Media PC/fileserver
Okay, we've got some spare parts laying around right now that just aren't worth selling. What I thought we could do is put 'em together, with some extra stuff we'd buy, and get one of those spiffy HTPC cases. This would allow it to connect wirelessly to the network (for the filesharing duties), and be hooked up to the downstairs TV/sound system (for the media duty).
So... I need your help! I've never built anything like this, and I don't know what to do, really. Is it wise to do this? I can't imagine any modern processor having trouble doing both of these, but who knows.
We've got:
A s-457 motherboard
1x512 badly abused Corsair value ram
several cheap PCI video cards
What we need (for sure):
500gb harddrive (maybe two)
1 small harddrive, for the OS? or would it be fine with the files?
What processor? I'm thinking Celeron, assuming the board still works okay - but is even THAT overkill?
Any other tips/ideas would be helpful!
So... I need your help! I've never built anything like this, and I don't know what to do, really. Is it wise to do this? I can't imagine any modern processor having trouble doing both of these, but who knows.
We've got:
A s-457 motherboard
1x512 badly abused Corsair value ram
several cheap PCI video cards
What we need (for sure):
500gb harddrive (maybe two)
1 small harddrive, for the OS? or would it be fine with the files?
What processor? I'm thinking Celeron, assuming the board still works okay - but is even THAT overkill?
Any other tips/ideas would be helpful!
0
Comments
Happauge bought technotrend which makes pretty much the best cards. make sure if you go that route that you use a card with a dedicated encoder, otherwise you'll need a far more powerful processor.
as far as just playing video streaming from another computer you wont need much space on the machine itself, that is unless the files will be hosted locally. lol amd make sure of this one, dont have a microwave between the HTPC and your file server, lol it tends to kill signals when you use it.
if its just playback your probably good with at least an MX4000 or a low grade AGP card. just make sure you use the S-Video cable that comes with the card, they are not all the same. if you try to mix and match your might not get any color or it might not work at all, ive had both of those appen to me.
a celeron should be good enuf power to steam or play video and music loaclly.
and remember VLC and MPC are my most favorite video players.
If you plan to encode video I would recommend something a bit beefier than a celeron. I also recommend you put as much ram in as you can. Also as you stated HD space, lots and lots of HD space. Your HTPC should really only be an interface machine, file storage of recorded shows should be contained on another machine where you can do some proper file storage with large drives and redundancy. Im currently planing something along these lines.
HTPC:
P4 3.0 northy
1gig ram
200gig hd
Video to be determined
PVR card from hauppage probably a pvr250 or 500
Backend I have in place
P4 3.0 Preschot
2.gig ram
4x250gig in a raid5
3ware 4channel ide raid controller.
Ive spent a lot of time thinking about this. Ive come to the conclusion that its just not worth ripping movies and storing them on HD's, its best to rip and burn to dvd. I started ripping my dvd collection to hd and it ate up way to much space. min 4 gig per movie up to 8gig. The back end server is gonna be for tv series storage. Ill record my favorite shows and at the end of the season, burn them out to dvd.
i have a file server upstairs in my office that has 1.3tb+ of space. everything is here including a hauppage tv tuner card. i then use my htpc's as clients and stream stuff to them in their respective rooms. i don't have any hdtv's so i don't need anything that fast or powerful.
my bedroom htpc (which is hooked up to a 27" sony trinitron) is a 1.2ghz celeron, 768mb pc133, 20gb hdd, low-profile 128mb geforce 6200, low- profile sb live 7.1, 16x dvd-rom. all of this is stuffed into a chopped compaq matx case w/ 250w psu and only 2 80mm fans ( 1 psu and 1 cpu hsf).
my main living room htpc is hooked up to a 42" sony trinitron and is a little more powerful because i like to play some madden, nba, or nhl with my friends. abit ai7 (865pe) with a p4 3.0e, 1gb pc3200, 80gb, 128mb 9800pro w/ A.C. Silencer, onboard sound, 16x dvd-rom, all in an antec overture (v.1) with a 380w truepower psu. 3 fans here, 80mm in the psu, and 2 92mm thermaltake silentcats ( 1 exhaust and 1 one on the slk 948u).
both are running xp pro and are hooked up through s-video. the living room htpc has a wireless mini-keyboard with integrated thumbstick mouse. the bedroom htpc has a wireless presenter's mouse with a thumbstick. the most important thing to me is silence, but it is hard to come by when trying to cool that prescott stuffed under my tv. i am looking into getting an opty 165 for the pc in my sig, and using its a64 3200+ as the base for my new, quieter living room htpc.
it depends on how you rip your dvds. you need to encode them with divx or xvid so that a full dvd (movie alone w/ no extras) will equal less than 1gb.
Here's sort of the general plan I have in mind as of now. It will be hooked up downstairs, and I may need some sort of a/v switcher. It's an older TV down there and doesn't s-video. What we do is run things via RCA into the VCR then into the TV. So yeah. Kind of crappy, but it works.
2x500gb harddrives in RAID-1. This will be the media drive, RAIDed for security.
2x320gb harddrives, also in RAID-1. My idea with this set is for nightly backups from all 3 computers in this house. I've always wanted that and have never done it.
either a spare 120gb I have that's kind of flaky, or a 36gb Raptor for the OS/general files. Would the Raptor be overkill?
1x512 Corsair value ram. We could possibly get a 2x512 cheap kit, might be worth it.
Now, the processor. Remember that, for the most part, this will be a fileserver. However, I'd like to be able to set up a sort of one-click DVD ripping hotkey that could be used. I'm not sure how, or even if it's possible, but that could come later. Then again, as far as I know, the DVD/surround system down there can only has 2ch input, so it might be worth it just to play the DVDs on the player.
Any more ideas, guys? Your setups and advice already gave me a push in the right direction
Edit: A TV capture card will not be necessary. The only shows we watch we already download anyway.
also i wouldn't stuff a bunch of hdds into your htpc. you want the htpc to be basically an interface machine and you want your fileserver somewhere else like your office. it makes no sense to suff a whole bunch of expensive 300gb+ hdds into a cramped htpc case which will likely be stuffed into an av rack with very little airflow.
htpc = htpc (not fileserver)
make sense? plus a fileserver is something i would keep on all of the time, while my htpc's are turned on/off whenever i need them.
also, i think the raptor is probably overkill for an htpc---it runs loud and hot which is not goood for an htpc. i would use the raptor as the OS drive in your fileserver, then use the 4 massive hdds as your storage in your fileserver. share them accross your network, and then access them using your htpc.
If you're not planning on ever using this HTPC for HDTV, your CPU is OK. Once you start into trying to upscale to HDTV quality, you're going to need a robust CPU solution. The Pentium M chips are ideal for this: powerful and cool, with low power consumption.
Video card should be decent as well once you make the leap to HDTV. On an SDTV set, anything with a good quality TV-out is fine, but you need a modern card with good drivers and DVI output to have a good HDTV picture at good framerates.
There's one thing I have to clarify, though. If I build this, it will be running double duty. It's not monetarily or economically feasible for me to set a up "proper" system. For one I would have to front all the money now and have my brother pay me back his half as he can (he doesn't have a job yet).
The second reason is that the downstairs isn't used very often. This isn't the groundfloor - it's a furnished basement. Usually we only use it for friends (movies, LAN parties, jam sessions) and occasionally for ourselves. The more I think about it, the less sense it would be to even HAVE it in a component case. Since my receiver got fried, I have a useless CD changer sitting there, and that's it (excluding the dvd system and speakers). I'd probably be better off setting a full case beneath the entertainment system.
Finally, I'm moving off to college (I hope!) in a little over a year. If I build this, chances are it would come with me (maybe). In either case one of us will be without it. So it doesn't really make sense to set up a whole proper distribution network thing. It would completely screw everything later on. When I get my own house, definitely, just not now.
This computer would likely remain on all the time no matter what (every other one does anyway). And especially since I listen to my music all the time, I'd be frustrated if I had to go down and turn it on/off all the time
Edit: And HDTV? Fuhgettabahdit. I think the biggest TV we have is still less than 30", and it's one of the insanely heavy floor sets. Somehow it's retained perfect color and everything so far. You see, my stepdad is completely tech-illiterate. So we're always pretty much that last ones to upgrade to new technology, because he "can't figure this high-tech crap out."
//edit: MythTV, for example.