NAS & Content Streamer Buying Decision!

After weeks of research and of course, 50,000 PMs to the master, dbone1026, I finally ventured into the foray that is network storage and content streamers.

This thread is so that others may benefit from what I've learned. You may also find my original thread useful "Which NAS should I buy, what should I use to back it up"

First, the NAS I purchased was a Western Digital MyBookLive, 3TB. It is reviewed here for you to see.

1.) I know there is a lot of discussion about what NAS to get. Honestly, it was a tough decision. It seems that a huge consideration is whether you are going to have some data protection by running a raid configuration (presumably RAID 1 or RAID 5)

(Click here to understand RAID). If you don't run a RAID configuration you always have the possibility of (A) losing your data via hard disk failure or (B) having to re-rip your entire video library if that's all your using your NAS for. But if you do decide to go with a RAID configuration, you've just doubled your expenditure on hard drives. Most small NAS that you can buy on a limited budget only come with two bays. That means you could wind up paying $350 to $500 for 1TB to 3TB of total storage space. A lot more than that if you want to touch 4TB and up. Ouch. So I decided, I'd risk it and go with a single drive solution allowing 3TB. I'll backup personal pics, etc. via Crashplan and just re-rip my library if necessary. I got my 3TB unit for much less than $350. Plus, IMHO, 6 and 8TB solutions should come down in price over the next couple years allowing me a clearer upgrade path.

2.) If you think 1 or 2TB is going to cut it, think again. I've been ripping BR ISOs and they range from 13GB to almost 50GB in some cases.

Kingdom of Heaven was about 42GB for the clown_Bd stripped down version. 1TB will go quick.

3.) Check out reviews of your NAS on smallbuilder.net. They have charts showing the various speeds as well as the features of each unit. It's an excellent way to see if the inexpensive Synology unit is going to be as efficient as say a Buffalo (not saying it isn't, just saying the site will give you the information...so don't flame my thread).

For a content streamer, I chose to go with 2 Dune HD Smart B1s. For me, the only real choices were one of the Dune units or the Boxee. The Popcorn just didn't have me from the start. The Boxee, unfortunately, was nearly the same price as the Dune Smart B1 because I would have had to add an extra IR USB adapter because my components are all hidden in an armoire. The Dune, IMHO, is superior to the Boxee if you are matching dollar for dollar.

1.) Reviews - CNET has some reviews as does some other sites. But again, dbone's blog is the place to go:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/. He has pictures of the various players and in depth reviews that most other places can't match. He also uses these players himself on a regular basis (or so I gather based on reading his numerous articles and PMing him).

My experience overall has been absolutely incredible. I'm still amazed by the results. Fortunately, I haven't been overwhelmed at all. I think part of that has to do with how much research and learning I did ahead of time. The other part was your help, most especially your reviews and guides.

I do think it can be rather overwhelming, however, if one just jumped into it without doing the amount of research I did. The hardware was actually the simple part, although I did not have to deal with a RAID setup. The amount of software I had to install made me nervous though. Fortunately, some it I've used before to rip DVDs for my Iphone (for my daughters to watch when we fly someplace) and to make bootable flash ISOs (for BIOS flashing). All together, I've installed Handbrake, PowerDVD Ultra, AnyDVD HD, IMGBRN, Clown_BD, DIVX codecs (to play MKVs on my computer), Slysoft Virtual drive (to mount ISOs for playing in PowerDVD), Western Digital software for setting up the NAS, Zappiti (video jukebox for Dune). All that software makes me nervious especially when its freeware. But, no problems so far.

Once you've got it up and running though...WOW. WOW. My wife will love not having to find and change DVDs for my kids. We'll finally be able to figure out what box sets of old shows we have (Kung Fu, Emergency, Bonanza, Star Trek and the like). And I wont have stacks of movies everywhere still waiting for me to organize in a book someplace. I also have to say that playing them on the Media player is faster than playing on the BD player, especially when you strip out all the extras.

The one thing that I am trying to sort out are the best storage structure for my movies on my NAS (basically how many layers of file folders to have) and making advanced changes to Zappiti (changing icons on the menu screen, etc.) I've found almost no support for that at all.

I'll also say that some of your guides could use an update note. For example, Zappiti fixed "scrap" to "scrape." But thanks again for all your help.

You'll be answering PMs all day everyday now!

A 4 Bay solution runs about $400. IF you went with the least expensive 1TB drives on Newegg, you'd run another $200 for 4x1TB drives. You'll run about $320 for 4x2TB drives. So with that Raid 5 solution you're now running at around $600 for roughly 2-3TB of space or $720 for 6TB as you suggested. And I'd suggest that for a better system with more thoroughput, you'll spend another $200.

So while I really got interested in a Raid 5 setup, it was a bit more than I wanted to invest into something to start out with. I rather like my solution right now, because as I said, I think I can double my storage capacity in a year or two for the same money I'll pay for 6TB today. Plus, by then I'll have a better understanding of what I'm doing and what my network needs are.

I don't want anybody to get discouraged to try a RAID arrangement, but I also don't want people to be afraid to start out with something smaller and simpler.

Most raid configurations that offer data protection use calculations based on the smallest drive. Raid 5 is no different. The capacity of a RAID 5 array is the size of the smallest drive multiplied by one less than the number of drives in the array. In other words if you have three drives you get 2 times the smallest drive (or 2/3). In your example, you'd get 3TB of size (4x1TB -1TB=3TB). That is one of the problems of RAID, but remember you are getting data protection if one of the drives fails. If one of the drives fail in Raid 5, you simply replace it and keep going.

Right, it's not suitable for a backup. The only thing Raid gives you is protection from failure of a single hard-drive.

Yes. Raid data protection usually costs quite a bit more though. I mean at best you have to buy 4 drives to only use three. In other RAID you only get 1/2. Money becomes an issue quickly.