Change home set up to NAS and work off laptops and tablets - how to set up ?

property.advert

I may totally change my home set up. I want some RAID backups, I want some cloud storage for important items and I need to run home theatre somehow and not via DLNA.

I know a bit about the HP ProLiant Microserver http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-proliant-microserver-g7-n40l-nhp-eu-svr-7RMD.html?refs=50240&src=3 but not really how it integrates and I still need a media whatever to get the stuff from my hard disks to the TV.

So the idea is to potentially ditch the PC, have everything on this HP running RAID, some auto back up to cloud for important stuff and some gizmo to pull viewable content from the NAS to the TV.

Any ideas and recommendations ?

closed

simple is sometimes better, especially when you take into account maintenance, puchase costs, keeping up with evolving standards, electricity, effort vs use - ie plug a portable hd into the tv/dvd/pvr/laptop/cheap media player and work out a backup strategy.

tombruton87

the box you have linked to is pretty expensive for what it is. it also has pretty poor raid features. You would be better off building a mini itx system. What OS where you thinking of using, id personally go for ubuntu server great documentation, light weight, easy to install web based gui's. It also supports zte file systems that will be super usefull if your looking at somthing like 6 3tb drives in raid 6.

also you have cups for printers, plus maybe host a local intranet. Ubuntu have ubuntu one that works flawlessly with ubuntu server for cloud backups. if you want to use zte id go for 8gig of ram

Pugwash69

All of my main storage is running on a bog-standard PC in a large case with several hard drives fitted. It's running Windows Server 2003 with a software RAID1 array on two of the drives. The shared folders appear to my PlayOn Mini device (A.C.Ryan) connected to the TV.
I think there's reliable SMB connectors available for my Android tablets but can't say I've tried much.
I've used software RAID because the drives remain entirely NTFS and you can easily replace a failed drive. I've had hardware arrays before and had the controller fail - lose everything!

property.advert

tombruton87 wrote: »

the box you have linked to is pretty expensive for what it is. it also has pretty poor raid features. You would be better off building a mini itx system. What OS where you thinking of using, id personally go for ubuntu server great documentation, light weight, easy to install web based gui's. It also supports zte file systems that will be super usefull if your looking at somthing like 6 3tb drives in raid 6.

also you have cups for printers, plus maybe host a local intranet. Ubuntu have ubuntu one that works flawlessly with ubuntu server for cloud backups. if you want to use zte id go for 8gig of ram

Sorry the box has a permanent £100 cashback direct from HP so it comes in around £130/150 net.

If I were more technically minded or had more time, I would learn about linux, ubuntu and all that jazz but what I really want is a really simple user interface which works and a process I can understand.

I am the archetypal end user who likes the fact that Windows works and I don't care if it costs money, I'm not interested in building my own version for free. I did enough typing of code into a ZX81 and ZX Spectrum in around 1982/3 to last a lifetime.