I’ve been looking into solutions to store our increasingly insane media collection. Â With the sheer number of pictures and hd movies we’ve made of Max (and no end in sight) as well as our formerly 1000+ cd and lp collection ripped and various iTunes TV Shows and Movies our need for backup and storage is pretty severe.
Criteria:
- At least 1 TB of storage.
- DLNA (and optionally iTunes) streaming
- RAID1 or some other type of data redundancy
- Time Machine compatibility to back up our laptops
- An operating system that will allow the installation of apps, either through a console or graphically.
Options:
Time CapsuleUnfortunately no redundancy.HP MediaSmart Server(too expensive, limited storage options unless you go really expensive- bonus iTunes streaming)Drobo(nice in that it uses as many drives as  you can throw in it, network is an additional cost and slowed down due to USB)- Roll my own– yeah I think that’s it.
Roll Your Own NAS
Many advantages here:
- I can put whatever operating system I want on it- Windows Home Server or some Linux NAS distribution, even XP
- I can install apps I’d like to include, from backup, bittorrent, itunes, streaming tools, or anything else I can think of.
- I choose the hard drive size and I know it will be mirrored.
- I can set up Time Machine backups to it.
- All things considered, its very reasonably priced.
Negatives:
- WHS is by all accounts not great, despite its potential. Â Roll your own NAS tools can be cumbersome to configure and maintain.
- Buying barebones pc hardware almost always results in a return or two before everything works.
- Time Machine is a kludge and certainly not guaranteed by Apple to work.
The Server:
APEX MI-100 Black / Mirror finish Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply:
One of the few Mini-ITX computer cases that are compatible with the Atom based NVIDIA ION platform I want to use. Â Fits two drives and has enough power to drive my equipment. Â $36
ASUS AT3N7A-I Intel Atom 330 (1M Cache, 1.6GHz, Dual-Core) NVIDIA ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
I wanted an Atom and ION combo board so I’d have enough power to drive a few apps and maybe even transcode video if necessary while keeping the power draw low. Â $150
HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive
Eh, its a hard drive. Â I’m buying 2, so that’s $180
CORSAIR 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model VS2GB667D2
It’s RAM. $86
$452 before shipping. Â All things considered that is pretty darn competitive. Â I’m taking donations.