I've been looking at getting a NAS for some time. I've currently got about 500GBs stored on my desk top PC, all in Apple Lossless. I can pick up a Buffalo 1TB NAS for £120.
I currently don't have video stored on computer but Im presuming that may become more common and I'll start doing that eventually. Also, if a some sort of unlimited pay monthly download service starts up with high quality downloads, I would expect that 500GBs to increase rapidly.
That all leads me to thinking that if I do buy a NAS then at some point it will fill up and I'll have to buy another bigger one. Buying a brand name NAS is always an expense.
That got me to thinking about building my own server. I've read round a few forums about it but they're not very 'noob' friendly so Im hoping someone might answer a few basic questions.
I have two old desktops sitting about which I can strip stuff out of. If I use one of those cases, can I use the existing motherboards, RAM etc? Is it then just a matter of adding in new hard drives? Can I add just as many as I can fit?
Do they all have to be the same size? I could start off with one drive then add more as I go along or get say, 3 or 4 500GB drives and as money/price drops allowed I could swap them out for bigger drives, say 1.5 or 2TB. This would mean I could end up with 3 or 4 different sized drives.
I've read up about RAID and it seems to be a lot of hassle. I was thinking that instead I just back up to other hard drives as and when I had added significant amounts of new data to the drive. I could keep these secure somewhere. Again, could I use an older computer, fixed up as a server that I could back up stuff too periodically and then switch off and put away somewhere securely?
Software wise, FREENas appears to be ok and free.
I take it I can use any computer to access the server and transfer files to?
The server can be left on all day and could accessed by any computer on the network to play the tunes or video. I'd be streaming to an Airport Express on the main hi-fi, with a DAC added at some point.
Ton of questions there. If Im way off with anything there let me know.
Also looking forward to getting one of those cases with the illuminated, fan and water cooled psu. It'll be a lovely feature in the living room.
I currently don't have video stored on computer but Im presuming that may become more common and I'll start doing that eventually. Also, if a some sort of unlimited pay monthly download service starts up with high quality downloads, I would expect that 500GBs to increase rapidly.
That all leads me to thinking that if I do buy a NAS then at some point it will fill up and I'll have to buy another bigger one. Buying a brand name NAS is always an expense.
That got me to thinking about building my own server. I've read round a few forums about it but they're not very 'noob' friendly so Im hoping someone might answer a few basic questions.
I have two old desktops sitting about which I can strip stuff out of. If I use one of those cases, can I use the existing motherboards, RAM etc? Is it then just a matter of adding in new hard drives? Can I add just as many as I can fit?
Do they all have to be the same size? I could start off with one drive then add more as I go along or get say, 3 or 4 500GB drives and as money/price drops allowed I could swap them out for bigger drives, say 1.5 or 2TB. This would mean I could end up with 3 or 4 different sized drives.
I've read up about RAID and it seems to be a lot of hassle. I was thinking that instead I just back up to other hard drives as and when I had added significant amounts of new data to the drive. I could keep these secure somewhere. Again, could I use an older computer, fixed up as a server that I could back up stuff too periodically and then switch off and put away somewhere securely?
Software wise, FREENas appears to be ok and free.
I take it I can use any computer to access the server and transfer files to?
The server can be left on all day and could accessed by any computer on the network to play the tunes or video. I'd be streaming to an Airport Express on the main hi-fi, with a DAC added at some point.
Ton of questions there. If Im way off with anything there let me know.
Also looking forward to getting one of those cases with the illuminated, fan and water cooled psu. It'll be a lovely feature in the living room.