AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › Parts questions for my first Media Server build
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Parts questions for my first Media Server build - Page 2

post #31 of 50
2/27/13 at 6:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktrdsl23 View Post

Questions keep coming...

So I just realized that I have 4 hard drives to attach (1x SSD and 3x Storage) and I'm sure in the future I'll add more. My motherboard has three 6Gb/s and three 3Gb/s ports.

Should I buy an expansion card now or will I not see a big difference if one of my media drives is connected to the 3Gb/s port and wait until I have more than 6 drives to buy an expansion card?

---Edit----

Really need to keep reading my stuff. It appears that my motherboard has four 6Gb/s and four 3Gb/s ports. Two of them are covered up by a Newegg comment about using them for boot drives. With four ports I don't need anything now although I guess I still wonder if I'm better in the future to spend money on an expansion card or utilize the 3Gb/s ports. Any thoughts? Thanks.

For storage it really doesn't matter if you use 3gb or 6gb. For your SSD it really doesn't matter either. People will disagree with me on the SSD part though. There is nothing that a htpc does that needs anywhere 6gb SATA.
Reply
Reply
post #32 of 50
3/3/13 at 8:02am
Thread Starter 
So I put my server together this weekend.

Between all your guys help, the Newegg YouTube "Build a PC" video and Assassin's Server guide I got everything working without any issues. I really want to thank all of you for the repeated responses. I now have 9TB of drive space and the ability to probably add another 25-30TB with minimal effort.

I'm mainly going to be using XBMC to watch movies stored on this server. Is there a special (better) way to set up the streaming or should I just point XBMC library to the hard drives from the server that are now on my home network?

Thanks again everybody!
Reply
Reply
post #33 of 50
3/3/13 at 8:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktrdsl23 View Post

So I put my server together this weekend.

Between all your guys help, the Newegg YouTube "Build a PC" video and Assassin's Server guide I got everything working without any issues. I really want to thank all of you for the repeated responses. I now have 9TB of drive space and the ability to probably add another 25-30TB with minimal effort.

I'm mainly going to be using XBMC to watch movies stored on this server. Is there a special (better) way to set up the streaming or should I just point XBMC library to the hard drives from the server that are now on my home network?

Thanks again everybody!

That's great! Congrats on the new Server!!!
Reply
Reply
post #34 of 50
3/3/13 at 10:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

That's great! Congrats on the new Server!!!

Thanks Assassin. Your guide about WHS 2011 was invaluable in getting this up quickly and painlessly.
Reply
Reply
post #35 of 50
3/3/13 at 2:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktrdsl23 View Post

Thanks Assassin. Your guide about WHS 2011 was invaluable in getting this up quickly and painlessly.

That's great to hear! Glad things went smoothly for you.
Reply
Reply
post #36 of 50
3/3/13 at 3:42pm
I have a couple of those server cases... Mine came with three sets of 3.5" drive bay converters for the 5.25" drive bays.

You could velcro the ssd to the bottom of the case, beneath the six bay removeable 3.5" bracket, and not use a drive bay.

The bay beneath the 5.25" bays is a 3.5" bay. You could use a 2.5" bracket for a 3.5" bay for the ssd here nicely. Ebay has lots of them cheap.

2.5 to 3.5 bracket.jpg 49k .jpg file

The hard drive hanging cage can be moved over, above open pci-e/pci slots.

The 3 Gb/s ports are useable.
Reply
Reply
post #37 of 50
3/9/13 at 11:47am
Thread Starter 
So my server is running well and now I'm revisiting the question of software raid. Currently I just have WHS 2011 installed. I'm leaning towards FlexRaid as I don't mind the license fee.

Most of the FlexRaid vs. SnapRaid discussions I've seen are close to a year old. Do most people still recommend FlexRaid over SnapRaid assuming you aren't needing a free solution?

Thanks.
Reply
Reply
post #38 of 50
3/10/13 at 9:07am
Yes. The only negative you'll find about Flexraid is the cost. It is not free. Most good things never are. I rarely see it get beat up for being less at anything so if you don't mind paying for it then it's the best choice IMO.

Usually the people that want "free" are the only defenders of the the others or only people that have strong opinions against flexraid. At this point Flexdraid makes sense because there is a decent community of support around it, and it's a proven winner. It's not new anymore which often removes some uncertainty for people. It's a very mature product and pretty simple to set up.

It installs into your WHS and does not mess with anything so you don't worry about data loss at all. It can work on empty or full drives. Many products don't.
Reply
Reply
post #39 of 50
3/10/13 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

The only negative you'll find about Flexraid is the cost.
That's funny because most FlexRAID users will tell you that it's cheaper than most other server solutions. If you've already got an established PC that you want to convert to a server, FlexRAID is probably your most affordable option.
Reply
Reply
post #40 of 50
3/10/13 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
Another question. My original intention was that I would only stream video from this server and not transcode (hence my Pentium CPU). I recently downloaded Air Video to my iPad which allows my iPad to play anything on the Server with the server doing LIve Conversion of the video file. I tried it out and was able to watch the video on my iPad without any stuttering (tried both DVD and blu-ray rips). I did watch the CPU performance on my server while I was doing this and it was bouncing all over between 30-90%. As soon as I stopped the video from my iPad it would drop back to 0%.

Since it didn't lag is there any issue with me doing this? Is there anything negative with having your CPU (of the server) run for an hour or two up near 100%? When I've been streaming to other PCs in my home the CPU graph stays essentially at 0.
Reply
Reply
post #41 of 50
3/11/13 at 5:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktrdsl23 View Post

Another question. My original intention was that I would only stream video from this server and not transcode (hence my Pentium CPU). I recently downloaded Air Video to my iPad which allows my iPad to play anything on the Server with the server doing LIve Conversion of the video file. I tried it out and was able to watch the video on my iPad without any stuttering (tried both DVD and blu-ray rips). I did watch the CPU performance on my server while I was doing this and it was bouncing all over between 30-90%. As soon as I stopped the video from my iPad it would drop back to 0%.

Since it didn't lag is there any issue with me doing this? Is there anything negative with having your CPU (of the server) run for an hour or two up near 100%? When I've been streaming to other PCs in my home the CPU graph stays essentially at 0.

As long as nothing is getting excessively hot there isn't any problem with doing what you are doing. Normally with a more powerful processor you can turn up the quality but I don't know if AirVideo has this option or if it matters on an Ipad.

Enjoy.
Reply
Reply
post #42 of 50
3/11/13 at 10:05am
I will be venturing into SnapRAID for my media streaming server using Ubuntu. I think it has matured now to give me what I need.
Reply
Reply
post #43 of 50
3/13/13 at 9:14am
Can I ask why you chose that ?
Reply
Reply
post #44 of 50
3/13/13 at 1:19pm
Well for a few reasons, it seems very straight forward to setup and do the requirements I have. It also supports using any of the pooling technologies I decide on. Also, the data on the drives are mountable and readable on any computer. No need to have virgin drives. In the event of major failure, loosing a drive or two does not mean loosing files on all drives.
Reply
Reply
post #45 of 50
3/16/13 at 2:05pm
No drive pooling ?
Reply
Reply
post #46 of 50
3/16/13 at 4:13pm
SSD in a server is an overkill. I had SSD in mine and found out that there is no difference in the speed of the server when used only as an server than with 7200 rpm HD.
Reply
Reply
post #47 of 50
3/17/13 at 6:00am
I disagree there is many processes that benefit from SSD including PLEX album art with large libraries.

The cost is not prohibitive, as SSD is highly affordable.

OS installations don't belong on mechanical HDD's. It should be against the law.
Reply
Reply
post #48 of 50
3/17/13 at 6:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

I disagree there is many processes that benefit from SSD including PLEX album art with large libraries.

The cost is not prohibitive, as SSD is highly affordable.

OS installations don't belong on mechanical HDD's. It should be against the law.

For a purely storage server an SSD is not needed. When dealing with any kind of database, there are definite advantages to having an SSD.
Reply
Reply
post #49 of 50
3/17/13 at 8:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

No drive pooling ?


But of course, a choice of them....mhddfs, Greyhole or take a pick from the UnionFS crowd or my choice at the moment a better UnionFS like AUFS.
Reply
Reply
post #50 of 50
3/17/13 at 8:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick View Post

I disagree there is many processes that benefit from SSD including PLEX album art with large libraries.

The cost is not prohibitive, as SSD is highly affordable.

OS installations don't belong on mechanical HDD's. It should be against the law.

I am using an old laptop hard drive in my server (removed from the laptop when I put an ssd in it) for the os and programs. Works great. No issues at all and the price was right (free).
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home Theater Computers
AVS › AVS Forum › Video Components › Home Theater Computers › Parts questions for my first Media Server build