Help me build a DIY NAS Raid Drive/Server

I

Ice2Cool

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Hey guys!

Long story begins:

So I currently have a Drobo 4-bay enclosure which serves 3 purposes:
1) Holds all my backups of my mac
2) Holds all my movies & tv shoes
3) Has redundancy incase a hard drive fails

I currently have it connected to my mac where Plex serves the content from the Drobo to my Apple TV from where i watch all my tv shows and movies.

Because the Drobo does not have an ethernet port, I am forced to have it connected to my mac via usb all the time which annoys me because I would like it to be in a different room where my router is. I have tried connecting the drive to an old netbook which was loaded with ubuntu and contected to the router and share the content of the drive via a Samba share, but this was extremely unstable and my Time Machine backups would not work over a samba share. I then went and bought a router with a usb port on it to share the content, but this was not compatible with the HFS+ file system i had on there and my time machine couldnt back up to it either when I used NTFS.

So anyway, I have looked at off the shelf NAS drives, but because I want to have Plex media server installed on the solution to transcode files for streaming, it needs to have a relatively powerful CPU (I would think at least 2ghz), which off the shelf nas drives do not have.

So this is why I would like to build my own Raid/NAS server type of solution. I would prefer a small solution, such as an HP Proliant N40L, but with a more powerful CPU. I would need space for 4 3.5" drives. Budget is about R4000 excluding the drives.

What would you chose?! And what OS would you use? I was thinking of FreeNAS or unRAID or something that supports Plex.
 
Yea most people use the microserver, you really don't need anything more!

Mine serves 3 media players, runs sickbeard, SABDnzb, YAMJ to update my media library, flex raid as a software raid solution. Does this without a hitch.

Otherwise I can't give you any advice!
 
I'm using Ubuntu software RAID 5 over 4x 2TB drives with my HP Microserver N36L and it works very well.
The only thing that I don't like about the software RAID 5 is that my write speed is limited to 20MB/s. My read speeds are in excess of 100MB/s.

Secondly, why do you want to transcode files for streaming? You might even be able to use graphics cards (eg. Nvidia 520) to do the transcoding for you. I know that many people use it to do the media decoding with their HP Microservers.
 
Were currently using freeNAS and its working well. Takes a tiny while to work out how it all fits together but once you've got that it just sits in the background and works.
 
ponder said:
Why do you need a more powerful cpu?
Click to expand...

From what I have read on the Plex forums, people with the HP N40L had issues with transcoding, especially with HD video. I obviously cannot confirm this, but thought that a higher end cpu would be better. And in any case, I have budget for a higher end system than an N40L so it doesnt bother me.
 
Freaksta said:
Yea most people use the microserver, you really don't need anything more!

Mine serves 3 media players, runs sickbeard, SABDnzb, YAMJ to update my media library, flex raid as a software raid solution. Does this without a hitch.

Otherwise I can't give you any advice!
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! What sort of content do you play? I was worried about the cpu maxing out everytime i tried to play video -especially if it was 720p mkv files or the like. My macbook pro tends to start maxing out at times when i play video, hence the reason for wanting something higher end.

Also, i find the drobo slow when transferring files - i thought this was something to do with the CPU speed.
 
Pada said:
I'm using Ubuntu software RAID 5 over 4x 2TB drives with my HP Microserver N36L and it works very well.
The only thing that I don't like about the software RAID 5 is that my write speed is limited to 20MB/s. My read speeds are in excess of 100MB/s.

Secondly, why do you want to transcode files for streaming? You might even be able to use graphics cards (eg. Nvidia 520) to do the transcoding for you. I know that many people use it to do the media decoding with their HP Microservers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Is the N40L better/newer than the N36L?

I read somewhere on the Plex forums about graphics card transcoding not being supported. I am not 100% sure about this but will investigate. Do you use your N36L for video streaming? Do you have any problems?
 
Oh and also - I want to have plex installed on the solution so that it runs independantly. I dont want to have to have my mac switched on all the time just so my apple tv can stream video.

Ideally, the solution should have plex media server installed on it and serve the content throughout the house to whoever has an apple tv.
 
Sorry for the necro.

I've inherited a Xserver (I suspect it is a 2010 model). Yes, a Mac server. I'm contemplating what to do with it. However, I need to set it up somewhere in my study. I was thinking of installing a floating rack in the study, about eye height and then taking the cables to the switch via the roof via conduits. Can anyone suggest rack that can hold a Xserver + some network tools, that I can bolt against the wall? Also, anyone know of where I can buy conduits that are more house friendly, not the stuff being used in offices (SO would not approve)?
 
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