Hi there all,

I love my unRAID Plex Media Server at home, but I'm now looking for something on the road (I travel a lot for work). Ideally I'd like something small and light(ish) with one power cord that will take 2-3 full size hard drives and run Plex. I'd like it to be wireless, so I can watch movies on my MacBook Air without cables attached to it.

 

Currently I'm using a 2-bay USB drive enclosure connected to a Cloud FTP, and I run the PMS on my MBA. It works... OK. Indexing takes forever, and it's a huge pain to share my media with my co-worker (usually in the next hotel room). And the ClountFTP is... disappointing over all.

 

I'm looking at the new Synology DS213air as a possible solution, but what I really want is a unRAID box for the road. Does anyone have any experience with MicoATX cases? Has anyone got a wireless AP setup in their unRAID box? Would this even be possible?

 

My dream would be a little 3 drive system (no 5.25 bays on the front), with built in 802.11n running unRAID with PLEX. I'd plug it in when I get to my hotel room, connect my wifi to my "Plex-unRAID" network and fire up the plex client. One box, one cord, no screen, keyboard or mouse. Ideally I'd love to be able to plugin ethernet to it and have it be an AP as well, but that might be reaching a bit too far.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

whiteatom

Have you tried myPlex?

I use it on my android phone.

 

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/MyPlex

 

"myPlex is a free service from Plex that lets you watch your media over the internet, share it with friends, or bookmark interesting videos for later viewing. The service makes configuring your network for these functions much simpler than before. Even people with little technical knowledge will be able to use the sophisticated media-sharing features."

Yeah.. i use myPlex.. but I have a pretty crappy up-stream at home meaning the quality is garbage... so I want to take my content with me. I'm looking at the N40L, but they look a lot bigger then I want. I for the size issue.. the DS213air might be the magic - I was just hoping for an unRAID solution.

 

whiteatom

hm. looks like the wifi performance is lousy on th ds213.

 

http://www.slashgear.com/synology-ds213air-review-your-home-cloud-goes-wireless-05250533/

You could build a mini-itx unraid using this case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112348

 

Kind of pricey, but it looks portable enough.

 

 

Man that Lian Li case is pricey!  Looks like my daughters pukey little amp for her guitar.

 

eskro has a bunch of posts on the XBMC forums outlining specs for unRAID servers.  Smallest one he describes is here:

 

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=109453

 

Still probably much bigger than you're looking for.

 

You definitely want Cat6 ethernet for when you're putting content on the drives.  Otherwise I'd not let the box touch the pipes and tubes, doesnt gain you anything using it as an AP on the road and probably not at home either assuming you already have a wireless router.

 

I'm mostly looking for wifi so I can watch from my laptop anywhere nearby.