[Travalon]

Hello all,

I have a bunch of bits laying around from past builds and upgrades.
I was just wondering if this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813128536 Motherboard with a C2D E6600 is better for a NAS or XBMC build? I would prefer a mini itx for the XBMC but I would also like to save any $$$ I can. Planning on open elect or free NAS I think.
also looking at 2x2tb drives to start on the nas and add more as needed.

Also what do you think of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157247

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157228

as possible alternates for either build.

Never built a nas or htpc before and have found a LOT of info but not sure what is overkill and what is too slow.
I'm a 7 as far as my want's go for the HTPC and will want to put my 800+ DVD collection on the NAS as well as 100gigs of music at least to start.

I appreciate all input and suggestions

[h0ly lag]

Just to be clear you are building separate machines for your NAS and HTPC correct? For NAS type machines I would take a look at unRaid and FlexRaid as well. If you say you fall into group #7 then you will have to run Windows to be able to use Netflix. Also, your DVD collection will all be regular standard definition after it is ripped. Even with some rather large SD rips, say at roughly 1.4GB per movie. along with your 100GB of music, you're still only looking at about 1.2TB of used space. I don't know how much you plan on expanding into HD content, elaborating a little bit will help. But a NAS is probably not necessary based on the amount of content you plan on having (at the current moment).

For the HTPC, the AMD 350 APU's tend to work ok under OpenElec for 1080p content from what I hear, but under windows the hardware acceleration drivers do not work properly for silverlight, which is what Netflix uses. So Netflix will not work properly, even under windows, with those mobo/cpu combos.

For a cheap HTPC that can do everything you need under group 7, this is very similar to what I am doing. The price of the barebones kit went up to 90, from when I got it when it was only 60 dollars, but it is still a good deal for cheap.

Barebones Kit (Case, mobo, PSU): Foxconn RM2-H2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856119065

CPU: Intel Celeron G530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819116409

SSD or HDD: Samsung 830 Series 64GB
It's up to you. You probably have an extra drive somewhere.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820147133

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820148541

GPU: DIAMOND 6450PE31GSS Radeon HD 6450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814103213

Total cost (before tax and shipping):
Without SSD: $204.96
With SSD: $284.95

[Travalon]

h0ly lag,
Thank you for your response. Yes I am building 2 machines. My tv has netflix built in so silverlight won't be a problem. As far as the machines go, I have several cases to build in as well as a couple of processors laying around. I was thinking for a $60 mobo I could build a good nas with the C2D. however I don't know if the 3 GB SATA's will be fast enough for streaming what I have let alone any HD content I add in the future. Iwas considering going with a RAID 6 setup but RAID may not be necessary.

[Dougie Fresh]

Hello all,

I have a bunch of bits laying around from past builds and upgrades.
I was just wondering if this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813128536 Motherboard with a C2D E6600 is better for a NAS or XBMC build? I would prefer a mini itx for the XBMC but I would also like to save any $$$ I can. Planning on open elect or free NAS I think.
also looking at 2x2tb drives to start on the nas and add more as needed.

I would use that as your HTPC and just stick a good PCI-e card in it like a HD6570 or GT430.

Also what do you think of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157247

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157228

as possible alternates for either build.

If you're just going to be serving files look at this motherboard with 6 SATA ports. I have the E35M1-I in my NAS and it's great.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131843

Never built a nas or htpc before and have found a LOT of info but not sure what is overkill and what is too slow.
I'm a 7 as far as my want's go for the HTPC and will want to put my 800+ DVD collection on the NAS as well as 100gigs of music at least to start.

I appreciate all input and suggestions

[h0ly lag]

The NAS isn't going to use much CPU as long as your're not transcoding, and the HTPC isn't going to use much CPU either because it's going to get offloaded to the GPU. SATA2 ports are plenty fast enough for spinning disk hard drives. I wouldn't worry about it. I would look into some of the software RAID solutions commonly used around here. unRaid and FlexRaid are both nice.

With that being said, Dougie has some solid advice. I've good things about the ASUS C60M1-I being used for NAS's. That might be your cheapest solution to getting both up and running.

Also, 3TB drives are getting cheaper and cheaper more recently. I think it's because they are dumping all of them in preparation of selling more 4TB drives. Also there is a rumor that 5TB drives are coming in 2013 from Western Digital.

[Travalon]

Using the C2D as the nas and the i3 as XBMC thks. It really came down to the cases I had and the size of the MOBOs. The i3 will also be a portable lapdesk(Laptop witn on battery) if needed.