Is using my HTPC as a NAS dumb?

[soccerdad]

Like many, I now have tons of digital media besides my recorded TV and ripped movie stuff. I have all the digital photos on one desktop PC, along with misc Word, Excel etc documents. I want to move these off of one PC and into more of a network environment. I want to be able to download pictures and home video, or work on files from any of a number of PCs, laptops etc on my network. I can just share out the drive on that desktop, but I want to store them on a more controlled, and always on system. I started looking at a dedicated NAS using something like linux. That would work, but then I need another box running. Since my HTPC is dedicated to just WMC7, is very controlled with no other users, and it is on 24/7, it seems like a good candidate. I would just add an internal HD and likely an external one for backup, and then map the drive to it on the other PCs. The network traffic for this would be light so I don't see it using much resources or interfering with my 2 extenders.

BUT- The HTPC has to be solid and stable after I do this. I don't want to take any more hits on the WAF. I don't see how this would mess things up and decrease stabilty, but wanted comments from the real experts.

So, what do ya think?

[LuckyDay]

Shouldn't be any issue as far as I can tell, but have you looked into dedicated NAS hard drives or enclosures? They aren't all that expensive, and I see them going on eBay and Craigslist cheap all the time.

From my perspective, keeping one NAS hard drive on the network is better because of the power draw compared to leaving the HTPC on, and it's just less to fuss with or have to worry about on my main PC.

Also depends on how much storage you need, but you can get an enclosure for around $60 and put whatever size drive you want in it, or just buy a NAS supported external like this:

http://microcenter.com/product/377481/L ... _%28NAS%29

[Bryan]

The IT guys in me says separate the roles, the practical home user says combine. Really file sharing isn't hard for anything to do, so I don't see an issue. It shouldn't cause performance issues or any stability problems. The only concern may be noise; if you start adding drives to the HTPC it'll add noise from the drives and may need more cooling as well.

For what it's worth, I have a Wndows Home Server but have thought of combining as well. I don't really have much need for two 24/7 boxes.

[Weest]

I've been using my HTPC as a NAS for 18 months and have had no issues with performance. It's perfectly happy recording 2 hd shows from the tuner, streaming music to a hifi system and as well as file sharing. For the record my system is a low power one based on an AMD E-350 with 2gb ram and one 1tb hdd.

[mark1234]

Go for it. If the machine is on 24x7 anyway adding an extra drive for file sharing isn't going to make any measurable impact.