Need opinions on my NAS/Mediaserver

[mkygod]

I'm finishing up a home NAS and mediaserver build and there are still a couple of important things I need to decide.

#1 is what operating system to use which best suits my purpose.

I'm currently considering between these: Windows 7, Windows 2008, Windows 8.1, and the latest version of Windows homeserver. I am most familiar and comfortable with Windows 7.

The NAS is going to be holding and sharing almost all of my media Music/TV/movies through the network and will also act as a download machine for use with automatic Newsgroup services which includes SANZBD/Couchpotato/Headhones/Sickbeard. I'll also be running services such as PLEX (which can be a CPU hog) and Subsonic music server on it at the same time, streaming things locally and over the internet. I have a Core i5 system with 8gb of ram to handle all this.

#2 thing i need to decide is what hard drive configuration I should have. I am using a Fractal Node 304 case which is capable of holding 6 x 3.5" hard drives and a motherboard with 6 SATA ports. I have many large terabyte drives, more than enough to fill this case, and also I have a spare SSD drive available that I can use.

My goal is to maximize storage space while consuming a low amount of power. My nas is running now at just 28 watts idle with a single 4tb drive and a SSD card (no vid card). My question is: should I even be using an SSD for the system drive? I'm not sure if the speed benefit and small power savings of an SSD is worth it for a NAS/media server computer over having 6 big hard drives for maximum storage potential.

 

[Ketchup]

I have a file/media server. I think the best thing I could do for you is to share what I have, and why I have it set the way I do.

I run Server 2008. It is the same generation as Vista, but it is plenty fast on modern hardware. The only role I run is File Server, and so it only runs the services necessary for that role. It really doesn't feel like Vista at all.

When I set it up, I downloaded Windows updates to current, then took it off the internet. It is on my local network only, my attempt to make it as secure as possible.

I used an older trial version of Windows Home Server several years ago. It has some very nice features, specifically for adding drives and remote access. In the end, I decided on the server OS as I don't want my drives tied to one OS (if I need more space I just add a drive and move data accordingly) and felt it would be more secure to leave it off the internet completely.

I use Samsung AllShare as my media sharing service, mainly because it is free when used with my Sumsung Blu-ray player. I ran a trial of Plex just to see if it had anything I liked better than All-Share, but felt they were very similar.

I don't really think an SSD would be of any benefit here. Accessing the data is going to be mainly limited by your wired/wireless network speed, and the amount of other traffic on the network. An SSD is going to be a benefit for your boot speed, but those shouldn't be occurring often enough to justify.

It all depends on what works best for you. I am pretty satisfied with what I have (I have several movies that are around 6 GB and stream to about 20 feel away just fine). Good luck!