File server recommendations

[Firebar]

Hi all,

I need to replace a NAS box and I think I'm going to go for an Antec Minuet II and shove a little comp in there.
It seems more than likely that I'll be shoving a K6-2 500 in there, with 256MB of PC133, chugging along with a 120GB maxtor.

Now, can anyone advise me on whether it would be worth upping the power of the system? Literally all its going to be doing is streaming music out to other machines.

It'll be running Linux & serving out some Samba shares.

Thanks for any tips.

[dgr]

a K6-500 + gigabit will max out your cpu, sustaining around 10MBps; on a 100 meg connection, you'll max out at maybe 6MBps.

Judge that as you will!

[aidanjt]

It's more than fast enough to stream any media (including DVD rips). And gigabit is major overkill for that purpose.

[dgr]

It's more than fast enough to stream any media (including DVD rips). And gigabit is major overkill for that purpose.

no it isn't. max dvd bitrate is 9.8MBps, which is more than you'll get out for most 100base networking kit.

If you're streaming dvds, then gigabit would be highly recommended.

[Agent]

edt - Opps, didnt notice the mistake

[arthurleung]

DVD is Mbps not MBps so even 10Mbps would be enough (theoretically)...

Even if you're streaming HDTV you're looking at about 40Mbps max.

Divx is down to 1.5Mbps max (average at 700k odd)

Your config will run along fine

[DanceswithUnix]

no it isn't. max dvd bitrate is 9.8MBps, which is more than you'll get out for most 100base networking kit.

If you're streaming dvds, then gigabit would be highly recommended.

9.8 Mega BYTES pers second? That is one HELL of a lot of data.

I am calculating from a point of ignorance here, but:

A 9GB dual layer disc would give a 9000/9.8=918 seconds of video, just over 15 mins?
From the specs of an Asus DVD reader (it was near the top of the list on Scan) 16x DVD is 21640KB/sec. That would make 1x DVD =1.3525MB/sec.

I hope you meant 9.8 mega-bits/sec, that would seem far more reasonable.

[latrosicarius]

no it isn't. max dvd bitrate is 9.8MBps, which is more than you'll get out for most 100base networking kit.

If you're streaming dvds, then gigabit would be highly recommended.

I have a gigabit LAN and the network usage is at about 0.5%, when streaming. Maybe it gets up to 4 or 5% when first opening the file. Gigabit (10/100/1000) is 10 times faster than Megabit (10/100) so, theoretically, my 5% spike would only consume 50% of your total LAN bandwidth. Therefore you should be able to take it in stride.

BTW, the attached picture was the following:

1.) Flatline when I turned on Task Manager.
2.) A few percents spike when I was navigating the server's shared folder for my DVD rips folder.
3.) A 4.5% spike when I opened the move Cast Away.
4.) Stable half-percent streaming.
5.) A few 2% spikes when I skimmed through different parts of the movie.

[dgr]

I hope you meant 9.8 mega-bits/sec, that would seem far more reasonable.

Bah, you're quite right.

In any case, if you're building a file server then gigabit is heavily recommended if only to fill it with content. 100base will take around 10 minutes per dvd, gigabit a lot less..

[Firebar]

Cheers for the input chaps. I'll most likely only be streaming MP3's, so my current wireless network should be able to handle this (it did before). Bloomin' wireless and its slow speeds unfortunately its the only way in my current flat.

[Splash]

Slightly offtopic, but what's the NAS you're looking to replace? I'm in the market for one is all!

[Firebar]

Sorry for the late reply. I was replacing a Buffalo Linkstation 120GB. This has been sold though