Raspi + External HDD Recommendations

[Lanzelet]

Hi,

I am wondering which solution is the best for my Raspberry Pi Media-Server Setup.

I have a Raspberry Pi Model B running with Xbian. It's attached via LAN to my Access Point (Asus N56U) and via HDMI to my TV. Currently I am streaming Movies from my Windows 8.1 Laptop (WiFi), which works quite well. But I want to switch to a 2GB External HDD, where all my Movies will be stored.

But how should I integrate the HDD in the network, so that I can easily add new stuff on it via my Laptop and I am not have to plug it out and in all the time?

Should I plug it in to the Raspberry-USB-Port? Then how can I save new files to the HDD from my laptop?
Or should I plug it to my Access Point and save new files via WLAN?

I don't want to buy new hardware in the near future.

[Skywatch]

The pi is slow when it comes to network transfers. Limited by it's 100baseT speed and while I tried it just got frustrating. Therefore go with attaching it to the AP if you can and then it's on the network full time with no unplugging. I know you don't want to get new hardware, but here's what I did.....

I had this issue last year after filling an external USB drive and this is what I eventually went with....

Zyxel NSA325 NAS/Server.
2 x WD Red 3TB drives.

The nsa can do a lot more that just a storage device. It only uses 12W power in full operating mode, 7W in idle mode and 2W in standby mode (Mine is set to auto off and 00.30 and auto on at 07.30 giving 7 hours of power saving).

It has gigabit networking and 2 drive bays for future expansion if you only fill one to start with. Mine is set as a raid array so I needed 2 drives.

The fan is slightly noisy so no the best choice if it's going into a bedroom, but other rooms should be OK!

For the price it's hard to beat and there are still regular updates to the firmware with new features.

It's faster than the Dlink models having a 1.6GHz processor and makes all my media available to all my devices wherever I happen to be.

Skywatch