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my questionhere is my question. i currently have 3 2 tb hard drives in a nas external enclosure. they are full of videos and such. i want to take these three hard drives and turn them into a htpc or a media server that i can attach to my tv so i can watch the videos. what would be the best way to go about doing this? i really don't have a a budget yet but this is something i want to do in the next couple of months. |
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Since your NAS is a stand alone product there are a couple of ways you can go with this. All you really need is something to connect to the TV and access your NAS. A HTPC will serve this need or maybe something like a popcorn Hour,....
Budget and type of media would be helpful for better detail also gigabit Ethernet would be advisable,.... |
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it's actually an external nas case with 3 2tb hard drives inside. i can easily take out the drives to put in a new build. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
Kilroy
MVM
2013-Dec-18 9:18 am
Why bother? Pulling the drives out of the NAS may require them to be reformatted in another machine. It would be easier to connect to the NAS as Octavean suggested. That is how I have my computers configured. My main machine hosts my video and music collection and the directories are shared out to allow my other machine to access the content. I also have a couple of NAS devices, but haven't hooked them back up since I moved in August. |
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this is the external case i have: » www.amazon.com/gp/produc ··· F8&psc=1it's not a nas like i thought but just an external hd case. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
Kilroy
MVM
2013-Dec-18 9:24 am
Does your router support connecting a USB drive to it? Looks pretty cool, might pick one picked one (it was on sale ) up to toss all of the 2TB drives I've pulled out of my machine. |
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no it doesn't. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
to nikmagid
I guess your real issue is what to connect to your television. Do you have anything currently connected that might work for this? |
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to nikmagid
Ahhh,
.. I see,
.. I have two Mediasonic ProBox 4 Bay units and ultimately I dont think they are that bad. One is USB 3.0 / eSATA and the other is a little older USB 2.0 / eSATA. I am aware of their quirks and can work around them for the most part. Since I am using them both with an aging HP EX490 MediaSmart Server (eSATA with port multiplayer and USB 2.0) my preferred connection method is eSATA. However, both units eventually had problems on eSATA so Id have to say they are somewhat unreliable on eSATA. The USB option seems fairly solid for both though. I have three of these units: VANTEC NexStar HX4R NST-640S3R-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black USB3.0 & eSATA Quad Bay RAID HDD Enclosure Actually only one is a Vantec NexStar the other two are iView models but they are basically the same: IVIEW HFR2-SU3 RAID 0/1/3/5/10, JBOD, CLONE, Normal 4 3.5" Drive Bays USB 3.0 / eSATA 4-Bay HDD RAID EnclosureI bought them all on sale at different times ranging in price from about ~$40 to ~$99. They seem fairly solid so far but I havent had them in service as long as the MediaSonic ProBox units. So when more storage is needed, I use these external eSATA / USB enclosures in conjunction with a server. The servers are accessed via dedicated Media Center systems (HTPC with 1TB local storage) connected to TVs. Other computer systems / devices can access the servers as well such as a PS3, Xbox 360 laptop, tablet and so on. You just need something that can connect to your TV and access the storage either directly via eSATA / USB or over your network (which would require network connectivity for the external enclosure as well). |
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i think i am just going to take the hd's out of the case and make a media server pc that i can connect to the tv using an hdmi cable. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
Kilroy
MVM
2013-Dec-19 10:13 am
Mine won't be here until tomorrow, so I won't know until this weekend how well this will work. I'd suggest building the media server and leaving this intact. Not using an existing hard drive will cost you $50 to $100 in your build. |
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i still have time. this is for a future project that i wanted to do. i also have a couple of 1tb hard drives lying around that i can use for the operating system. |
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to nikmagid
Since you seem set on the HTPC option, your first decision would be whether you want all of your drives inside it, or if you want to continue using the NAS box. Personally, I prefer a very small HTPC at the TV, with the storage sitting somewhere else on the network. You'll need a much larger case to hold 4 hard drives (boot + the 3 storage), and I strongly encourage good drive cooling in it.
Something like a WD Live would get the job done, if you can connect the NAS somewhere else on the network. I am not sure how it would handle the NAS box being directly connected to the USB ports. It might work, but I have never tried.
Or for an actual HTPC, I use the little FoxConn nano-PCs. But they only hold a single laptop drive. I usually use an SSD inside, load XBMC on it, then pull media over the network. Micro ATX and ITX cases usually don't hold 4 drives, so you would need to go all the way to a mini-ATX, if not larger. |
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Camelot One |
to nikmagid
The price interests me. I haven't seen a 4 drive box that cheap. How do you like it? I have a file server box that has run out of internal SATA ports, but plenty of extra drives I could toss into something so cheap. |
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to Camelot One
size is not an issue for me. i am fine with a case that holds all the drives in it. |
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nikmagid |
to Camelot One
it's ok. i have it connected via usb and it's fine. the only problem is it shuts down when not in use so you have to turn it on again if you want to use it. |
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said by nikmagid:the only problem is it shuts down when not in use so you have to turn it on again if you want to use it. That absolutely wouldn't work for me. Do you know if that is an issue only on USB, or does it do the same with eSATA? |
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i think it has to do with the settings but i haven't fiddled around with it yet. |
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Here is a place to start on the case search: » www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 1&name=8I limited it to only cases that support 4+ internal 3.5" drives. I've used the nMediaPC brand before. They have a great price point, but they tend to be a little noisier, even with quiet fans. Silverstones are nice, but you pay for it. Antec used to have a really nice looking case that almost perfectly matched my Onkyo receiver, but I don't remember if it held 4+ drives. And I don't see it for sale anymore. As for the other hardware, it doesn't take just a whole lot of CPU power, provided you have the right video chip. Some of my Foxconns are old AMD e-350s, but all of the decoding work is done by the ATI video chip. They handle everything up to 1080p mkv without any trouble, when using XBMC, or even Media Center, though the latter requires some tweaking of the decoder settings. Shark007s codec packs make that easy. They do get a little choppy with netflix though, since that setup puts more priority on the CPU. I haven't tried any of the low powered Intel lately. I had a Zotac with the SU2300, but the video in it couldn't handle 1080p. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
to Camelot One
I picked up a SYBA SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express x1 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card to install in my machine. Then tossed in three TOSHIBA PH3300U-1I72 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives and a 2TB drive that was pulled from a previousl 3TB upgrade. Rocking a dozen drives in my main rig, also the home media server, for about 29TB of total storage. |
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to Camelot One
said by Camelot One:said by nikmagid:the only problem is it shuts down when not in use so you have to turn it on again if you want to use it. That absolutely wouldn't work for me. Do you know if that is an issue only on USB, or does it do the same with eSATA? said by nikmagid:i think it has to do with the settings but i haven't fiddled around with it yet. As I have said earlier in the thread I have two Mediasonic ProBox 4 Bay units. They have some oddities / eccentricities but have basically been solid for me. There are setings to have the Mediasonic ProBox shut down with its connected host system but I found this setting inconvenient and unreliable. You can bypass this and have the Mediasonic ProBox always on. The sync button on the front controls this option. Over time the eSATA port seems to fail leaving USB as the only connection option. This happened to both of my Mediasonic ProBox units while no longer under warranty. Another small oddity is that the power connection to the unit is on the side which is a little unorthodox and can cause some minor issues with placement of the unit. |
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I just ordered the RAID version, will see how it goes. |
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I wouldnt discourage anyone from buying one. I think they are fairly good options depending on ones needs and budget. I forget how long Ive had them but the oldest files on my old HP EX490 MediaSmart server are probably from about early 2009. So thats about 4 years of nonstop always on operation (working on 5 year as we go on to 2014). So the eSATA issue isnt that big of a deal to me.
For USB 3.0 capable models I wouldnt be surprised if the USB 3.0 connection was faster then the eSATA. |
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said by Octavean:For USB 3.0 capable models I wouldnt be surprised if the USB 3.0 connection was faster then the eSATA. Checking the specs from the manufacturer, at least on the RAID version, they support SATA III internal, but speed on the eSATA port itself is only 3Gbps. So yeah, USB 3.0 should be faster. |
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Well, there you have it mate,... |
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to Octavean
I am sorry for taking the thread way off topic, but I thought I would share my results on the Mediasonic box. I ordered the HFR2-SU3S2FW ProRaid 4 Bay, which is their eSATA, USB 3.0, and Firewire connecting RAID box. I installed 4 Seagate 3Tb drives, set for RAID 0. As I pointed out earlier, Mediasonic lists the internal connection as being SATA I/ II/ III, but specifically shows that the eSATA connection is only 3Gbps. I first connected it via USB 3.0, to an ASRock with built in Etron USB 3.0 controller, and started copying media files to it. Less than a quarter of the way through the 1.9Tb copy job, it vanished from the computer. When I checked on it, it seemed to be in sleep mode. So I connected it via eSATA (intel SATA II) and started over. Same result. I found a thread on their forum posted by their support team, which contained a matching problem description, and listed an older firmware to get around the problem. I updated (downgraded I guess) the firmware, and that did stop the sleeping issue. But, despite USB 3.0 having a faster theoretical limit, I observed real world transfer speeds much slower than with eSATA. Copying data from one of the internal drives to the RAID box, which is a mix of TV episodes in SD and HD, along with the much smaller nfo and image files, the USB connection transfer speed averaged 68MBps, fluctuating greatly in the process. The same data set over eSATA ran a consistent 144MBps. And this is with a connection to an Intel SATA II jack. Since the Mediasonic's eSATA is only SATA II, I doubt I would see much improvement with it connected to a SATA III port, but I may give it a shot tomorrow just to check. All in all, it seems a decent box for the money. And once I get the initial data on it, the slower speed of the USB connection will be fine. My purpose for the box is just to maintain a copy of the media archive drives. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
Kilroy
MVM
2013-Dec-22 9:03 am
Got my Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2 ProBox 4 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA Friday and tossed in a bunch of drives I had laying around. It basically works like a USB adapter for four drives, no proprietary formatting required. So, yes you could just pull the drives out and put them in a machine and they will be fine. I've got mine connected via USB3. I tried the eSATA, but didn't have any luck seeing the drives, and didn't bother with it since the USB came right up. Since it put four drives that I had been sitting on the shelf I'd say it was a good purchase. |
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I have not tested with the Mediasonic yet, but I can say with certainty that Seagate external USB drives do some sort of odd thing with the controller setup that makes drives formatted while IN the external box unreadable when they are connected to SATA, and vice versa. Windows will report no partition on them at all when you switch interfaces.
So you might try one drive at a time, and backup the data before you move them from the external box to internal. |
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Kilroy MVM join:2002-11-21 Saint Paul, MN |
Kilroy
MVM
2013-Dec-22 5:48 pm
I took drives that still had data on them and was able to read the drives just as if they were internal to the machine, they don't even show up as removable drive. I don't think anything change in the formatting.
That was the reason for my not answering if you could just move the drives, as my Linksys NAS formats the drives and you can't read them out of the NAS, even if formatted as a single drive. |
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to Camelot One
According to the manual my Vantec NexStar HX4R NST-640S3R-BK has a:
Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 5 Gbps w/USB 3.0 Maximum Transfer Rates Up to 3Gbps w/eSATA |
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