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AliP

Limp Gawd
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Oct 25, 2006
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Hey, I don't know much about network storage systems so I was hoping for some advice.

Currently I have 3-4 computers in my home accessing the shared files on my computer, ("home" videos and such).

I use 5 sata hard drives (totalling 4TB advertised space) for storing these files, since my computer is in my bedroom I have been wondering if it is possible and fiscally reasonable to set up some sort of a network storage system in my home, containing these hard drives, to avoid the noise and heat my system constantly produces.

Is this possible? What is the best way to do this? How much would it cost?

Thanks!!
 
The simple way is to move the computer in your bedroom to a room where the noise and heat is not objectionable.

And then put a new computer in your room. A notebook with the ability to display on your TV (a few hundred dollars).
 
GeorgeHR said:
The simple way is to move the computer in your bedroom to a room where the noise and heat is not objectionable.

And then put a new computer in your room. A notebook with the ability to display on your TV (a few hundred dollars).
Click to expand...

That would work, however I do use my computer for more than just TV displaying, gaming, general work and other purposes. My bedroom is also my work area, moving the workstation is not an option, also the primary contributor of noise in my room is the hard drives. I therefore concluded that the best solution would be to transport the hard drives somewhere else. The question remains, what is the best way to accomplish that. Should I buy an entire new system and run it 24/7 or buy some sort of network enclosure.

I found this on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108059

Is this what I'm looking for? How expensive should the enclosure be? Will I benefit from the 640$ one over the cheaper one?
 
I bought a cheap but decent case and built a low-end machine to host my network storage. Running a dual-core S775 chip (can't remember which one, maybe E5300) with on-board graphics and an add-on SATA card. Originally had WHS on it (worked well for automated backups) but recently migrated to Server 2008 with FlexRAID. I could never get WHS to sleep the drives, for some reason, but Server 2008 works perfectly.

Not the cheapest solution (although used parts can cut the price significantly), but it gives you flexibility to do other things with the machine as well (automated backups, downloading, encoding, or whatever).
 
AliP said:
That would work, however I do use my computer for more than just TV displaying, gaming, general work and other purposes. My bedroom is also my work area, moving the workstation is not an option, also the primary contributor of noise in my room is the hard drives. I therefore concluded that the best solution would be to transport the hard drives somewhere else. The question remains, what is the best way to accomplish that. Should I buy an entire new system and run it 24/7 or buy some sort of network enclosure.

I found this on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108059

Is this what I'm looking for? How expensive should the enclosure be? Will I benefit from the 640$ one over the cheaper one?
Click to expand...

I would go with this or another WHS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...05777&cm_re=whs_server-_-59-105-777-_-Product

Move the drives over, and copy the files. Set it and forget it.
 
I would still go with the HP because it has a dual core Atom instead of just single core.

I also prefer HP as a brand.

BTW, I just want to make sure that you are aware that HP has stopped making WHS boxes, and that this is the v1 of WHS. There is now a 2011 version of WHS.

Having said that, this box does everything you need and more, and for me the WHS v1 has proven reliable and has DE which is really nice.

So, yes, I would definately get the HP for the price.
 
Assuming you don't want to build own your little server from individual parts, you're looking at a small NAS device. You're probably looking for a 4+ bay NAS that can fit up to 4 x 3TB drives for future expansion.

You could get a QNAP, Synology, Netgear ReadyNAS, or something similar that's within your budget and drop your drives into it. Downside, is you'll probably have to install empty drives so it can format them and you'll have to configure the drives before you use them. Ideally, you install 4 drives of the same size, ie 4 x 2TB in RAID5 which gives you 6TB of space. most of them allow you to upgrade drives one at a time and then expand the array to make use of newer bigger drives.

As mentioned, you could go with a WHS server like the HP mediasmart series or the Acer Aspire series. You can use your existing drives and don' need the drives to match. You may be able to only need one empty drive to dump stuff to and then you could reuse the other drive. with Drive Extender, you can select the folder to duplicate and have a 2nd copy of your data on multiple drives. Plus WHS gives you bare metal backups of your windows computers... Great for XP machines... There's a lot of community support, but WHS is outdated and being replaced with the next version of WHS which is just coming out.

you could look at a used WHS server on the forums to save on cost... I'm sure some people are looking to sell their old versions to upgrade to the new versions... I know I am...
 
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