Hey all ... I'm baaaaaack. Now that the new iMacs have been announced and as I patiently await the removal of the 'Coming Soon' banner and the inclusion of a 'Buy' button on the Apple Store iMac pages - I am looking to make final decisions. This thread has been great and Tekkster's detailed reply hit on alot of the items I have been thinking about.
I am strongly leaning towards ... the Synology DS1812+ and using one of the iMacs (the one I will be using in my office) to run the server software - iTunes, Plex etc. I can add a Mac Mini down the road if I choose to not run the applications on the iMac I will be using. I had originally indicated that I wanted an always on solution and, after thinking about it, realized that my iMac is likely to always be on. Not sure I can see the advantage of having a Mac Mini just to run the serving applications. I have Apple TVs in two rooms now.
Please provide your thoughts and feel free to punch holes in my leanings if I am missing something or if you have another idea you think might be better. To sum up - I would like this setup to primarily serve video (tv, movies and home video), music and photos, provide backup, document storage (I plan to scan scan scan and clear out my filing cabinets) and serve surveillance.
Couple of quick related and somewhat related questions.
1. Will there be any issues moving my iTunes media to the Synology from a pc knowing that the house is likely to be all Mac soon? I would imagine that because it is a NAS designed to work with both that there would be no issues in running the iTunes media from an iMac after having put it there from a PC. I would be moving it via iTunes mechanism / recommendations for doing so.
2. How do you folks separate and serve different types of video now - meaning tv / film versus home video? Do you throw all video into the same place or do these two types have different homes? I may be thinking with a PC mindset and it may not matter with Mac so feel free to set me straight.
I lied. One more similar question. Would I be serving photos with iPhoto or Aperture? How would this work with the photos stored on the Synology and the AppleTVs at the set? Or would I need some other media receiver to handle photos? Or is this a situation in which the MacMini might now come back into play.
Thanks again.
I am strongly leaning towards ... the Synology DS1812+ and using one of the iMacs (the one I will be using in my office) to run the server software - iTunes, Plex etc. I can add a Mac Mini down the road if I choose to not run the applications on the iMac I will be using. I had originally indicated that I wanted an always on solution and, after thinking about it, realized that my iMac is likely to always be on. Not sure I can see the advantage of having a Mac Mini just to run the serving applications. I have Apple TVs in two rooms now.
Please provide your thoughts and feel free to punch holes in my leanings if I am missing something or if you have another idea you think might be better. To sum up - I would like this setup to primarily serve video (tv, movies and home video), music and photos, provide backup, document storage (I plan to scan scan scan and clear out my filing cabinets) and serve surveillance.
Couple of quick related and somewhat related questions.
1. Will there be any issues moving my iTunes media to the Synology from a pc knowing that the house is likely to be all Mac soon? I would imagine that because it is a NAS designed to work with both that there would be no issues in running the iTunes media from an iMac after having put it there from a PC. I would be moving it via iTunes mechanism / recommendations for doing so.
2. How do you folks separate and serve different types of video now - meaning tv / film versus home video? Do you throw all video into the same place or do these two types have different homes? I may be thinking with a PC mindset and it may not matter with Mac so feel free to set me straight.
I lied. One more similar question. Would I be serving photos with iPhoto or Aperture? How would this work with the photos stored on the Synology and the AppleTVs at the set? Or would I need some other media receiver to handle photos? Or is this a situation in which the MacMini might now come back into play.
Thanks again.