need advise on NAS servers

[ZOMBIE-PAPA]

Hello I am a complete noob when it comes to servers and such but i want to put a server in my homenetwork which consists of 2 laptops, 2 smartphones and a ps3.
I want to use this server to make regular back ups from my laptops and as storage for all my media(2Tb) and i would like it to be able to stream to my laptops and also run ps3mediaserver to stream movies and music to my ps3

can you advise me on a good and affordable server that will work with ps3 and my laptops and with these functionalities?? thanks in advance

[ZOMBIE-PAPA]

anybody please? would really appreciate some input

[taconaut]

I had bought this with a quad core AMD processor and 6GB of RAM and it works perfectly. Can rip blurays and play back everything. Dell doesn't sell it any more and it's not a NAS, but the best advice I can give though

[SoonerBourne]

Honestly, you don't need much in the way of processing power. If you have an old machine sitting around with a dual core proc and 4 gig RAM you should be fine. If you are wanting some sort of "easy" backup solution you can deploy windows home server or use whatever operating system you have installed and set up Carbonite. Backing up your machine to another machine does not cost, you will be charged if you want to back up data online. For 2TB of data you can either install hard drives inside the machine (a couple of 2TB drives should work), or you can get a NAS/DAS solution. For my home set up I went with DAS (direct attached storage) connected to my server in a RAID 5 configuration. My particular unit is here with all drives as 2TB drives. This may be more than what you need, but it is a solid set up.

[squadjot]

I've made a small server based on this this Atom board:
GA-D525TUD (Atom 1.8Ghz/4 Threads - 4xSATA (3gbs)- uses DDR3 Ram - idle13/busy35w)
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=3549#sp

The PSU and cabinet i took from a older wrecked computer.
The only thing i needed was 4gb DDR3 and some 2TB disks (currently having 1TB+3x2TB running)

Imo, that board is the best if you just want cheap performance
See very fair review: http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/99269 ... rd-review/

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If you wanna go up a notch in terms of 2 more sata ports, pci-e slot , hmdi out, wireless --then maybe look at:
http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page=sh ... uct_id=210

( Looking at the prices right now, i probably would take that Zotac board if i had to buy today)

Edit: The zotac features hdmi and wireless.. this is nice if you want a sleek machine in your living room..but if you want to run a box of harddisk you put in the attic, then these things get useless.. In terms of pure power they should be alike, only difference is that the Gigabyte board has DDR3 compared to Zotac's DDR2.. in theory that should make it a bit faster =)