# NAS that won't break the bank



## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

I'm looking for an nas with 1 to 2 TB of storage that wont break the bank. Budget is $250-300. Any ideas on a good solution? Experience using the product would be nice to hear about, as it will be networked with both XP and Windows 7 machines, and wireless is not necessary.


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

Netgear ReadyNas comes to mind at that price range, I used an early version of the 2bay ready nas on a yacht install a few years ago and it was fast enough for 4 separate appletv's to stream movies off of and was decently reliable as long as you can provide stable power to it. With built in iTunes and DNLA servers there are a bunch of options available.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Been looking at computer supply sites, now I can't decide if I want a NAS or if I want to hook a usb or esata HD to my htpc and use that as the server........


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## naeblis11 (Jan 27, 2010)

I built myself a freenas box using old computer parts. The only cost I had was the cost of the 2TB drives and a raid controller. I use it for file storage as well as streaming video to my PS3.

It has been running for 6+ months with no problems. More info at freenas dot org.

It does take some time to learn how to set up, but it is worth it.


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

I have used a media server for quite a long time, in fact my server is also my main playback device. However if I was starting out now I would definitely go true NAS and small playback devices, maybe even media streamers like the WD Live TV or one of the new googletv boxes. The amount of power my server/htpc sucks up is much larger than it needs to be for the functions it really does. When/If I have a component failure it will be time for a re-build and most likely going to NAS for the benefit of having smaller / cooler running equipment. I can't complain as I have had a solid 5-6 years off the same main server with small upgrades. The 6TB is pretty full now anyways...


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

The htpc I'm considering building uses this case, and this motherboard. Add ram and a cheap laptop hard drive, and it should be ready to run. That's why I was thinking of adding a esata external hard drive to also use it as a server, and maybe later on add a BDROM.


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## hakunatata (Aug 20, 2010)

that is the same thing I was hoping to do. So far the only drawback was that the HTPC uses more power than the NAS and would raise your electric bills.


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## hakunatata (Aug 20, 2010)

nholmes1 said:


> I have used a media server for quite a long time, in fact my server is also my main playback device. However if I was starting out now I would definitely go true NAS and small playback devices, maybe even media streamers like the WD Live TV or one of the new googletv boxes. The amount of power my server/htpc sucks up is much larger than it needs to be for the functions it really does. When/If I have a component failure it will be time for a re-build and most likely going to NAS for the benefit of having smaller / cooler running equipment. I can't complain as I have had a solid 5-6 years off the same main server with small upgrades. The 6TB is pretty full now anyways...


what computer are you using for your media server and do you think the electric bills are really that much higher? do you think that you would have playback issues streaming HD using a NAS with a smaller processor?


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

Its a bit old in the tooth now but works well enough, its an AMD Opteron 165 dual core cpu with 2gb of ram and a 8600gt I believe and the popular sound card from via about 3-4 years ago. It is in need of an upgrade but works for playback of blu-ray without issue. 

Is it a huge cost? No but its enough that I wouldnt mind just using a small NAS and smaller htpc to accomplish the task, and streaming is that hard on the NAS, much more tasking on the player for decoding.


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## hakunatata (Aug 20, 2010)

do you know if there is any way to utilize the processing power of the HTPC to help out the player? I guess it would take a special software build on whatever box you were using for playback to connect back to your HTPC and use its processor. I know that Apple has a plug-in that will allow you to use other computers on your network to help render files faster.


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## gorb (Sep 5, 2010)

I have a DNS-323. The unit itself costs about $150, and has 2 drive bays. You can get a 1TB drive for less than $60 or a 2TB drive for double that, so it's easily within budget. I've got no experience using other nas units so I can't compare them, but this one works fine for me.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Well I have Freenas installed on the old htpc tower and got it working for the most part. The only problem is the ps3 only sees 3 out of 30 Video files. Anybody know of a good tutorial for configuring the upnp service?


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## taoggniklat (Mar 30, 2010)

I use the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo forback up files and as a music server for my Squeezebox Duet. I am trying to find a suitable video player to use it with my TV. My Xbox works for now for streaming videos but it is cumbersome and loud.

http://www.readynas.com/?cat=3


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