2011-02-16, 10:03
Advice on Hard Drives and SSDs
First of all I often advise people to use SSDs as their OS drive because they cut boot times, heat, and they make the interface snappier in some cases due to faster access to fanart and the database if you host them on the client. Any SSD 8GB and larger will work for XBMC Live and any 30GB model will work for Windows 7. Intel is the best brand overall.
As far as hard drives go, I think any hard drive less than 2TB is a waste. When you figure out the slot costs and compare that to the small price difference between 1, 1.5 and 2TB drives it is obvious that 2TB drives the only value worth pursuing. High Def data takes up a LOT of space, even single 2TB drives are nothing.
In the issue of local storage vs a NAS, I ALWAYS think a NAS-type device is better. HTPCs + NAS combo machines are a cheaper option at first, but the combined heat of 1080p playing GPUs and the working HDs means that either the box will be loud with fans, or you will be killing hard drives (unless they are all WD Greens). Benefits of pure NASes include being able to use NAS specific OSes with special features (more on that later), the ability to easily have multiple clients, and the ability for your NAS to do other things for you in some cases.
If you must put storage space inside your HTPC, the only drives I recommend are WD Green drives. They are the only drives on the market that stay cool enough that I feel safe recommending them in HTPCs. Try to limit it to about three or so though.
Which brings me to NASes. There are two paths on this: build or buy. Buying gives you an easier path with more support and possible power savings, building gives you more customization and lower per slot costs. If you are gonna buy, here are my recommendations:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822107034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product
As far as building a NAS goes there are many different methods. Many people use older hardware they have laying around, some build from scratch. The four most common custom NAS OS options are Linux software RAID 5/6 (Ubuntu), FreeNAS (ZFS), Windows Home Server, and Unraid. The latter two are pay for software, the first two are free. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For lots of good into on most look here.
My favorite option, and the only one I use, is Unraid (note I have nothing to do with those who run Unraid other than I like the software). You have to pay money for this software, but I think its very much worth it because its the only NAS software on the market which is pretty much designed for mediaservers.
Advantages of Unraid
-Allows you to mix and match drives of different sizes and makes into a single "User Share" of pooled storage (one big folder across drives)
-Allows you to pull the drives of the array out and read the data on them on another computer
-Allows drives to spin down if they are not being accessed, saving power and possible prolonging their life
-Unraid allows for the growing of the array in size by replacing one drive at a time with full use of that drive after addition and no data loss
-Unraid is easy to install, runs off a pen drive to save sata ports for data, and is configured by and easy to use web interface
Downsides:
-Unraid costs money for real versions
-Unraid's write speeds are pretty low without a cache drive
-Unraid's read speeds are slightly lower than the drives by themselves, but still more than fast enough for media
-Unraid is a dedicated NAS OS, meaning that it can't easily do other server stuff for you
In the end Unraid gives you a media server that is grown periodically as storage is needed, one cheapest disk available at a time, yet it can easily stream mutliple HD movies to multiple (I have tested up to 5) clients on your network. Here is a recommended Unraid build:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...ght=unraid
As far as what hard drives to buy, I have tried almost all consumer 2TB drives and here is my order of preference:
1. Seagate 7200RPM HDs - super fast but expensive
2. Hitachi 7200RPM HDs - cheaper than Seagate but nearly as fast, they run hotter than green drives though
3. Western Digital Green HDs - NOT for RAID or ZFS, but great for Unraid as they are fast enough and they are the coolest drives
4. Hitachi 5950RPM HDs - these might move up list as I use it more
5. Seagate 5900 RPM drives- if you are willing to make sure the one you buy has new firmware they are great
Not recommended drives:
1. Samsung drives (especially F4s) - they have data loss issues and updates that you can't confirm
Finally on external drives, I like WDs the most because WD Greens are inside them often and those are great drives. Please note though that USB2 lacks the speeds needed for full Blu Ray rips.
First of all I often advise people to use SSDs as their OS drive because they cut boot times, heat, and they make the interface snappier in some cases due to faster access to fanart and the database if you host them on the client. Any SSD 8GB and larger will work for XBMC Live and any 30GB model will work for Windows 7. Intel is the best brand overall.
As far as hard drives go, I think any hard drive less than 2TB is a waste. When you figure out the slot costs and compare that to the small price difference between 1, 1.5 and 2TB drives it is obvious that 2TB drives the only value worth pursuing. High Def data takes up a LOT of space, even single 2TB drives are nothing.
In the issue of local storage vs a NAS, I ALWAYS think a NAS-type device is better. HTPCs + NAS combo machines are a cheaper option at first, but the combined heat of 1080p playing GPUs and the working HDs means that either the box will be loud with fans, or you will be killing hard drives (unless they are all WD Greens). Benefits of pure NASes include being able to use NAS specific OSes with special features (more on that later), the ability to easily have multiple clients, and the ability for your NAS to do other things for you in some cases.
If you must put storage space inside your HTPC, the only drives I recommend are WD Green drives. They are the only drives on the market that stay cool enough that I feel safe recommending them in HTPCs. Try to limit it to about three or so though.
Which brings me to NASes. There are two paths on this: build or buy. Buying gives you an easier path with more support and possible power savings, building gives you more customization and lower per slot costs. If you are gonna buy, here are my recommendations:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822107034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product
As far as building a NAS goes there are many different methods. Many people use older hardware they have laying around, some build from scratch. The four most common custom NAS OS options are Linux software RAID 5/6 (Ubuntu), FreeNAS (ZFS), Windows Home Server, and Unraid. The latter two are pay for software, the first two are free. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For lots of good into on most look here.
My favorite option, and the only one I use, is Unraid (note I have nothing to do with those who run Unraid other than I like the software). You have to pay money for this software, but I think its very much worth it because its the only NAS software on the market which is pretty much designed for mediaservers.
Advantages of Unraid
-Allows you to mix and match drives of different sizes and makes into a single "User Share" of pooled storage (one big folder across drives)
-Allows you to pull the drives of the array out and read the data on them on another computer
-Allows drives to spin down if they are not being accessed, saving power and possible prolonging their life
-Unraid allows for the growing of the array in size by replacing one drive at a time with full use of that drive after addition and no data loss
-Unraid is easy to install, runs off a pen drive to save sata ports for data, and is configured by and easy to use web interface
Downsides:
-Unraid costs money for real versions
-Unraid's write speeds are pretty low without a cache drive
-Unraid's read speeds are slightly lower than the drives by themselves, but still more than fast enough for media
-Unraid is a dedicated NAS OS, meaning that it can't easily do other server stuff for you
In the end Unraid gives you a media server that is grown periodically as storage is needed, one cheapest disk available at a time, yet it can easily stream mutliple HD movies to multiple (I have tested up to 5) clients on your network. Here is a recommended Unraid build:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...ght=unraid
As far as what hard drives to buy, I have tried almost all consumer 2TB drives and here is my order of preference:
1. Seagate 7200RPM HDs - super fast but expensive
2. Hitachi 7200RPM HDs - cheaper than Seagate but nearly as fast, they run hotter than green drives though
3. Western Digital Green HDs - NOT for RAID or ZFS, but great for Unraid as they are fast enough and they are the coolest drives
4. Hitachi 5950RPM HDs - these might move up list as I use it more
5. Seagate 5900 RPM drives- if you are willing to make sure the one you buy has new firmware they are great
Not recommended drives:
1. Samsung drives (especially F4s) - they have data loss issues and updates that you can't confirm
Finally on external drives, I like WDs the most because WD Greens are inside them often and those are great drives. Please note though that USB2 lacks the speeds needed for full Blu Ray rips.
