BUILD Power efficient (20w on load) NAS

[chittu]

for years I'm using WD my book live (NAS), which consumes only 14w on load and 11-12w on normal run. But it has only 250 MB RAM and 1GHz processor which doesn't help me to play 1080p movie via samba share.
I decided to build my own that can consume about 20w on load and less than 15w on regular use (I don't need RAID at all).

main requirements:
rtorrent/rutorrent seeds few hundreds of torrents
store mp3 files and I play them via mpd on my laptop
store movies (1080p) and play them via computer or other solutions

MB: requirement
4 x SATA3 or 2 (planing to mount only one hd and rest of them umounted on boot)
couple of USB ports

Optional
HDMI port
audio port

Questions:
I looking for a solution to stream movies from my NAS to Projector/TV, atm I use my laptop to stream the movies to projector/tv. I'm planing to have a Raspberry pi to do this job rather than running my laptop but I'm not sure if PI can handle 1080p movies. I have no problem if the power consumption goes beyond 20w (of my new NAS) during the movie stream but rest of the time (during torrent seeding, samba share mp3 access) it should stay below 20w.

Since I'm targeting on power consumption, I have no idea about what MB, processor, RAM to choose. It will be great if you could suggest me a suitable one.

 

[Yatti420]

Just double your power consumption then you wont have to worry whether the performance will cut it.. You can have huge performance increase at 50 watts..

I draw just under 50 watts with performance fans etc..

 

[chittu]

can you suggest me some MD, processor, PSU and RAM

 

[Yatti420]

Yep.. See my signature.. SuperMicro X9SCL-F (03.15) - Intel Pentium G2120 - 2 x KVR1333D3E9S/8G.. Depends on the amount of drives etc for PSU.. A high quality 300ish watt power supply seems to be proper for most peeps.. Efficiency goes down with "unused" watts typically..

 

[jyavenard]

But it has only 250 MB RAM and 1GHz processor which doesn't help me to play 1080p movie via samba share.
I decided to build my own that can consume about 20w on load and less than 15w on regular use (I don't need RAID at all).

I would be more than surprised if your problem wasn't elsewhere.

You don't need a fancy processor or RAM to be able to server a 1080p movie.

The maximim bitrate required for streaming bluray is 54Mbit/s.

I've managed to stream multiple 1080p movies from a raspberry pi on a test system.

Only the speed of your network really matter here.