No moving parts HTPC?

[biff]

I'm going need to setup a NAS (ASAP) since my current HTPC that is doing double duty as a server is all out of drive bays. So I thought I'd just take the guts from there to use as the NAS and put in some new hardware into the HTPC. I'd like to do a 100% no moving parts setup for dead silence. I'm not really up on this sort of hardware and gave myself a bit of a crash course and came up with a hardware list. I was hoping someone could take a quick look and make sure everything is OK. The most demanding thing I use it for is BD playback, other than that it's just listening to music and web surfing plus a few little programs - but no gaming.

mobo - Asus E35M1-M Pro
PSU - PICOPSU-150-XT
RAM - 2x Mushkin Silverline 2GB 1333MHz -> just cause it's cheap
HDD - Any suggestions on a SSD? Only need it for OS so 60Gb is lots

Thanks for any input.

[Arinoth]

Would almost say the PIVOS AIOS for about 100$ would be a great alternative, the only moving part it has is the small fan at the back of the case which I've never found make any noise at all. Don't even need to install an HDD as it has a small internal (non moving) memory where the OS is pre-loaded on.

It has/runs an HTML5 browser, youtube, facebook and some other plugins, can play 1080p content with no issue and even comes with a wireless remote to control it. The only downside is you can't browse media extremely easy if its not stored locally. This means you have to navigate to it through a few directories, but depends on your ease of use, and cost it's a good alternative. I may be getting rid of mine for the sole fact I miss xbmc too too much (after using it for a few years), but if it weren't for browsing the media stored on a network i'd probably still be a big advocate of it (and keep mine).

[biff]

Geez at a $100 it seems like not a bad deal since BD software costs nearly that much. But other than that it doesn't seem very useful to me for my setup. I need a proper PC anyway and I like using Mediaportal. Thanks though.

[Arinoth]

You could still go with a 2.5" 80GB HDD, they really aren't that loud (at least I've never noticed at all). I mean its a waste of money just for an htpc boot disk. Hell I think I may have one laying around I could give ya (if i can find it)

[snoosebum]

I'd be interested in seeing what you do for a NAS. I'm in the same boat, thinking probably unraid, with a bunch of old and existing hardware I have lying around, but havent convinced myself.

[biff]

Just using a regular computer with WinXP and shared drives. I might explore using some free NAS software but I don't see any need to get fancy. I do need to get a card to add SATA ports but everything I've seen either has external ports or is stupid expensive.

[snoosebum]

I'd like some type of backup as well. Right now I have a lot of drives, all different brands, different sizes, and I dont want to spend a lot of money.

If you just need a couple more ports monoprice $12 card maybe?. I think these are recommended for unraid.

For only $9.98 each when QTY 50+ purchased - SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132) | Serial ATA Controller Cards

[biff]

I do 1:1 backups. ATM I've got nearly 8TB of media on the HTPC and have that sitting in a drawer as well. I buy the drives in pairs, 1 for the media and 1 as a backup. It was no big deal when a 2TB drive cost $69 but I need to add another 2TB to my system soon so I'll probably steal one of the b/u drives until the HDD prices settle back down before I buy some more.

To back up I use an external dock for SATA drives. When I toss a few movies on the HTPC I just drop in a drive and copy them over, a real time back up just seems like over kill for what I do.

Thanks for the link on the card, I see they have a 4 drive card too - exactly what I was looking for.

[snoosebum]

1 : 1 is where I am too right now, approx 6GB and 6GB, and same problem. However instead of buying more drives you could turn your 8 2GB drives netting you only 8 GB into 14 GB and a 2 GB parity for about the same price as your going to spend on 2 more 2GB drives. Something to consider.

[biff]

Hmmmm you've got me thinking now about an unraid setup. Not as secure as a 1:1 but will become a lot more cost effective as my collection of drives grows. I'll have to look into it and give it some thought.

Still doesn't change the fact that I want/need to redo my HTPC, any opinions on the hardware listed above?