New build questions for home setup

[hairyhobo]

Hi, i have just come across Amahi and have some questions as im trying to work out what the best NAS route is for me.

I have wired my home for cat6 network points every where. My plan is to have a couple of sonos running off itunes server for multi room audio. I will also have a couple of hack'd apple tvs with xbmc on for videos and also music via itunes server. I will have also a 2/3 apple macs which will want to use time machine to back up too.
I would also like to access the NAS via a "cloud" type service, similar to the QNAP system. Apart from that it just needs to be fast enough so HD movies dont buffer.

as far as a build, i was thinking....


Gigabyte GA-B75-D3V Socket 1155 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz Socket 1155 3MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x 8GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Memory Kit

Casecom Black/Silver Trim Mid Tower Case

Akasa K32 Intel Socket 775 1155 1156 Processor Cooler

ACE 400W Grey PSU 12cm Fan SATA 20+4pin

4 x WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - WD20EARX (to start with)


So basically would Amahi cater to my needs with out too much hassle and would my hardware spec work?
Im after any advice really so let me know if ive been a dummy and missed something.
Oh can amahi run off a usb stick, like freenas, or do you have to put in a say a SSD to run it?

thanks

[sgtfoo]

visit the wiki.amahi.org ... you'll find answers there.

I'm not sure if Fedora or Ubuntu can run off a USB. You wouldn't want to because the stick would die too quickly due to read/write cycle limitations. a standard HDD or SSD would be adequate/ideal.

For what you want to do, over cat6 gigabit, you should be pretty stable. Music takes little bandwidth. It's the HD video streams that needs speed... which brings me to your hard drives for the fileserver. Perhaps consider the NAS-grade drives like WD Reds, or Seagate Constellations.... the reliability on the drives is higher. You might want to consider RAID for speed, or a SSD for your landing zone drive, perhaps.

The build is totally fine. Just ensure you have enough SATA plugs for expansion later on or you can also buy a PCIe SATA card.

Look around the forums for others who have system inquiries... we've all helped a lot of people gather advice... just gotta read through it.

[bigfoot65]

I don't believe you can run the OS off a USB flash drive without some work. Not even sure it will work on a USB hard drive, but then again anything is possible.

[hairyhobo]

Cool, thanks for that.

With regards to iTunes server on amahi, is it any good? And does it work with sonos??

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[bigfoot65]

I don't use the Amahi Tunes app, but it only works with Fedora 14. Not sure of it's compatibility with other clients. There are several choices for streaming apps, so consider looking at DLNA, Subsonic, or Tin Can Jukebox.

You can check the Amahi app store for multimedia apps and see what suits your requirements. Ensure you check the status of the app on the bottom right of the screen for the OS your HDA is running. If it's not LIVE, you will most likely not have access to it. Some are pay apps as well, so a small fee will be required.

[darthspringbok]

It is entirely possible to install Ubuntu onto a USB stick and run it. I use this to test stuff and right now have Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server installed on it which I am going to give Amahi a try.

The trick to get it working is to remove all HDDs from the system and boot from CD, install it to the USB. Once the install is finished then add the HDDs back into the system (by removing I mean unplugging)

So yes entirely possible on a 16GB USB pen drive and at £7 I can replace it when the read write cycles "run out"

[bigfoot65]

That is great to hear. Keep in mind if you use Greyhole, you will want to move the landing zone to a hard drive. The USB drive will not be large enough in most cases. You would also want a backup of the OS and Amahi to make it easy when the flash drive does go bad. They seem to last forever, so not sure how long they typically last but mine are still find after years.

This would be something worth documenting in the wiki if you are interested. I am sure users would love to run Ubuntu and Amahi off a flash Drive. Shoot, I might even give it a try

I bet it would run well on a 32GB SD Card (Class 10 of course). Those are cheap too, less than $20.

[hairyhobo]

Excuses my stupidity but am I right in thinking if i put Firefly music server on Amahi all my imacs, apple tv's (1st gen) and sonos amps will see the music as if it was just sharing from itunes on a imac?

[hairyhobo]

also just out of interest, is there any reason why this would be a bad idea to buy to install Amahi on....


http://www.ebuyer.com/320819-hp-prolian ... tAodrwYA8Q

thanks

[bigfoot65]

Might wanna check out the wiki guidance for Amahi installation on that type of box. I believe other users have provided some good info.