[YoHoJo]

New here (obsessionally) and I'm totally LOVING all of the different information, people, pics, advice, and builds all around it's great!

So I'm planning to build my very first HTPC, here is just what I have locked in so far, still looking at/researching other parts, I'll probably make another thread for build ideas/help later:
http://i.imgur.com/cvmzl.png

Anyways here is a little about how I (right now at least) plan to use my HTPC.

Well I stream a lot of stuff (720p MAX, but often times just DVD quality) from sites like IceFilms and 1Channel.
I also plan to download TV shows/Movies in 720p or 1080p to my main computer, and UPnP them to the HTPC.
I might even get a netflix/hulu/something legit :p subscription and stream things on it.

What I normally do is, if it's a movie, I download it, watch it, enjoy it, and often times delete it soon afterwords.
For TV shows I pretty much do the same, download a season/chunk of episodes, watch, delete.

TL;DR
My question is what exactly is a NAS/unRAID?
It seems to me they are essentially large storage devices for storing tons and tons of TBs of media for those who like to have all of the content on hand and ready right away to watch whenever ? Which is not my case AT ALL (I just download, watch, delete), so would there be any point/benefit for me buying/building one?


Thanks,
YoHoJo

[aptalca]

unraid is a custom OS built upon a linux slackware distribution. it runs off of a flash drive, and makes it very easy to build a network storage device that can be expandable up to 22 drives. it also uses a parity drive, so if one of your drives dies, you can replace it with another and it will rebuild the data using the parity, so it gives you some protection for your data (pictures, etc.)

[YoHoJo]

Okay so thy definatelt sounds like something that I won't be interested in ad I don't plan to store tons of media for an extended period of time, just watch and delete afterwords, so probably a few TB in te htpc itself should be plenty.

Any more insight please?

[lrusak]

Okay so thy definatelt sounds like something that I won't be interested in ad I don't plan to store tons of media for an extended period of time, just watch and delete afterwords, so probably a few TB in te htpc itself should be plenty.

Any more insight please?

Throw a 2TB drive in your HTPC and call it a day. Nothing really more to add then that...

[Bstrdsmkr]

The other thing to consider is multiple xbmc installations. I pull all my content to my NAS, then if it gets late I can go to the bedroom and finish watching it there. To recap, there are 3 main reasons to use a NAS:

1. Size of content. The amount of content you have necessitates building a NAS to store it all
2. Shared access. You want to access your content from multiple machines
3. Data protection. The redundancy in most NAS' protects your data so even if you have a hard drive failure, you don't lose any data

[YoHoJo]

So I could just make my ideal htpc now, and in the future if I want a NAS I could do that.
The NAS itself is just something to store the media, not watch it right?

So maybe in later years I'll have multiple areas to watch stuff, in which case a NAS will make more sense.

[Kirky99]

You're on the right track...

Personally, my "NAS" is more than just storage. I always have a PC on in the house. I tunnel in to do things I don't want showing up on the logs here at work. It runs my voice communication software for game nights with my friends, it also does all the downloading and storage of media files, exposes them to the Internet using Orb so I have my media on the go. I was using it for printing from my mobile devices, etc.

In terms of media, though, it also allows me to have small, low power clients at each TV and not have all that noise/heat where it's not necessary.

There are many many reasons to do with a NAS type device, but the big three mentioned up top are are the most common I'm sure.

[Bstrdsmkr]

To expand on Kirky99's advice, I should clarify that those 3 reasons are for a NAS, which is not the same as a home server. NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a function of a home server. To complicate things further, some NAS softwares (such as unRAID) have to option to also implement other home server features, such as installing sabNZBD, torrent clients, home phone pbx's and tons of other stuff.

If you consider the possibilities of not just a NAS, but a full home server, it gets MUCH more useful. Let's say for example one day you're bored at work. Grab your phone, open up MediaDog and trigger your home server to start downloading a torrent of the first season of Andy Griffith. Switch over to the ORB app and start watching it, streamed from your home server straight to your phone. Andy Griffith ran for a while and even watching during the bus ride home you can't finish it all. The bus ride is over and you're right in the middle of a really gripping episode. Walk into the living room, fire up xbmc and pick up right where you left off.

[eskro]

i wouldnt use RIPJAWS as ram,,
heatsinks are too tall and when u'll shop for a CPU cooler,
you'll have problems,,,

[YoHoJo]

Thanks for all the NAS info everyone! Learned a lot.
Also eskro, thank you, I was actually going to switch them out for something else/a bit cheaper too.
I have RipJaws in my main comp and yeah the heat-sinks are pretty high!

[eskro]

stick to Kingston HyperX or Corsair XMS3 / VENGENCE

[RAM: (4GB) 2x2GB DDR3 1066 CL7 1.5V] KINGSTON ValueRAM ($22 + $0)
[RAM: (4GB) 2x2GB DDR3 1333 CL9 1.5V] KINGSTON HyperX BLU ($25 + $0)
[RAM: (4GB) 2x2GB DDR3 1600 CL9 1.5V] CORSAIR VENGEANCE ($32 + $0)
[RAM: (4GB) 2x2GB DDR3 1600 CL9 1.5V] CORSAIR XMS3 ($35 + $0)
[RAM: (4GB) 2x2GB DDR3 1866 CL11 1.5V] KINGSTON HyperX GENESIS ($45 + $0)

[YoHoJo]

Why those brands/models specifically?
Low profile and cheap?

[eskro]

rather low profile and stable... we dont like BSOD's LoL