How does this look for a NAS/HTPC combo?

MagicMan26

Honorable
Jun 3, 2013
2
0
10,510
I'm building a mini-itx HTPC/NAS combo, to do the following:

- 2 x 2.5" HDD in RAID1 for data backup
- 1 x ?? HDD or USB drive for OS (most likely Ubuntu, possibly Windows for itunes and bluray support)
- Stream video/audio to smart tv and home cinema system via HDMI/optical audio
- WOL (power saving as I won't need it all the time by any means)
- Some sort of optical drive (DVD, possibly BluRay in future)
- USB 3.0 for data transfer to external HDD for Time Machine backup of Mac
- Not be ultra ugly or loud

Shopping list so far is:

Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI

Intel Core i3-3220T (comes with a low-profile cooler)

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 RAM

I've got two identical 2.5" HDDs for the RAID

Does the above look sensible for what I want from it?

I'm still after an appropriate case, preferably quiet and slim to sit horizontally with rest of home cinema system, Betfinix Prodigy looks good and ticks all the boxes but it's just too big - suggestions??

I'm on a fairly tight budget too, so any cost-saving suggestions where I've over-specced would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Blu-Ray support in Linux is flaky, you're not going to be happy with it. 8Gb ram is overkill for an HTPC, 4Gb is more than sufficient. CPU and MB look good. As for cases I've used the nMediaPC cases with good results. They come with quite fans and still have good airflow.

You really don't need a Raid configuration for your setup, particularly raid 1 which can hurt performance substantially, unless your saving something you really really really can't afford to lose. Just keep a separate backup of what you want to save and you should be good to go. You may or may not want to use and SSD for the OS on an HTPC they don't make any noise and you'll see better startup times.

ddpruitt

Honorable
Jun 4, 2012
1,109
0
11,360
Blu-Ray support in Linux is flaky, you're not going to be happy with it. 8Gb ram is overkill for an HTPC, 4Gb is more than sufficient. CPU and MB look good. As for cases I've used the nMediaPC cases with good results. They come with quite fans and still have good airflow.

You really don't need a Raid configuration for your setup, particularly raid 1 which can hurt performance substantially, unless your saving something you really really really can't afford to lose. Just keep a separate backup of what you want to save and you should be good to go. You may or may not want to use and SSD for the OS on an HTPC they don't make any noise and you'll see better startup times.
 
Solution