2015-02-19, 00:45
My current synology nas has 256mb of ram and a single core 1.6ghz processor. So I think a pi with 1gb ram and a quad core cpu will be good enough for most things like serving up media.
2015-02-19, 00:54
Its not so much the memory or the CPU but rather both the drives and networking are running off a single USB port that is connected to a hub/ethernet port. Its an I/O issue.
2015-02-19, 01:03
(2015-02-19, 00:54)poplap Wrote: Its not so much the memory or the CPU but rather both the drives and networking are running off a single USB port that is connected to a hub/ethernet port. Its an I/O issue.
did not know that. does that kill the idea in your mind or is it still worth a try?
also i have seen others are using a pi to host mysql/kodi and stream to other pi/kodi.
is that not similar?
thanks
2015-02-19, 01:36
The shared USB/ethernet doesn't make much difference as USB bandwidth is much greater than Ethernet bandwidth.
Ethernet is limited to 100Mb/s. You won't quite achieve that but with a Pi2 you get close.
You shouldn't have a problem serving a single Blu-Ray quality video (say 50Mbit/s).
You could also stream a few more modest bitrate videos concurrently.
It's up to you whether that is sufficient.
Ethernet is limited to 100Mb/s. You won't quite achieve that but with a Pi2 you get close.
You shouldn't have a problem serving a single Blu-Ray quality video (say 50Mbit/s).
You could also stream a few more modest bitrate videos concurrently.
It's up to you whether that is sufficient.
2015-02-19, 02:11
Like I said I have and still am running this setup and it runs just fine so long as you're not trying to do too much with it and once, and Popcornmix is right.
My post was more to toyanucci and why the Rpi runs slower than his Synology, if the Rpi had a bunch of sata ports as well then it would be less of an issue. Its more of there is only one USB port that has to handle everything at once, both reading/writing to the drive(s) and network activity. That and the ethernet is only 100mb (aren't most synology's gigabit?) which is not a problem for a single Blu Ray stream or multiple SD streams but becomes a bottleneck with anything more.
My post was more to toyanucci and why the Rpi runs slower than his Synology, if the Rpi had a bunch of sata ports as well then it would be less of an issue. Its more of there is only one USB port that has to handle everything at once, both reading/writing to the drive(s) and network activity. That and the ethernet is only 100mb (aren't most synology's gigabit?) which is not a problem for a single Blu Ray stream or multiple SD streams but becomes a bottleneck with anything more.
2015-02-19, 02:39
wow! thanks i think i will give this a try soon and will report how it goes.
thank you again to all who have helped me sort this out.
now all i need is a bit more money.
thanks
thank you again to all who have helped me sort this out.
now all i need is a bit more money.
thanks
2015-02-20, 22:23
I would go for it. Worst case scenario is that you are unhappy with the performance and you upgrade at some point to a slightly more expensive, and more robust system. For 35 bucks it's worth the experiment, and you can use the spare Pi for sooooo many other cool projects.
I rolled my own NAS from a ancient PC I build years ago with an E6300 CPU and whatever spare drives (internal SATA and USB). I use Ubuntu Server 14.04 and do all my file sharing through NFS and uPNP. It's been working great for over a year. I use Deluge and Deluge-web for torrents and FlexGet for managing episode downloads on the same box.
It's just you and your wife, so the I/O bottleneck probably won't be an issue. It's no Synology, but it's also a 10th of the price.
I rolled my own NAS from a ancient PC I build years ago with an E6300 CPU and whatever spare drives (internal SATA and USB). I use Ubuntu Server 14.04 and do all my file sharing through NFS and uPNP. It's been working great for over a year. I use Deluge and Deluge-web for torrents and FlexGet for managing episode downloads on the same box.
It's just you and your wife, so the I/O bottleneck probably won't be an issue. It's no Synology, but it's also a 10th of the price.
2015-02-20, 22:31
thanks for the input.
budget is the biggest issue. that and the learning curve.
this is all new to me but it is fun to learn.
thanks for the encouragement.
budget is the biggest issue. that and the learning curve.
this is all new to me but it is fun to learn.
thanks for the encouragement.
2015-02-20, 22:39
I think as long as you learn it is worth a try. It is not like the Pi 2 can't do something else if it doesn't work.
My fanless 775 rig was a huge failure. Huge. But I learned a lot, and from those pieces I built a NAS.
It is all good.
My fanless 775 rig was a huge failure. Huge. But I learned a lot, and from those pieces I built a NAS.
It is all good.
2015-05-31, 00:26
Hi, I have been running an identical system for the past few years, & finally hooked my Kodi box into it a few months ago. It runs perfectly, takes next to no power & gets used 24_by_7...
I have an old Raspberry Pi B (that's the one with 512Mb of RAM, which I bought a couple of years ago). It has a standard version of Raspbian on it & runs Transmission (to download my Torrent files), PyLoad (to cover my other downloads), Samba (to give me Windows network shares) & NFS (to give me Linux network shares) & is plugged into a 1Gb USB disk via a powered USB hub (which I also use to power the Pi itself) acting as my NAS (it has no keyboard, mouse or monitor). I have another old Raspberry Pi (with 256Mb of RAM, which I bought the day they were first released for sale) which now runs XBMC Kodi & is plugged into the TV as my media server (no keyboard, but a remote via a FLIRC dongle). Everything is plugged into a wired network (based on TP-Link PowerLine tech, as it is soooo much easier than running Ethernet cables around the house), which connects them to my router & Broadband. I have yet another Raspberry Pi, but this time a modern, version 2 one (with 1Gb of RAM) that I use as my main, day-to-day, workstation. Both the XBMC Kodi Pi & my Workstation Pi have network shares permanently mounted from the NAS Pi, & all of my MP3 music collection & Movie collection sits on the USB disk that forms the heart of my NAS & play very, very happily on my XBMC Kodi Pi or my Workstation Pi. I save myself between 300 to 500 Kw/Hrs per year of electricity, & if I do need to do something that requires more oomph, I can always power up the 'normal' pc that I keep for that very purpose.
I really haven't noticed any IO bottlenecks or had any problems, so my advice is to go for it, as the Raspberry Pi is definitely up to the task :-)
I have an old Raspberry Pi B (that's the one with 512Mb of RAM, which I bought a couple of years ago). It has a standard version of Raspbian on it & runs Transmission (to download my Torrent files), PyLoad (to cover my other downloads), Samba (to give me Windows network shares) & NFS (to give me Linux network shares) & is plugged into a 1Gb USB disk via a powered USB hub (which I also use to power the Pi itself) acting as my NAS (it has no keyboard, mouse or monitor). I have another old Raspberry Pi (with 256Mb of RAM, which I bought the day they were first released for sale) which now runs XBMC Kodi & is plugged into the TV as my media server (no keyboard, but a remote via a FLIRC dongle). Everything is plugged into a wired network (based on TP-Link PowerLine tech, as it is soooo much easier than running Ethernet cables around the house), which connects them to my router & Broadband. I have yet another Raspberry Pi, but this time a modern, version 2 one (with 1Gb of RAM) that I use as my main, day-to-day, workstation. Both the XBMC Kodi Pi & my Workstation Pi have network shares permanently mounted from the NAS Pi, & all of my MP3 music collection & Movie collection sits on the USB disk that forms the heart of my NAS & play very, very happily on my XBMC Kodi Pi or my Workstation Pi. I save myself between 300 to 500 Kw/Hrs per year of electricity, & if I do need to do something that requires more oomph, I can always power up the 'normal' pc that I keep for that very purpose.
I really haven't noticed any IO bottlenecks or had any problems, so my advice is to go for it, as the Raspberry Pi is definitely up to the task :-)
