NAS, RAID1, Media streaming [transcoding is a plus], Linux-XMBC server.

[al man]

Hey guys,

Hope everybody's doing well. I am looking for building a power efficient NAS, RAID1 XMBC, Torrent, Linux based rig; for say, 24/7 use, and that allows media transcoding and streaming to other devices -say android mobile devices, other linux box and a windows pc. Even if it has room for a bit of web surfing or home PC usage in case of emergency, would be great.

What I have:

• Two 3TB WD Red HDDs.
• Several 1GB Crucial DDR3 @1033 MHz DIMMs.
• Some lightweight distros to install.
• Thumbdrive if required to run OS from it.
• Generic brand PSU -have to get a Gold one to achieve maximum efficiency, I'm aware.
• SATA cables.
• Spare 120mm fans.
• Screws and more screws.
• Lots of stamina for doing the job.

What I'm looking for:

•The lowest power consumption from factory so that I can run 24/7.
• Potential for doing basic stuff if my main PC goes down.
• RAID1
• Low Heat, low noise.
• SATA III support.
• Decent enough to run XMBC -sure, I've heard it's not recommended to have it on the NAS, but that's the challenge here: to do an all-in-one low power box.
• The ability to stream from it to other devices in the network.
• Ability to do media transcoding.

I've looked at some SoC and have realized this:

-Intel's Bay Trial, but from all of the research, I recall they don't have SATA III support.
-ARM based SoCs, and they are really cool; but most don't support SATA III at all and the ones which do, are even more expensive than an x86 SoC.
-AMD ones, but performance and efficiency compared aren't as good as Intel's solutions.

Here are some of the things I've come across:

-I've seen people still recommend the Zacate E350 and while that one is fine, the ZOTAC Turion II Neo K625 (Chipset M880G), has six SATA III ports, a 10W-TDP dual core processor running at 1.5GHz and released on 2010; it's the lowest TDPed CPU I've found so far with SATA III support -plenty of it: http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Turion-M880G-USB3-0-Motherboard/dp/B004UR2J1W, for around the same price. Sure, older architecture, but it's got the things I am looking for.
-Using a Kabini Sempron or Athlon, 25W, APU (would it run XMBC properly? Raspberry Pi seems to do well at 1080p), and buy an AM1 motherboard for it.
-Use a SATA II Intel SoC, Dual-Core Celeron J1800 like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128688, or like the Hyperthreaded J1900 (for a total of four threads) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513; but I'd have to spend some extra money on SODIMMs and would just have the DIMMs spare still and with no use. For this one, I'd have to drop the SATA III support, but I'd get four execution threads and save more power compared to the Kabinis.

Any other suggestions?
What would you choose, based on these alternatives I've found, and why? Not looking to be convinced to go this or that way, but I just want somebody else's perspective.

 

[boosted1g]

If you just wanted xbmc I would say to do an A6 build but with transoding and nas then you would want an i3, either baytrail or haswell. Going with anything lower end for noise/heat will most likley result in less then adaquete ability to transcode.

If you are not gong to use SSDs then SATAIII is not really necessary as SATAII is still 3x faster then a hard drive can maintain.

More disks = more heat and noise, nothing you can do about that if you want it be a nas

Can use antecs silent 400w psu

For best performance will want fanles gpu like 430

If going in living room a silverstone m03 case supports matx size components and 3 hard drives. Only downside is it only takes 80mm fans which are going to be louder then 120 and 140mm models obviously.

 

[al man]

If you just wanted xbmc I would say to do an A6 build but with transoding and nas then you would want an i3, either baytrail or haswell. Going with anything lower end for noise/heat will most likley result in less then adaquete ability to transcode.

If you are not gong to use SSDs then SATAIII is not really necessary as SATAII is still 3x faster then a hard drive can maintain.

More disks = more heat and noise, nothing you can do about that if you want it be a nas

Can use antecs silent 400w psu

For best performance will want fanles gpu like 430

If going in living room a silverstone m03 case supports matx size components and 3 hard drives. Only downside is it only takes 80mm fans which are going to be louder then 120 and 140mm models obviously.

Thanks man.
So, what if I drop XMBC and transcoding and rely on each device's ability to stream from the NAS server?

 

[boosted1g]

If you just wanted a nas then just go with a low tdp haswell cpu, does not even need to be i3.

I currently run openelec build of xbmc on an ivy bridge celeron just fine.

I would just build a cheap nas box, put it wherever and not worry about noise.
If you are just wanting raid1 then almost anything can do that, raid 5 or 6 is another story.
The new asus chromebox is a nice dual core x86 fanless box that can be easily modified to run xbmc or linux with a 16gb ssd for $180 on amazon.

It is not as customziable as xbmc but have you looked at plex, it transcodes and is able to stream content to low end devices like rokus etc.