Is FreeNAS right for my limited needs?

[tmcm11]

I'm trying to set up a basic home network with a central media server.

Right now my configuration is as follows: Upstairs I have a cable modem connected to the internet, with a wireless router hooked up to my desktop PC. I also have an external USB hard drive hooked up to my wireless router that stores all the content I want to serve. Downstairs I have an intel NUC connected to my TV with kodi installed on it.

I'm not happy with the external hard drive for a number of reasons and think a NAS setup might be right for me. However, I don't have a ton of data to serve. Maybe only 2TB. I also only stream to the one intel NUC downstairs and don't need to stream it to remote devices or anything. I'd like some method of downloading content from the internet directly to the storage device that will stream the content downstairs to my NUC that will do all the heavy lifting as far as decoding the video.

While I think a NAS would be a good solution I think it might also be overkill for my purposes. If it is overkill, I'm not sure what alternative I should look at. Internal hard drive in the PC? SSD external HD to a better router? I don't know.

 

[pirateghost]

What's wrong with just hooking the drive up directly to the NUC and doing every thing you need from that one device?

 

[joeschmuck]

What's wrong with just hooking the drive up directly to the NUC and doing every thing you need from that one device?

Ditto! This sounds like the best advice given the OP's situation.

 

[mattbbpl]

What's wrong with just hooking the drive up directly to the NUC and doing every thing you need from that one device?

Agreed.

 

[tmcm11]

Well the reason is because my cable modem and wireless router are upstairs and the NUC is downstairs. Seems silly to transfer downloads over wifi to a hard drive connected to the NUC

 

[pirateghost]

Well the reason is because my cable modem and wireless router are upstairs and the NUC is downstairs. Seems silly to transfer downloads over wifi to a hard drive connected to the NUC

Why?

Why transfer anything when that box can do the downloading for you?

 

[joeschmuck]

Well the reason is because my cable modem and wireless router are upstairs and the NUC is downstairs. Seems silly to transfer downloads over wifi to a hard drive connected to the NUC

What we are saying is to obtain a new external hard drive, connect it directly to the NUC, move all the media to the NUC external hard drive. I'm not sure why you think this has to do with your Wireless Modem and WiFi network, it doesn't. Well except for the initial transfer if you want to do that over the WiFi, I'd rather connect both external hard drives to a single computer and move them over the faster way, WiFi is bound to take a long time.