Hello !
6 months ago I decided that I needed more storage for my media collection and decided to build an economical NAS/Torrent box based on a Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini AMD E-350 (Zacate) (http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._apu_mini_e350).
I added 7 * 2To Green Drives, an SSD for system and put everything in a Fractal Design R3 case.
This was designed to be used as a NAS, mainly used by my WD Live TV to playback 1080p mkv.
This box being very low on power usage, I managed with good Noctua 120mm fans undervolted to keep it very very silent. I even removed the small CPU fan and replaced it with a 120mm. It was so silent that I put it in the living room, close to the TV. And then I said: "hey... why not giving this little AMD APU a chance to decode my 1080p media instead of the WD live TV ?".
I tried many Catalyst drivers, many media centers (2 or 3 XBMC, WMC,...), many many many video players (MC, MPC-HC, VLC, PotPlayer, Kplayer, Splash, MPlayer,....), many codec/codec packs/procesing software... (ffdshow, Shark, KAZ, DivX,...) and finally choose XBMC + MPC-HC + FFDshow audio and Video raw Decoder + Haali media Splitter.
Today, I'm quite happy with my setup.
But I face a new problem: need more storage again, and plan to upgrade my NAS to 10 or even 14 2To disks.
The NAS upgrade will probably be an i3 2100 or maybe the new Pentium Sandy Bridge G620/G840 with a P67/H67/Z68 chipset on a full ATX system. 6 SATA and 2/3 PCIe 8x/16x slots to add at least 8 more SATA connectors.
Upgrade case to a Fractal Design Define XL probably.
But now, for the media player part, I see 4 solutions and need advice :
A/ Use this new NAS build (i3 2105 probably in this case - H67/Z68) as an HTPC.
Problem is: my girlfriend does not like too much a big computer in the living room. Plus there would potientally be a little bit more noise than my current build, and I'm totally allergic to noise!
OR put the NAS in another room (where I could set fans to normal speed and keep the case very well ventilated) and 3 solutions :
B/ Use my current mini-ITX Zacate to build a mini-ITX HTPC with only a SSD disk. I would just have to buy a nice-looking mini-ITX case. There are limitations, expressed in the question part at the end of the topic.
C/ Build a new dedicated HTPC on a mini-ITX or micro-ATX, based also on an i3 2105 (or even i5 2400), maybe with a better and cheap discrete GPU.
D/ Use my WD Live TV back! But the graphical interface (even customised with custom firmware) is not as beautiful as XBMC
Last notes about my setup:
_ my HTPC is connected through HDMI to a 7.1 AVR (decoding DTS and DD, but no HD signals). This AVR will probably be updated in the current year. Then, another HDMI wire is connected to my Plasma TV, while the sound is redirected to 5 speakers and a sub.
_ my HTPC is dedicated to HD video playback or music playback. No game, no surfing, no recording, no encoding.
95% of my videos are MKV, H264 encoded, 23.976 FPS, 5.1 DTS or DD, always played with english subtitles.
_ Most important HPTC objectives:
* reliable
* fast
* able to produce very good output video quality
And now here come the questions:
1/ Quality: I if read correctly, the best quality from 1080p MKV would be obtained from software decoding with appropriate video post-processing ?
With my little current build, I have to enable DXVA decoding (GPU hardware assist decoding) and I'm stuck with a medium Video Renderer (I think I use EVR Custom). I've tried MADvr Video renderer with many parameters but I just do not have enough power to run it.
Which proposed solution B-C-D would offer me the best potential video quality (if correctly configured) ?
I included WD Live TV because I read a few threads where people claimed that they get better video quality with this player than with an HTPC...
In other words: would I have any video quality benefit to use an i3/Pentium build over my current Zacate?
2/ Is an i3 2100/2105 enough powerfull to software decode a 20Mb/s H.264 video with good post-processing ?
My current AMD E-350 is really not.
Powerfull enough to run madvr video renderer ?
3/ Would a discrete and cheap fanless PCIe video card be better than the integrated Intel HD 2000 in the objcetive of HD video decoding-processing only ? Same question with the integrated HD 3000 of the I3 2105 ?
Maybe a cheap Pentium Sandy Bridge like the G620 will be enough with a discrete video card ?
4/ I currently bitstream all DTS and DD sound signals to my AVR through HDMI (don't have any HD sound source for the moment), cause I thought it was better like this and did not see any benefit to decode it on the HTPC. The AVR is built to do this precise job, and that saves some CPU ressource on the HTPC.
Should I change my mind ? Any advantage to decode sound on the HTPC ? using an audio renderer like Reclock ?
5/ I'm totally allergic to noise and if choose to go with a mini-ITX HTPC build, I'm afraid of these little 80mm fans
Are there really small mini-ITX cases with only one 120mm exhaust fan ? Case can not be larger than 38cm and higher than 15cm (length is not a problem).
6/ any other ideas, advice, thought ?
Erf, I wanted it short, but it's long... I'm sorry, thank you if you read until here.
And finally, sorry for my scolar english
Thanks in advance !
6 months ago I decided that I needed more storage for my media collection and decided to build an economical NAS/Torrent box based on a Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini AMD E-350 (Zacate) (http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._apu_mini_e350).
I added 7 * 2To Green Drives, an SSD for system and put everything in a Fractal Design R3 case.
This was designed to be used as a NAS, mainly used by my WD Live TV to playback 1080p mkv.
This box being very low on power usage, I managed with good Noctua 120mm fans undervolted to keep it very very silent. I even removed the small CPU fan and replaced it with a 120mm. It was so silent that I put it in the living room, close to the TV. And then I said: "hey... why not giving this little AMD APU a chance to decode my 1080p media instead of the WD live TV ?".
I tried many Catalyst drivers, many media centers (2 or 3 XBMC, WMC,...), many many many video players (MC, MPC-HC, VLC, PotPlayer, Kplayer, Splash, MPlayer,....), many codec/codec packs/procesing software... (ffdshow, Shark, KAZ, DivX,...) and finally choose XBMC + MPC-HC + FFDshow audio and Video raw Decoder + Haali media Splitter.
Today, I'm quite happy with my setup.
But I face a new problem: need more storage again, and plan to upgrade my NAS to 10 or even 14 2To disks.
The NAS upgrade will probably be an i3 2100 or maybe the new Pentium Sandy Bridge G620/G840 with a P67/H67/Z68 chipset on a full ATX system. 6 SATA and 2/3 PCIe 8x/16x slots to add at least 8 more SATA connectors.
Upgrade case to a Fractal Design Define XL probably.
But now, for the media player part, I see 4 solutions and need advice :
A/ Use this new NAS build (i3 2105 probably in this case - H67/Z68) as an HTPC.
Problem is: my girlfriend does not like too much a big computer in the living room. Plus there would potientally be a little bit more noise than my current build, and I'm totally allergic to noise!
OR put the NAS in another room (where I could set fans to normal speed and keep the case very well ventilated) and 3 solutions :
B/ Use my current mini-ITX Zacate to build a mini-ITX HTPC with only a SSD disk. I would just have to buy a nice-looking mini-ITX case. There are limitations, expressed in the question part at the end of the topic.
C/ Build a new dedicated HTPC on a mini-ITX or micro-ATX, based also on an i3 2105 (or even i5 2400), maybe with a better and cheap discrete GPU.
D/ Use my WD Live TV back! But the graphical interface (even customised with custom firmware) is not as beautiful as XBMC
Last notes about my setup:
_ my HTPC is connected through HDMI to a 7.1 AVR (decoding DTS and DD, but no HD signals). This AVR will probably be updated in the current year. Then, another HDMI wire is connected to my Plasma TV, while the sound is redirected to 5 speakers and a sub.
_ my HTPC is dedicated to HD video playback or music playback. No game, no surfing, no recording, no encoding.
95% of my videos are MKV, H264 encoded, 23.976 FPS, 5.1 DTS or DD, always played with english subtitles.
_ Most important HPTC objectives:
* reliable
* fast
* able to produce very good output video quality
And now here come the questions:
1/ Quality: I if read correctly, the best quality from 1080p MKV would be obtained from software decoding with appropriate video post-processing ?
With my little current build, I have to enable DXVA decoding (GPU hardware assist decoding) and I'm stuck with a medium Video Renderer (I think I use EVR Custom). I've tried MADvr Video renderer with many parameters but I just do not have enough power to run it.
Which proposed solution B-C-D would offer me the best potential video quality (if correctly configured) ?
I included WD Live TV because I read a few threads where people claimed that they get better video quality with this player than with an HTPC...
In other words: would I have any video quality benefit to use an i3/Pentium build over my current Zacate?
2/ Is an i3 2100/2105 enough powerfull to software decode a 20Mb/s H.264 video with good post-processing ?
My current AMD E-350 is really not.
Powerfull enough to run madvr video renderer ?
3/ Would a discrete and cheap fanless PCIe video card be better than the integrated Intel HD 2000 in the objcetive of HD video decoding-processing only ? Same question with the integrated HD 3000 of the I3 2105 ?
Maybe a cheap Pentium Sandy Bridge like the G620 will be enough with a discrete video card ?
4/ I currently bitstream all DTS and DD sound signals to my AVR through HDMI (don't have any HD sound source for the moment), cause I thought it was better like this and did not see any benefit to decode it on the HTPC. The AVR is built to do this precise job, and that saves some CPU ressource on the HTPC.
Should I change my mind ? Any advantage to decode sound on the HTPC ? using an audio renderer like Reclock ?
5/ I'm totally allergic to noise and if choose to go with a mini-ITX HTPC build, I'm afraid of these little 80mm fans
Are there really small mini-ITX cases with only one 120mm exhaust fan ? Case can not be larger than 38cm and higher than 15cm (length is not a problem).
6/ any other ideas, advice, thought ?
Erf, I wanted it short, but it's long... I'm sorry, thank you if you read until here.
And finally, sorry for my scolar english
Thanks in advance !
