Using network harddrives

Hey,

I've using Serviio from my laptop to stream content to my Sony EX72X TV. I've upgraded to a SSD system which limits the space on my laptop hard drive so I need to consider external hard drives to bring additional space. As I'm mostly using my laptop I'd like to continue keeping things wireless, so network (NAS?) drive comes to play. Obviously it would be ideal to have a dedicated NAS drive running Serviio, but my budget is kinda limited so I'm thinking about getting a cheaper one not capable of running Serviio on it self.

So far streaming from my laptop to a TV has worked fairly well. I mostly have content in 720p w/ bitrate of ~4500 kbps. How much, if at all, would the network drive vs laptop hdd affect to the streaming performance? Would it be roughly the same as now with a cheap network drive or do I need to consider a more expensive NAS drive w/ dedicated Serviio server?

[zip]

If you can get a NAS (cheap) that connects to your router with LAN cable it should be ok. It'll still have to do 2 wireless hops (router -> laptop, laptop -> TV). Actually USB connected NAS straight to your laptop would be probably faster (usb -> laptop, laptop ->(wifi) tv)

I think you're right. Right now I'm streaming straight from my laptop, so only one wireless hoop:

laptop->TV

But now I need external hard drive and would like to keep my system wireless, so the option I'm considering is what you suggested with cheap NAS drive:

NAS drive - to router w/ LAN cable -> wireless to laptop -> wireless to TV

So one more wireless hop. I'm not too tech savvy and I'm bit concerned how will that affect to the streaming performance with HD content. Hopefully I'm clueless and it won't have any effect, but would like to hear from more experienced before spending too much money

Thanks a lot!

If you're going for a NAS Drive I would recommend a D-link DNS-320 NAS drive, it is a simple 2 bay enclosure made for 3.5" HDD's. AFAIK it can take up to 3TB HDD's. I used WD caviar green 2TB drives without issue. It has plenty of features too, at 65quid (IIRC) for the enclosure it is fairly cheap too.

Another option would be to get a old PC and build your own server, this is basically what I have at home except I went a bit overboard with the spec. You could look into using an Intel Atom based motherboard in a home-made box (I built one last year in a Sky+ box for around £100) as it will have low power useage so you can leave it on 24/7 and it is quite as it is designed to run fanless. If running Windows you may struggle to process 1080p however.

Pete