e350/Pogoplug upgrade paths
#1
So I currently have a pink Pogoplug running arch, with 4TBs of external hard drive hanging off it, serving videos over SMB to an e350 Fusion board in a generic Foxconn case.

I've been thinking about upgrading things and need a few recommendations.

I'm thinking of moving the e350 mobo/ram into a nas-style case such as this - This can be bought for £79ish in the UK, and allows me to have the HDDs internal (once I've prised them out of the external drive cases) and probably RAIDed somewhat. Happy for suggestions for other cases too.

I have a budget of about £200 for the change - so this only leaves me with around £120 for the new XBMC box.

My requirements are that this needs to be as silent as possible (no fans even better), include a budget but attractive case as it needs to sit under my TV, and play at least H-SBS 3d with equal or preferably better performance than the e350 which, to be fair, has been pretty damn solid. It also needs to be able to play Bluray.

I realise this is unlikely to be doable for £120 but I can probably bust the budget a little bit. I will have an SSD already to go in the new XBMC box, and I have a bluray drive already, though I would not be averse to purchasing an additional slot-loader outside of the main box budget.

Just looking for some ideas - bit out of touch with which chipsets are good at a reasonable price. and also like to see attractive new cases.
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#2
Recently, I was looking for something similar (fanless NAS/HTPC combo). I came to the conclusion that it just couldn't be done, usually due to the power supply fan or the HDDs needing some minimal active cooling. I ended up moving to a pogoplug running arch linux w/ 2x 3tb hdds, and using hdparm to spin the drives down.

What's wrong with your current setup? Seems like it should be meeting your needs. Do you just want a new case?
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#3
The popoplug seems to throttle my download speed. However as I am actually moving house now where I can only get 20meg on fibre (!) it probably won't be an issue. Just wanted something a bit neater really than 4 separate external drives, and also was thinking about transcoding to play on mobile devices over the web too - if there is anything for linux that does this on the pogoplug's meagre amount of ram please do let me know!

Plus, who doesn't like a shiny new case? Wink

If I could find a four bay usb enclosure for sensible money that could neaten things up, and I guess a new cheap case for the htpc would spruce things up too - any suggestions welcome.
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#4
I highly doubt a pogoplug will be able to handle real-time transcoding...I'm not even sure if your E350 can handle it. And I understand your desire to "clean up" the external drive situation. You might want to check out enclosures by Lian Li, Silverstone, or Fractal Design, they have some attractive HTPC cases that can be made quiet (but not silent) with a couple of well-placed 120mm fans, and can also hold 4 x 3.5" HDDs

Quiet & reliable/functional 4 bay USB enclosures can be difficult to find; IIRC Icy Dock makes one with an adjustable fan but it's pricey.
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#5
Yea the e350 is a fine playback machine but I think you are right.

Back to the drawing board I think.
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