Couple of SMB questions (no troubleshooting or problem solving needed)

[aginor37]

I have really been enjoying the functionality of OPL the last couple of weeks, playing games via SMB with no real issues. But now I am looking towards a more self-contained solution, as opposed to the playstation being stuck in one room, as I only have the one router that all my computers connect to wirelessly.

so my plan is to put together a box to serve as basically a server for the PS2, holding my games, media files for SMS, etc. Eventually I plan on doing a PC case mod to hold the PS2 internals, so everything is in the one box. But before i get to it, I had a couple of relatively simple questions.

First, what sort of specs should i be building my quasi-NAS server to? I have looked into FreeNAS a little, and it seems ideal for my purposes, but i had trouble getting an idea of what I would need in terms of CPU, RAM, and HDD speed requirements for optimal performance specifically with the PS2's needs. Currently, I think I am topping out at around 10-12 MB/s (this computer is connected via CAT5 to the router, and games tend to peak at 12ish % network utilization)

My other question is more idle curiosity than anything else, but through reading many threads on this board i have never found an answer either way. Is the SMB connection, as it stands with 0.7 public release, as good as it is likely to get? I understand the limitation involved with the PS2's network adapter, where (if I understood what i read correctly) the IOP has to send a request to a separate processor which then sends/receives the data from the network, i was just curious as to wether that was as optimized as it can be, or are there possible improvements to be made that might reduce the stuttering in games FMV and such. This isn't a request or a criticism, just on of those "i wonder" kind of questions.

[darkfinger]

For a really simple solution you can get an Addonics or similar USB-NAS adapter, and plug it directly into the PS2 with an Ethernet cable. Plug a cheap USB drive into the other end of the NAS adapter and you're done. In a self contained standalone unit with no other competition for bandwidth you don't need much horsepower and IMO FreeNAS is overkill.