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Server/HTPC
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alex131
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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20. November 2008 @ 22:35 |
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I'm running out of hard drive space on my laptop and my two external 500GB HDs so I've decided to build a media server and basically an overall big computer to hold all of my stuff. I'd mostly be streaming content to my PS3, desktop, and our two laptops but I would also consider throwing in a decent video card (8600 or the like) to run 1080p video.
Specs needed:
4x 1TB HDD
Reliability
24x7 use
My Questions:
1) Does it matter whether I pick out a server board or a gaming board? Why?
2) Should I buy a Dual Core, Quad Core, 2x Dual or 2x Quad?
3) Is a RAID 0 worth the risk of my data being lost? I have years worth of downloaded movies, TV shows, 100+GB of music, photos, and other data that would be an incredible hassle to download again so is RAID 0 stable enough to be plausible?
4) How much RAM is a good amount? Consider three PCs streaming at once.
Answer whatever you can, I would appreciate the help.
60GB PS3-PSN ID: slappysloopy
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20. November 2008 @ 23:29 |
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GAMING COMPUTER - Intel q9550 @ 3.4ghz | EVGA GTX 260 core 216 | Gigabyte ds3l | 6gb Gskill DDR2 800 ram | Silverstone 700 watt psu | WD 640gb hdd | Seagate 300gb hdd | LG dvd burner | Samsung dvd burner | Antec p182 case | logitech 2.1 speakers | logitech g11 keyboard | Samsung 25.5in 1900x1200 monitor | 19in 1440x900 secondary monitor | Windows 7 64bit | SERVER - Gigabyte 785g motherboard | AMD Phenom 9650 | 6gb ram | three 1.5tb hdd | Seagate 1tb hdd | WD 750gb hdd | two 300gb hdd | Maxtor 200gb hdd | Ark rackmount case | CentOS 5.5
Steam name = "krj15489" alias = Jordan-k
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20. November 2008 @ 23:32
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Senior Member
11 product reviews
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21. November 2008 @ 01:00 |
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alex131
I just did what you are doing. I used a gaming board with an older AMD 4800 CPU (I am streaming only). Another thing not talked about is the PC case. I went with the Silverstone Grandia GD01MX Black HTPC ATX Case, the price was $250:
Case:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...9610&CatId=3429
The reason I went with this case, I too, have 4tb (internal). But I know, one day, (especially with Blu-ray rips), that might become full. So I use a hard drive (Hot Swap) system (in addition to the raid).
Ex: I have 4tb raid + 1tb on the pullout, which I can have an endless number of pullouts = (limitless storage):
Mobile Rack:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...96207&CatId=285
and with the case having the "DOOR" cover on the front, the mobile rack system will work.
I did setup my raid as a raid 0. But, I have a manual backup in place. So "when" the raid fails, I can restore all my media back and not loose one movie. The only reason I went with raid 0, is because I didn't want to give up that 1tb of extra storage.
Good luck with your build.
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alex131
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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21. November 2008 @ 02:55 |
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Originally posted by ugc:
alex131
I just did what you are doing. I used a gaming board with an older AMD 4800 CPU (I am streaming only). Another thing not talked about is the PC case. I went with the Silverstone Grandia GD01MX Black HTPC ATX Case, the price was $250:
Case:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...9610&CatId=3429
The reason I went with this case, I too, have 4tb (internal). But I know, one day, (especially with Blu-ray rips), that might become full. So I use a hard drive (Hot Swap) system (in addition to the raid).
Ex: I have 4tb raid + 1tb on the pullout, which I can have an endless number of pullouts = (limitless storage):
Mobile Rack:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...96207&CatId=285
and with the case having the "DOOR" cover on the front, the mobile rack system will work.
I did setup my raid as a raid 0. But, I have a manual backup in place. So "when" the raid fails, I can restore all my media back and not loose one movie. The only reason I went with raid 0, is because I didn't want to give up that 1tb of extra storage.
Good luck with your build.
What are you using as a backup for this?
Also, is the RAID 0 with four drives a big difference in speed for you?
60GB PS3-PSN ID: slappysloopy
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Senior Member
11 product reviews
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21. November 2008 @ 11:26 |
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Originally posted by alex131:
What are you using as a backup for this?
Also, is the RAID 0 with four drives a big difference in speed for you?
I have 1tb drives inside the pullouts, and I backup my movies as I go. So when a movie/show/tvseries is ready to be put on the server, I also copy it to the 1tb drive as a backup. Then when it is full, I grab another.
On the raid 0..I guess it is faster, but the reason I used a raid 0 really wasn't for speed, it was so I could combine all the drives into one. I stream to a Tvix Media player, and you have a limited number of drives you can share with the software it comes with. So, combining all the the drive together, Windows sees that as one drive.
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21. November 2008 @ 11:39 |
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i would not use raid 0 for storage of this amount. it is unsafe. hard drive failure can happen. i just had my 74gb raptor die a few weeks ago and it was not good. i didn't lose much important data but i still needed a new drive and had to reinstall the os. if one of the drive in raid 0 fails you could lost tb's of data. if a drive fails in raid 5 you buy a new drive and rebuild the array and all your data is back.
GAMING COMPUTER - Intel q9550 @ 3.4ghz | EVGA GTX 260 core 216 | Gigabyte ds3l | 6gb Gskill DDR2 800 ram | Silverstone 700 watt psu | WD 640gb hdd | Seagate 300gb hdd | LG dvd burner | Samsung dvd burner | Antec p182 case | logitech 2.1 speakers | logitech g11 keyboard | Samsung 25.5in 1900x1200 monitor | 19in 1440x900 secondary monitor | Windows 7 64bit | SERVER - Gigabyte 785g motherboard | AMD Phenom 9650 | 6gb ram | three 1.5tb hdd | Seagate 1tb hdd | WD 750gb hdd | two 300gb hdd | Maxtor 200gb hdd | Ark rackmount case | CentOS 5.5
Steam name = "krj15489" alias = Jordan-k
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Senior Member
11 product reviews
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21. November 2008 @ 15:12 |
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krj15489
I agree with you about the raid setup. If one drive fails, you lose it all. BUT, I backup everything to different drives. So if my raid 0 fails, no big deal. I haven't lost anything. I would just have to replace the failed drive, create my raid, and copy everything back.
Also, you got me curious about the raid 5 setup. Thinking safety, and what you said in the previous post. So I looked it up on the wiki, and they still recommend to have backups. Which is what I am doing. Here is a copy/paste-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
"RAID is not a good alternative to backing up data. Data may become damaged or destroyed without harm to the drive(s) on which they are stored. For example, part of the data may be overwritten by a system malfunction; a file may be damaged or deleted by user error or malice and not noticed for days or weeks; and of course the entire array is at risk of catastrophes such as theft, flood, and fire."
So if you use a backup system (and you should, separate from the raid array), I see no harm in using raid 0.
On a side note- I use a 74gb raptor for my OS also. And the best software to help in a hard drive failure is Acronis. If it fails, it will restore your new drive back in about 5 min from your last drive image.
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