hayden Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 I'm putting together a little media server for me at home, and i'm going to be spending most of my funds on hdd's and a fast wireless network card. Anyone got any opinions on this? I was hoping to optimise my space and throw maybe 2 1TB HDD's depending on price and availability. The thing is, i cant really find that many internal ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 I've got a few opinions :cyclops: : 1. wireless is not a good idea for a media server, use Gbit ethernet instead. 2. if it's going to be a media server, you probably won't put it in the living room and you can use an ordinary decent tower model instead of those overpriced media center living room boxes. 3. if you plan on using it to store/record tv shows, use a raid-5 setup, a crashed hard disk won't erase all your stored shows (well it probably wouldn't anyway, but it would make it virtually inaccessible unless you're willing to pay some $1000 or so) 4. if you are going for a raid-5 setup, put in at least 5 hdd's and don't use an nVidia chipset. (1 small hdd or flash drive (not those super expensive ones) and 4 economical drives for the raid array, for ex. WD caviar GP) 5. put in 2 tuners 6. this sort of setup will cost you a lot of money, especially since you'd need another (tiny) computer at all places you want to make the video available (streaming over your Gbit network, you'd need to invest in a decent home network too of course) If you're planning on building just a simple media center PC near your TV, it'll be a lot cheaper, but it'll also give you a lot less options and you'll need to be satisfied with either a large expensive case (those media center case don't come cheap and if you want to install multiple hard disks, they won't come small either, for example: Antec Fusion which is still among the cheaper decent ones) or slow hard disk performance (if you take a smaller case, you won't be able to install multiple hard disks and even might have to make do with 2.5" HDD). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 Ive already got a home ethernet, so perhaps i should upgrade the router on that to extend it wirelessly. Recording TV only came in about 2 years ago here, so not much is happening with that.. And i don't have digital tv so cant record anyways, but the pay tv set top box has recording so i use that. i was thinking more of a computer dedicated to media thats fast and responsive with lots of hard disk space, that i could connect to quite easily. It would be sitting in a corner somewhere, so it doesnt have to look pretty. You mentioned using multiple smalled hdds. Is this in case of corruption? If i did that, would i be able to composite those hdds together to act as one hard drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vystral Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 Raid You mentioned using multiple smalled hdds. Is this in case of corruption? If i did that, would i be able to composite those hdds together to act as one hard drive? Raid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killeravocado Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102 1tb drive for under 200 us dollar.... Stick two or three of them in there, use a raid configuration. Use a small drive 40-60gb for the OS and all programs used to configure the server... Make sure if you do go wireless, you go N, fastest transfer speed, good range, horrible price. If you go wired route, upgrade your router to gigabit ethernet 1000/100/10. Make sure your media server has gigabit ethernet either on the mobo or with a PCI card... There are also products like these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882699001 that allow you to pretty much connect your TV up to your network. I think if I would use something like that, I would have the server in a room that no one would see it/mess with it... and then connect that to your TV and blamo, your set! I love connecting my laptop to my TV to play racing games, watch Star Trek torrents, etc... I wish I had the money to make a media server... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyran Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 Raid 0 stick a few discs in and use them as one big disc also makes writing and reading faster i use a laptop as my tv server works just as good as a big unit and stream it from our main computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 I like the raid 0 idea, that'd be sick.. An internal 1 TB drive for under $200?? Oh, jsut looked ins a samsung, i was reading about those, they said fast read and write speeds, but short life span.. they explained it in a chinese proverb, lol. But ill def use a smaller drive for OS and other software, my brother did that on this computer, had a 100gb for os and software, then a 500GB.. but that filled up so quickly. With multiple HDD's it will probably need some crazy cooling action, what are your ideas those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killeravocado Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 as for cooling, everything should be ok just as long as you have enough case fans, and know which way they are pointing... Maybe intake in the front, exhust in the back... But if you want cooling for each of the HDD you can go with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200030 I had a couple of these, and they worked great. For four bucks you can't complain... They just attach to the bottom of your HDD via a few screws, plug into your powersupply and presto chango each HDD has an independent cooler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USWhoFan Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 But if you want cooling for each of the HDD you can go with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200030 I had a couple of these, and they worked great. Those look cool, no pun intended. How much more space do they take up in the mounting cage? Or do you have to put them in a bay with that attached? Hayden, Not sure is this helps you any but a couple years ago I setup a Dell Power Edge 1300 for a home server. It's got dual PII SEC 450's and 1 Gig of RAM. The boot drive is a 8-9 Gig SCSI. And I have 4 500 Gig IDE's in it used for storage. It connects to my LAN via a standard 10/100 card that's integrated on the system board. As a backup for my data I use a mix of the original media I've ripped to it, DVD backups and several external drives. I do have a SCSI 6 tape DLT drive that'll hold I think 250 Gigs per-tape, but I don't have any software to support it and I'm too cheap to buy it. It runs great and is fast enough for all my media serving needs. (Music & Video) I don't stream anything I just connect via SMB shares to my Modded XBox or any of the PC's in the house. I also have a Power Edge 6400 sitting in the house with Fiber Cards in it I've been meaning to replace it out with but I've been to lazy to switch them out since everythings been working fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 as for cooling, everything should be ok just as long as you have enough case fans, and know which way they are pointing... Maybe intake in the front, exhust in the back... But if you want cooling for each of the HDD you can go with something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200030 I had a couple of these, and they worked great. For four bucks you can't complain... They just attach to the bottom of your HDD via a few screws, plug into your powersupply and presto chango each HDD has an independent cooler. They do look really good, but there is a space issue with those. And noise if i decide to put it somewhere in the open. But im sure standard fans will do, maybe some sweet liquid cooling. lol. Hayden, Not sure is this helps you any but a couple years ago I setup a Dell Power Edge 1300 for a home server. It's got dual PII SEC 450's and 1 Gig of RAM. The boot drive is a 8-9 Gig SCSI. And I have 4 500 Gig IDE's in it used for storage. It connects to my LAN via a standard 10/100 card that's integrated on the system board. As a backup for my data I use a mix of the original media I've ripped to it, DVD backups and several external drives. I do have a SCSI 6 tape DLT drive that'll hold I think 250 Gigs per-tape, but I don't have any software to support it and I'm too cheap to buy it. It runs great and is fast enough for all my media serving needs. (Music & Video) I don't stream anything I just connect via SMB shares to my Modded XBox or any of the PC's in the house. I also have a Power Edge 6400 sitting in the house with Fiber Cards in it I've been meaning to replace it out with but I've been to lazy to switch them out since everythings been working fine. Yeah it does, knowing what other people have done before makes decision making alot easier. How do you connect? Do you have LAN access points around the house? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killeravocado Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 Mounting for those fans, isn't hard at all... The end product just looks like a preggers hdd... But it is a bit noisey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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