Using a NAS for BT downloads?

[David75]

Hi,
Since my external and internal drive are full to the limit... I was thinking of a storage solution.

I was interrested in a Gigabit NAS, because it's quite nice to be able to have access to files anywhere on my network.
I wanted one also able to handle a printer...

Then I remembered some have a some linux system... and now I've seen some companies like synology install a BT client.

Does any of you have a NAS with an embeded BT client?

If yes: how's the speed. Because If those use the "standard" BT client, it won't be so fast...
and there's no µtorrent under linux...

The bonuses for this solution:
no more noisy and energy consuming pc running all day and night just for downloads.
the same during work days...

The downside is the price for these devices to add to the drive...

c u

[complich8]

I dunno of anything exactly like that (I have seen one somewhere, but don't remember where or what... ). But bittorrent clients are still evolving, and a firmware implementation would probably suck as far as newer features (DHT, peer exchange, encryption) go...

There's no utorrent under linux, but there's rtorrent. rtorrent's an ncurses-based client, that you can run in screen. Then you just drop your downloaded torrent into the directory and it does the rest. It also doesn't have a lot of the new neater features (like encryption and DHT), but it's still under active development, so it's good times. When you want to check on it, you just ssh in and hit "screen -r" and check. You can do ^-a d to detach again. It's good times, check it out (http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/).

More often than not, you can built yourself a low-end, low-power computer with as much capacity as your NAS device would have for about the same price as the NAS, only you'd have a lot more flexibility with it. Also, hdparm/smartctl tuning can let you control drive spindown, letting you standby inactive disks automatically to save yourself power. My fileserver's cpu uses 23 watts, and all the disks spin down after half an hour idle time. It's just an athlon xp-m 1.66, but it's certainly fast enough for what it's doing.

Last I knew, an idle sempron 3000+ was about an 11 watt draw, peaking out at about 40W fully loaded... not exactly a huge hit on either your wallet outright or your power bill.

[Munsu]

Just buy yourself another external. Wait for sites to put up specials, and you'll get them very cheap. Fry's Outpost usually has some great specials.

[David75]

I dunno of anything exactly like that (I have seen one somewhere, but don't remember where or what... ). But bittorrent clients are still evolving, and a firmware implementation would probably suck as far as newer features (DHT, peer exchange, encryption) go...

There's no utorrent under linux, but there's rtorrent. rtorrent's an ncurses-based client, that you can run in screen. Then you just drop your downloaded torrent into the directory and it does the rest. It also doesn't have a lot of the new neater features (like encryption and DHT), but it's still under active development, so it's good times. When you want to check on it, you just ssh in and hit "screen -r" and check. You can do ^-a d to detach again. It's good times, check it out (http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/).

More often than not, you can built yourself a low-end, low-power computer with as much capacity as your NAS device would have for about the same price as the NAS, only you'd have a lot more flexibility with it. Also, hdparm/smartctl tuning can let you control drive spindown, letting you standby inactive disks automatically to save yourself power. My fileserver's cpu uses 23 watts, and all the disks spin down after half an hour idle time. It's just an athlon xp-m 1.66, but it's certainly fast enough for what it's doing.

Last I knew, an idle sempron 3000+ was about an 11 watt draw, peaking out at about 40W fully loaded... not exactly a huge hit on either your wallet outright or your power bill.

Hi,
Well I admitt I am extremely lazy about this... and the Nas would spare me some time and efforts.
The noise is quite a matter too...

The thing is that I have an old PIII sleeping, with an ubuntu distro on it. the motherboard doesn't like large disks, but since it has got usb plugs and can read large usb disks (already tried that with 300gb) it was usb 1.1 though.

But since I have free pci slots, 1 USB2 pci card, and 1 gigabit pci could do it.
The problem is the noise I can't really tune on that old thing. I tried to disable the cpu and psu fans... but it smelled a bit after 8 hours :D I guess it was the dust inside the PSU
I would also need to better insulate the disk, because the frame of this very old PC works as a sound amplifier (HD vibrations do get very well ampified on that one :( )

I'll fully check rtorrent, thanks, I didn"t know which client to choose. As of yet
I don't know which client they choose at synology. If rtorrent is light (storage, momory space and cpu), it may be possible to use that one on the small linux distro these NASes use. At least some users tune them quite a lot

Thanks a lot for your advice.


Just buy yourself another external. Wait for sites to put up specials, and you'll get them very cheap. Fry's Outpost usually has some great specials.

I can do that I know, but loose some of the beneficial features from a nas disk I'm seeking for... or are you advising me to wait for bargains on those too?

[Koyuki]

You could try buying a SATA controllercard + some hdds and put it in your old PIII and use it as NAS. And on the vibrating issue, hang your hdds up in some rubber band.

[David75]

You could try buying a SATA controllercard + some hdds and put it in your old PIII and use it as NAS. And on the vibrating issue, hang your hdds up in some rubber band.


As of yet I bought myself a quite cheap 500GB from Samsung. That will give me some time to try something at work (very small business, but with a need for nas that seems to arise).

The PIII solution is nice cause I can put many drives...
I guess I would need a very nice linux nas distro if that exists... and I'll need a good gigabit pci card (I can not think of a nas @ 100mbit...)

c u

[Koyuki]

Check your local pcshop. Maybe it's better to buy a new mobo,ram and cpu. Since you already need to buy a sata and gigbit card.

[David75]

Check your local pcshop. Maybe it's better to buy a new mobo,ram and cpu. Since you already need to buy a sata and gigbit card.

Well, as of yet, the expense difference would be 1 to 3
And I'm with a conventional computer, with noise anoyance as the primary pb, and power consumption the second (psu+mobo+cpu)

On the other hand, having a real full featured OS is nice.
Building a cheap comp is near the price of buying a nas with the features I need...
But in a comp I can easily put 4 disks (provided the mobo has enough sata connectors)

I think I can decrease the cheap pc price by finding packs (mobo+cpu and memory. Case+PSU). I do not even put a CD or DVD in, as all new mobos should be able to boot from usb...

I admitt the idea is growing, still noise is a pb... I have to think about it carefully.

[Koyuki]

For the noise problem this works like a charm and it's cheap.

http://home.broadpark.no/~pam2/dscf0004thumb.jpg

http://home.broadpark.no/~pam2/dscf0005thumb.jpg

http://home.broadpark.no/~pam2/dscf0007thumb.jpg

Just buy O-rings and cable ties.

[itadakimasu]

i say, grab a few 500gb sata drives and build yourself a cheap system... going to cost as much as a nas system