Affordable NAS Suggestions?

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BevOh

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Sep 2, 2014
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I'm looking for a cheap NAS solution. All I want to be able to do is stream media to my tv and backup my PC.

Am I best off looking at something like a DLink bundle or going DIY.
I am a student and work part time so budget is pretty tight. I have been looking around at parts for DIY but it always ends up being so expensive. Mainly because of the HDD's I guess.

If anyone has some suggestions for a good bundle or a list of parts for an affordable build that would be great.

Also I'm in Australia so something I can find locally would be preferable to avoid shipping fees.

Thanks!!!
 
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BevOh

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Sep 2, 2014
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Thanks. I understand that is the cheapest option but I am open to spending some cash. The only problem with these methods is that my storage will be extremely limited and if I was to add external hdd's or something then speed would be limited right?

I can probably fork out $300-$400 AUD. I guess my question is could I get more storage out of going with a DIY FreeNAS build rather than a premade unit. I guess I could also just wait and buy a hard drive every time I get paid but I don't know if i have the patience hahaha.
 
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bill001g

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backup you pc pretty much any nas will work. Stream media to a tv is a different device in many cases. If the tv can mount a file system and play/read a file then it can work but many times this function the tv just is dependent on a pc/device to read the file and correctly format it. There are likely nas devices that contain this function but by default a NAS is really stupid and few tv can directly read files.
 
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digitaldoc

digitaldoc

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You will get more storage out of a DIY unit. I would go with 2 hard drives of the same capacity, 1 TB or larger, depending on the size of what you want to store.

 
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Pooneil

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In my experience, DLNA is hit or miss. Just because a TV has DLNA, doesn't mean it will play all files. Check if your TV will play MKV files, for instance.

I have had much better luck using a computer for storage and streaming with the free Plex Server software. Plex requires an app for use on TVs, but the $35 chromecast has the app as does the $100 Roku. If you want internet streaming of music or movies, Plex can do that too if you pay for the service. With a powerful enough processor, Plex transcodes on the fly for any bit rate or format needed. At any rate, since the software is free and will run on your current PC, it is fairly inexpensive to play around with and learn whether it will do what you want. Then you can add a computer as an NAS when desired.
 
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BevOh

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Sep 2, 2014
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Thanks everyone. I probably should have mentioned that ive fiddled round with plex etc before. I am thinking I will have one tv plugged into my WD Live TV unit which I would assume would be able to access the NAS' shared media somehow? Is it possible to hook the other tv straight into the HDMI of the NAS and play the files directly from it? Or is it possible to access the files via ps3 or xbox360?

These might be silly questions so I'm sorry about that.

If I was to give you $500 AUD to spend on a NAS other media centre/storage solution (as I said mainly for backup and watching movies etc.) what parts would you recommend?

I know I probably sound like a noob but I should outline I'm pretty tech savvy and have built my own pc's and can figure out any software pretty quickly so dont hold back haha.
 
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