

[henrikfraannk]

Hi all

 

I plan building a NAS AND mediacenter.. But i don't know what hardware to choose.

 

The primary use should be filesharing as a NAS and the ability to stream to my DLNA devices. But i still want it connected via HDMI to my 4k TV and soundsystem if i want to play videos with subtitles, or play small party games on my TV eg.

 

What hardware and OS should i use? At first i was thinking freenas and some very lowpower hardware with lots of sata connectors and build in cpu. But then I will lose the HDMI connection and the ability to play content to my TV and use it as a media center.

 

Should I go for a 4th gen. i3 and use the onboard GPU?

 

What would you do? The only requirement is it has to be mITX board, because i want to use a Node 304 case, and the ability to connect my HDMI TV. I have a Corsair RM450 PSU in spare to use.

 

Thanks..

[henrikfraannk]

BTW.. Games means VERY SMALL GAMES.. I play the other games on my X99 rig.. Just very small games..

[Decon]

BTW.. Games means VERY SMALL GAMES.. I play the other games on my X99 rig.. Just very small games..

Freenas on one system for storage (an old system with ~4gb ram will do, pentium 4 HT works fine for me) and then a stream PC with GTX 950 or similar (for HDMI 2.0 support) is what I'd recommend.  

 

I'd recommend two systems for this; running freeness (headless OS) in a VM and then forward SATA would be a pain but is possible if you must have the fileserver and media center PC be the same system.

[Streetguru]

Hi all

What's your budget?

[henrikfraannk]

What's your budget?

 

Well. No really budget but below $800 excluding the harddrives..

[Streetguru]

Well. No really budget but below $800 excluding the harddrives..

Well you could just go with this Xeon and never really have to worry about performance given that budget, it's pretty much just an i7 with ECC support

 

Socket 1150 $280

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646e31246v3

[henrikfraannk]

Well you could just go with this Xeon and never really have to worry about performance given that budget, it's pretty much just an i7 with ECC support

 

Socket 1150 $280

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646e31246v3

 

And what about OS and GPU? Would you just use the onboard GPU?

[henrikfraannk]

Bonus info. I have access to all windows server editions from my dreamspark premium acc. Would windows server work as media center too?

[Streetguru]

And what about OS and GPU? Would you just use the onboard GPU?

FreeNAS, you don't need a GPU, that Xeon has integrated graphics.

[henrikfraannk]

FreeNAS, you don't need a GPU, that Xeon has integrated graphics.

 

But freenas doesn't solve my problem as a media center.. I want a server and mediacenter in one if possible..

[Streetguru]

But freenas doesn't solve my problem as a media center.. I want a server and mediacenter in one if possible..

There's plex plug in for freeNAS

http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/2013/09/plex-on-freenas.html

 

 

https://www.samkear.com/freenas/install-plex-media-server-freenas