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Need Rec's for Networked Media Storage

K

kkachurak

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
215
26
Orlando, FL
I've decided. I'm taking the plunge and getting a Mac Mini for my Home Theater hub. It'll connect to my HDTV and do basically what my Apple TV did, but more.

Currently, I'm using a partioned time capsule disk for media and time machine BU's. But I want to move this to a dedicated time capsule disk just for BU's and add a simple networked box with (a) disk(s) in it, over ethernet, for faster access.

Who can reccommend a good enclosure with ethernet connectivity that can support a simple mirror RAID so I can ensure I always have a redundant copy of my media drive. I'd pop in two 2TB disks.

Don't mention Drobo. That thing scares me.

Thanks!
 
I am sorry I am not the one to "answer" your question, but I have a very similar question and situation. I too want to take the plunge into a mac mini home theater hub, and currently use my Time Capsule as a streaming device. But I have the entire Time Capsule for backups and I have a WD external 1TB connected to TC via USB, and I stream some stuff over this. 720p plays okay on my MacbookPro, but 1080p starts to get a bit choppy. My wireless network speed is usually around 15-17mbps download and 4-5mbps upload. Can you please let me know your plan/workflow for allowing streaming to your mac mini will maintaining proper HD quality, preferrably 1080p. What is the advantage of you connecting an external with ethernet vs. usb (my current setup). thanks
 
kkachurak said:
I've decided. I'm taking the plunge and getting a Mac Mini for my Home Theater hub. It'll connect to my HDTV and do basically what my Apple TV did, but more.

Currently, I'm using a partioned time capsule disk for media and time machine BU's. But I want to move this to a dedicated time capsule disk just for BU's and add a simple networked box with (a) disk(s) in it, over ethernet, for faster access.

Who can reccommend a good enclosure with ethernet connectivity that can support a simple mirror RAID so I can ensure I always have a redundant copy of my media drive. I'd pop in two 2TB disks.

Don't mention Drobo. That thing scares me.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Assuming you are going to have it connected via Ethernet (which i recommend for high res content like blu ray or even high bit rate encodes) you dont need a NAS box since you can just make it a NAS by hooking it up to your Time Capsule via USB. This is a nice, flexible option.

I just purchased this to be a RAID'd time machine backup and extend the storage on my iMac (ill partition the drive). Read very good things. Will allow you to do independent mode (and use a ccc or super duper to do backups/mirroring AND or SoftRAID), JBOD and a Hardware Raid 1 (oxford chipset). Nice looking enclosure that has firewire 400/800 and USB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEPT934AL2C/

Even gives you half off Pro Soft Drive Genius which i was looking to buy anyway.

I would pair them with two of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136513 (1.5TB models but with $15 off instant promo code cheaper than the 1TBs)

Total cost will be ~$230.

I have 8 of these in my Media Server and they run super cool and work fantastically.
 
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