new rig, NAS and home networking help needed !!!

[v1hypersg]

hi,

currently, my home is physically wired from living room, to guest room, masterbedroom and study, which means they have ethernet connection terminal available,

I have a mac mini in the living room connected to tv for watching movies,

in the study, there is a desktop which has a big housing and placed on the ground and always very dusty,

last friday, my computer was "hanged" and i cannot boot into windows,

upon power up, it shows the windows logo but never boot into windows,

I tried to use the windows installation disk to try to re-install the OS but it went to setup and then took forever and never continue,

as the desktop is quite old, I want to get a new PC, also thinking of getting a NAS,

for the new desktop, i like to get a smaller housing which can put on the table with my NAS.

basically for the desktop,

housing, cpu, motherboard, graphics card, ram, ssd for OS and 2x HDD for files, double DVD writter or 1 BD writter,

do i need to get a network card with additional ports for connecting to NAS ?

I am getting the NAS for it to download BT and then i can turn off my desktop

previously, desktop is on 24/7 for downloading BTs,

for NAS, is a 4 bay unit enough for BT downloading and files backup ?

how can i configure the above.

new desktop, NAS and watch movies in the living room ?

previously, i need to move the HDD from mac mini to study to copy the files from desktop to mac mini and then watch it,

but with NAS, can i just access the files from NAS and watch it directly from the NAS ?

can some one share with me how it can be done ?

 

[ronnie_gogs]

You have not specified what you use your desktop for so I cant really recommend anything but I would recommend a Mini ITX build as the hardware is becoming quite powerful in small form factor. Saves a lot on space and can be tucked in without compromising performance.

Since you mentioned ethernet in all rooms. Do you have a switch which handles all the network connections.

I recently got a QNAP TS-563. 5 bay. Bizgram quoted me cash 834 for the same. I upgraded the ram to 16gb and have 5 2 TB HDD installed on it. BT is download and I watch it on my TV direct via chromecast using plex. All wireless. The NAS is connected to the network via LAN.

If you get a motherboard with 2 NIC ethernet ports. You can do LACP but you will need a switch with link aggregation. As most NAS can benefit with LACP.

 

[v1hypersg]

I was thinking to setup something like the below links,

http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=299&t=4216391

http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=299&t=4146170


but can anyone advise which shop in sim lim have such casings ?

also i like to install 2x BDF writer, 1xssd and 1xhdd,

can such small casing fit those ?


about the NAS,

can anyone advise the following :

thinking to get a 4 bay, 1 x bay for BT dowloading, then transfer to another hdd for backup,

as initial costs is high, if i buy the NAS and just get 2 HDD, then in future i want to add another 2, is the transfer of harddisk information to another 2 new hdd, will take a long time ?

do i need a synology NAS with high end specs or just entry level is enough ?

was thinking to get the 1515 or 416 as they are the 2 most expensive models,

also do i need to upgrade the ram or can i upgrade the ram to beef up the performance of the NAS ?

sorry for so many questions as i am a newbie,

can any expert share some views,

thanks

 

[yusoffb01]

Ecs itx also makes a good nas. Has 4 sata ports. $95

 

[beemer]

hi,

currently, my home is physically wired from living room, to guest room, masterbedroom and study, which means they have ethernet connection terminal available,

I have a mac mini in the living room connected to tv for watching movies,

in the study, there is a desktop which has a big housing and placed on the ground and always very dusty,

last friday, my computer was "hanged" and i cannot boot into windows,

upon power up, it shows the windows logo but never boot into windows,

I tried to use the windows installation disk to try to re-install the OS but it went to setup and then took forever and never continue,

as the desktop is quite old, I want to get a new PC, also thinking of getting a NAS,

for the new desktop, i like to get a smaller housing which can put on the table with my NAS.

basically for the desktop,

housing, cpu, motherboard, graphics card, ram, ssd for OS and 2x HDD for files, double DVD writter or 1 BD writter,

do i need to get a network card with additional ports for connecting to NAS ?

I am getting the NAS for it to download BT and then i can turn off my desktop

previously, desktop is on 24/7 for downloading BTs,

for NAS, is a 4 bay unit enough for BT downloading and files backup ?

how can i configure the above.

new desktop, NAS and watch movies in the living room ?

previously, i need to move the HDD from mac mini to study to copy the files from desktop to mac mini and then watch it,

but with NAS, can i just access the files from NAS and watch it directly from the NAS ?

can some one share with me how it can be done ?

err..
maybe you should tell us what your main usage for your desktop? so the lao jiaos can properly reco you the parts..

for nas, if you dont have alot stuff to store.. i would rather stick to that mac mini. just install mac server and setup ftp in it. it will be more or less the same as a nas

 

[kandinsky]

previously, i need to move the HDD from mac mini to study to copy the files from desktop to mac mini and then watch it,

but with NAS, can i just access the files from NAS and watch it directly from the NAS ?

can some one share with me how it can be done ?

Actually you don't even need a NAS to do this.

You just need to download something like Plex. E.g., Using Plex, your main comp can become a Plex media server. Any of the other devices/coms on the same network with Plex installed will be able to access media on any HDD attached to your main comp as long as it is on.

https://plex.tv/

Plex is a centralized home media playback system with a powerful central server–the Plex Media Server–that streams its media to many Plex player apps. The server is available on many platforms like Windows, OS X, and many flavors of Linux, as well as many NAS devices like ReadyNAS or Synology. You use an app to view your media library and watch shows. Apps are available for PCs, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, game consoles, streaming devices, many Smart TVs, and more!

 

[v1hypersg]

just to surf internet and look for latest movies or other stuff to download via bt

err..
maybe you should tell us what your main usage for your desktop? so the lao jiaos can properly reco you the parts..

for nas, if you dont have alot stuff to store.. i would rather stick to that mac mini. just install mac server and setup ftp in it. it will be more or less the same as a nas

 

[putakti]

Don't buy NAS, get an external hd from Orico and hard drives.

http://orico.cc/goods.php?id=4817

If your Mac Mini has Usb 3.0 port then you are good rather than buying under powered NAS. Remember, your Mac mini is already powerful and can put Plex on it or even Kodi.

 

[v1hypersg]

but the mac mini have to be on during downloading of bt, right ?

I don't want to leave my pc or mac mini on 24/7

thinking of letting the nas do the job with lower power consumption

Don't buy NAS, get an external hd from Orico and hard drives.

http://orico.cc/goods.php?id=4817

If your Mac Mini has Usb 3.0 port then you are good rather than buying under powered NAS. Remember, your Mac mini is already powerful and can put Plex on it or even Kodi.

 

[kandinsky]

but the mac mini have to be on during downloading of bt, right ?

I don't want to leave my pc or mac mini on 24/7

thinking of letting the nas do the job with lower power consumption

Can consider getting a cheap watt meter, check the actual consumption of your mac mini. Not sure how resource intensive BT-ing is, but have read some estimates of 9-14W idle, and 15-30W for low load? Something like the DS1515 also draws 18-30W according to the specs? I'm not too sure, just a thought Maybe the NAS pros can weigh in on actual usage.

Of course, if you want a NAS, just get one , just that power consumption may not be a key benefit.

 

[putakti]

but the mac mini have to be on during downloading of bt, right ?

I don't want to leave my pc or mac mini on 24/7

thinking of letting the nas do the job with lower power consumption

Actually you are fortunate to get a mac mini, don't mind about the power consumption of mac mini because it was built to run 24/7. If you will read some forum about building media center at home, they prefer getting an old mac mini specifically 2012 models because it has usb 3.0 and modular setup where you can upgrade ram and storage.

Having NAS sounds cool but it actually beat the purpose since you only need is a storage. You also need to consider that you need to upgrade your router to have at least gigabit ethernet for local file transfer. In addition, Mac mini has it's own file sharing feature where you only need to do it tick the checkbox.