My CoffeeBox NAS

[quzar]

So, at the end of this last summer I decided that when I built my new computer, I wasn't going to fill it with hard drives, because of the problems it caused me prior and the extra heat and whatnot. So I took my 4 hard drives and made the following:



Zoomed out image



l33t coffee. Mischievous face carved out for the one fan.



What it looks like from the top, only cord attached is ethernet.



The 'back' of the box. Power plug and whatnot. Also visible are some screws that are used to hold hard drives and power supply in.



The insides. 4 hard drives, 2x200gb and 2x300gb all standing up and attached by the sides. The rest of the components are an Asus motherboard, a 2.0ghz P4, 256mb of ram, and a single fan.

[Destroyer699]

Thats pretty sweet. Nice job!

[S34MU5]

You need that much space?
what is it a server or something.

otherwise Cool!

[quzar]

I'm a TV show fanatic and have an AIW card. High quality video takes up lots of space =P it's about half-full already actually.

[S34MU5]

AIW.

My new laptop im getting says i can watch and record TV. how do i do that?
i posted a thread about it in the hardware thread it has specs there etc.

help?

[Video_freak]

/\ I just got a Media Center PC from HP too, and it's just like yours except it's a desktop. I have one coaxial, one FM antennae, and two composite/s-video inputs. You use one of the composite inputs if you have a "set-top box" (like for Comcast or Dish or w/e). If you don't have a set-top box, you use the coaxial input. I have Comcast with a set-top box, but I use the coaxial input and works fine (it downloads the guide for you and everything). The only thing I don't get because I'm not using the set-top box is on-demand, but I don't usually use that anyways. So you watch TV and record it through Media Center (which absolutely rocks). You can even record live TV while watching a recorded show. Also, Media Center automatically records when you are watching something, so if you miss a play or something, you can rewind. The file is deleted once you change channels or close Media Center. Any more questions? :P

P.S.: Sorry for being a little off-topic.

[quzar]

/\ I just got a Media Center PC from HP too, and it's just like yours except it's a desktop. I have one coaxial, one FM antennae, and two composite/s-video inputs. You use one of the composite inputs if you have a "set-top box" (like for Comcast or Dish or w/e). If you don't have a set-top box, you use the coaxial input. I have Comcast with a set-top box, but I use the coaxial input and works fine (it downloads the guide for you and everything). The only thing I don't get because I'm not using the set-top box is on-demand, but I don't usually use that anyways. So you watch TV and record it through Media Center (which absolutely rocks). You can even record live TV while watching a recorded show. Also, Media Center automatically records when you are watching something, so if you miss a play or something, you can rewind. The file is deleted once you change channels or close Media Center. Any more questions? :P

P.S.: Sorry for being a little off-topic.

My main desktop is the one with the video hardware, also the ridiculous processors to best convert/compress video to different mpeg4 formats. This is just storage box to hold the end result .

Oh I forgot to mention: Total cost: under 200$ All the parts were either gotten from the garbage of CompUSA when I worked there, or from friend's old systems, except the two 200gig hdds which I bought... maybe 2-3 years ago for 100$ a piece at the time.

[gamerremag]

hope it doesnt overheat, lol

[Video_freak]

My main desktop is the one with the video hardware, also the ridiculous processors to best convert/compress video to different mpeg4 formats.

Lol! I'm recording every show from the Simpsons and South Park right now, and boy is the hard drive filling up fast! It's 320 GB and it has around 100+ GB left after only a few weeks. I think I got 120+ episodes now.

[quzar]

hope it doesnt overheat, lol

That was one of the two concerns everyone I showed it to raised. That and the fact that a computer case should be metal, and when I said "why?" most had no response, although others said for grounding.

It ran fine even without the fan that I added, but I put it in just to be sure =P. Hell it's a P4 running w/o a fan on it, just a heatsink and yet it runs fine, shocks me, but considering that it barely ever goes above 10% usage I guess it makes sense.