X7 NAS/USB/torrent questions

[drronrosero]

Hello,

I'm considering purchasing a Minix Neo x7 for my home and I have a few questions before I make a decision. I would like to replace my desktop as my downloader/file sharing system.

1. Can it handle 24/7 operations?
2. How much power does it consume?
3. Can it serve as a NAS for multiple external drives (Samba/CIFS)?
4. Can a USB hub be used to expand the number of drives connected to it?
5. How fast is the throughput when accessing the files?
6. Can it serve files while running other applications? (XBMC, Skype, Bittorrent Sync)
7. Can it serve as a torrent downloader, placing files into the external drives?
8. Can cloud services such as Dropbox, Box, Copy, Google Drive, et. al. store their files locally in the external drives?

I'm trying to choose between this, a Synology DS112j, a Raspberry Pi, or an Atom-based laptop/mini-box, thus my questions. I do hope this forum can help me. Thanks.

[flash]

Hi drronrosero.


When I bought my Minix X7 mini I thought that one device could cover all my needs. I was wrong. I have tried to setup NAS (simple samba sharing), remote access using SSH, setuping download managers with torrent and some other services. Shame, but device isn't fast enought to handle that many services. Currently it runs samba, ssh and bittorrent sync service. Samba transfers are poor, maximum 2,5 MBytes/s over ehternet, on wifi is slower. Sync client got problems syncing file to external usb drive with NTFS filesystem. Running torrent client kills device.. In my case even bare system, without any runing services is slower than my old Samsung Galaxy S2 For me, Minix x7 mini is good only for browsing the web, listening to music, watching photos and movies stored locally or via net share. I have already ordered Raspberry Pi device and I plan to set it as NAS, torrent downloader and more. It's more flexible bacause it runs pure Linux system.

[drronrosero]

Wow, interesting to know. I do hope the Raspberry Pi does the job for you then. I'm considering a cheap netbook as well but I'll probably test one out first if I can get my hands on one. Thanks for the heads up!