I've decided to get home storage so I can store downloaded shit somewhere. The thing is is I want to have it accesible on local network so I can "mount" it to TV and watch my shit on 60" screen.
What I dont know is how to approach this. I dont want to jump to my nearest pc shop and bug overpriced NAS storage. First I dont want to invest so much into that and second I dont need 10TB. like 500 GB or 1 TB would be perfectly fine.
I was thinking about a RPI attached to HDD which I put into a frame (if not possible then I will get proper external HDD).
Why RPi? Because low power and price. What I'm afraid of is usb 2 speed. I'm not into 100GB bluray movies but I like those 20GB rips. Is USB 2.0 enough?
Anyway gimme your suggestions and experiences. I'm looking for better solution than running around the house with one external HDD and constantly copying stuff on and off.
RPI is fine. I use one as a torrent box, but don't expect to stream shit to your devices because it's slow as shit
Austin Richardson
I've used RPi for xbmc and it was kinda OK...streamed shit that was on my laptop o nthe same network.
Julian Butler
>I was thinking about a RPI attached to HDD which I put into a frame works for simple stuff and has less than normal speeds since network and usb goes pretty much through the same controller so it will never be as good as a proper solution. If you want to stream crap from it you can do so depending on the size of the original file and the resolution, 720p/1080p streaming will work, anything fancier will look like shit.
Robert Moore
thanks for all the info
also anyone any other solution besided RPi?
Easton Cruz
USB 2.0 is enough. I have an old chink media player I use for movies with an external drive, and I've had it easily chug 60gb blu ray images.
Jaxon Morgan
A few months ago I was considering building a seedbox using an SBC (I ultimately decided against it because I don't earn that much at my wagie job and I'd basically be building a time-wasting device). I already had a raspberry pi and a 1 TB external HDD, so I hooked up the HDD to the pi and set up a samba share to test whether the idea is viable at all. It worked fine, I could play back 60 GB 4K blu-rays on my laptop from the pi, but take that with a grain of salt because I only spent about 5 minutes testing it. This was with no torrents running btw, I'm pretty sure you'd have to stop seeding while you're watching movies.
The Banana Pi M2 Berry seems like a better choice from a hardware perspective (SATA, "gigabit" ethernet), but that would only matter if you wanted to go big.
Matthew Rodriguez
does the hdd connected to bannana pi require external power delivery?
I have an idea....maybe I could buy old ass sata 3.5 HDD and a frame and connect it to raspberry....
I know classic HDDs did require power delivery by extra cable but do they still in these days?
(dumb question I knooow)
Alexander Garcia
>get old computer >get good hard drives >install linux >install samba to read/write over the network >install minidlna to stream media to shit >make media folder >point samba and minidlna to media folder >download media to media folder >dlna makes it show up on your "smart tv" or on an xbone >tweak the linux folder update check thing to make minidlna update new material faster
that sound like a cool solution but >old computer means hella noise and power consumption
Jace King
Shouldn't be surprising. Raspberry Pi only has a 10/100 Mbit interface, with overhead because it's tacked onto the USB bus or some stupid shit, I can't remember.
Jaxon James
how about Odroid or RPi or android box
Odroid is probably closer to an atom processor than a RPi. althought i don't know too much about it.
Anthony Bailey
yea but the new RPi with "gigabit" is still ike 2 times slower which makes older banana still better than new RPi
Kayden Hill
why would it be loud just because its old? clean the fans. The only time it should be "loud" is when its doing alot of processing, and file read writes do fuckall to the cpu. The only instance Ive had with a loud old computer was one from 2010 which had a motherboard that verified that a case fan was actually there and spinning. I got use to the noise, but intending to find a way to disable it. With the side panel on it wasn't actually that much of an issue.
Nolan Hill
odroid seems like the biggest player here but also the most expensive one :/
Zachary Rodriguez
Well yeah, because it's still gigabit over USB 2.0. So it's only 300 Mbps theoretical, if it used all of the USB bandwidth.
well you are right but I've been there and I have this experience
>old computer means also old case (had tower) >old case means old power source >old power source means fucking big fan constantly running like crazy >no matter how big or noisy CPU fan is the one in power source is always louder
>if you dont have hardware decoder for 1080p vids I guess the CPU of any model will be like 100% during playback -> noisy fan
Logan Nguyen
>300 Mbps theoretical beware the cheap usb controllers I have sandisk usb 2.0 flash drives that will only transfer at a rate of about 5 mbps. If I plan on putting an 8 gb movie on there I have to basically plan an hour or two ahead.
John Wilson
>old computer means also old case (had tower) nothing wrong with that aslong as it fits the things it needs. >old case means old power source those are fine >old power source means fucking big fan constantly running like crazy >no matter how big or noisy CPU fan is the one in power source is always louder not necesarily. Ive got a half dozen supplies going all the way back to the mid 90s and only the cheapshit 90s one with a bad fan is loud. The rest are as quiet as the power supply I bought last year. If you do wind up with a shit loud supply, you can just pick up a new one for $20 rebate or something. The things are cheap now.
>if you dont have hardware decoder for 1080p vids I guess the CPU of any model will be like 100% during playback -> noisy fan the computer doest serve "media" it serves files which are decoded on the client.
Jace Mitchell
I picked up an old mac mini for $200 and slapped kodi and a plex server on it, and a thunderbolt to hdmi dongle and it's been perfect. Internal storage alleviates the worries of USB speeds, and I've had zero issues with 1080p on my 65" TV. Totally worth it for a compact HTPC. And it also supports Windows and Linux, so you can use any OS you want. Though I wouldn't recommend going higher than Yosemite on a C2D mini without a SSD if you stick with macOS
Isaiah Foster
hey i was thinking about something similar to the old pc thing, but with raid, does someone have experience with the mdadm package and virtual raid in general? finding a low price raid card with driver for linux is a pain nothing fancy just a raid 1
Tyler Flores
>mac mini >for $200 >dongle boi
Bentley Cooper
any lightweight (ftp/ntp style) media clients on Android?
Caleb Williams
old computer means: >fan noise any dedicated media player doesnt even need a fan. so zero noise. >space any dedicated player shouldn't be larger than a 3.5" hdd. >power on dedicated player should turn on instantly. unless your "old" computer has UEFI, it will take longer than 20 seconds just to turn on. i have my android box (amlogic 805s) on 24/7 because it uses 6w max. standby power 0.5w.
bought it in 2015 for $40. no moving parts means it is 100% silent plays h264 movies just fine. (can't play h265 though. but i did just order an updated box and should be here next week) uses 6w max. instant on (from standby) takes 20 seconds to turn on from a cold boot (but why would you ever unplug it in the first place when standby power is 0.5w?
Ayden Reed
>ftp total comander + samba/ftp plugins. Has two tabs so you can easily switch between folders and a button at the bottom to select move/copy. >media client vlc is on android, should support accessing a dlna server.
Camden Collins
server or client? i use VLC to connect to my server
Lincoln Morgan
2.5" HDDs can be powered by the on-board SATA, but 3.5" ones need an external PSU because of the increased power draw. This is one of the reasons I ditched the project btw, I could get a molex 5V/12V PSU from ebay and connect it to a 3.5" HDD using a molex to SATA adapter, but powering a $200 HDD with a $3 chink PSU just didn't feel right. Another option would have been using an old PC PSU, but those things require a minimum amount of power draw to turn on at all, so they may not even turn on if I only connect a single 3.5" HDD. The third option would have been getting a powered 3.5" HDD enclosure, but the ones that support 2+ TiB HDDs cost as much as an SBC (I planned on using an 8 TB HDD). Buying an old HDD isn't a smart idea btw, because they are likely to fail, and new 1 TB HDDs are cheap as fuck.
Hunter Lee
did you ever think of just googling 3.5 sata to usb adapter?
$14 sata to usb adapter i bought a similar device. the power cable is only 3ft long. so you gotta have your computer
Sebastian Evans
the computer is for serving the files, what you asked about. >noise put the damn thing in the closet. >space You did not specify space, you asked for server suggestions. >power an old computer will use ~60 watts for a full sized prebuilt. If that's too expensive for you then get one of those arm boards, but don't expect quality performance. You will be throttled on all Ethernet, usb, and sd card transfers. Often, the bandwidth is shared between them so if you transfer files to the usb of the arm board then you will be using 2 devices on the same thing (ethernet+usb) and the performance will go to shit.
>bought it in 2015 for $40. its not terrible, depending on the specs though. I get all my "servers" and "computers" free though. >no moving parts means it is 100% silent don't leave it next to your head then? I have two towers running with 4 120mm fans and 2 60mm fans and I cant hear it over the air conditioner 3 rooms away. >plays h264 movies just fine. (can't play h265 though. but i did just order an updated box and should be here next week) once again servers dont decode the media, thats for the client to do. >uses 6w max. thats nice. >instant on (from standby) >takes 20 seconds to turn on from a cold boot thats how long the last 5 computes Ive had took to cold boot. >(but why would you ever unplug it in the first place when standby power is 0.5w? idk, autistic obsessions with power saving I guess. Probably the same type of person that gets bent out of shape over a wallwart being left in.
Daniel Thompson
That's nice, but it's only USB 2.0, and I'm not sure if it supports hard drives bigger than 2 TiB. Apparently some SAtA-to-USB chips can only do 32 bit addressing (I googled it originally because some enclosures listed a maximum capacity of 2 TiB).
A lot of networking equipment comes with usb ports now. Find a router or gateway that does and just use that. These typically provide media using DLNA which is pretty widely supported.
Samuel Myers
Never mind, apparently this one has USB 3.0 and it is explicitly mentioned in the description that it supports 2+ TiB HDDs. Too bad the shipping to Hungary would cost almost as much as the product itself, but at least now I know what to look for on local sites.
Matthew Cruz
I'm not OP. oops. i was assuming OP wanted a media player and not a file server. a file server that only gets used when he is streaming content seems like a worse option. i guess i am an autist when it comes to power consumption. i bought an SUV when i was younger. felt like it was too much just to drive from home to work. my next purchase was a tiny SUB-compact car. did twice the gas mileage.
just look for adapters that do support TB drives. read the comments
Jack Hughes
>I'm not OP. >oops. >i was assuming OP wanted a media player and not a file server. oh its cool, I thought you were op and thought that op went full autism rage mode or something >a file server that only gets used when he is streaming content seems like a worse option. idk, I have a subserver that is powered off most of the time. I only need to transfer stuff to or get something off of it about a couple times a month. It seamlessly mounts as a subdirectory of my primary server and saves a bit in the long run. the primary runs 24/7 and the sub is only used on occasion. This saves hours on the drives and also prevents having even more 3.5" drives running 24/7. >i guess i am an autist when it comes to power consumption. i bought an SUV when i was younger. felt like it was too much just to drive from home to work. my next purchase was a tiny SUB-compact car. did twice the gas mileage. both are nice. I like the room in larger cars and the power when you need it is nice while smaller cars saving on gas and being able to get in and out of tight parking spaces is a huge perk for the subcompacts.
Xavier Hughes
better make sure its not serving your files to the wan like some routers were doing.
