BMAPC Entertainment Server

[soze]

As it stands I have a Gen 1 Microserver with 6.25 TB (3x2 TB 1x250 GB). And a Synology DS410 with 4x2 TB drives. And I watch XBMC through a Zotac Nano mini XS and have an Acer revo hooked up in the living room. I have been using XBMC this way for a while as the speed and performance of the Zotac are so much higher than my RPi.

Now recently I have been playing with a Now TV and a Roku 3. I have Plex and Media Browser installed. Now because of how old my Synology is it will not support either. So I set up my Micro Server again and now really like Plex. But the Microserver grinds to a halt as soon as it starts to transcode a second show. So I am thinking of selling the Microserver Synology and the the Zotac and building a media server. I am thinking the following should do the job. I want to look more into Passive cooling as the server sits near the Router currently.

Intel Pentium Dual Core G3420 3.20GHz Socket 1150 3MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Noctua NH-L9i INTEL ONLY Low Profile Quiet CPU Cooler
Asus H87M-Plus Socket 1150 HDMI DVI 8-Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
Patriot 8GB (2X4GB) Dual Channel 1600mhz Kit with lifetime Warranty
Corsair CS450M Modular 450W ATX PSU
Lian-Li Case

For about £370 all in. I should be able to get that all back selling the other stuff and end up with increased performance.

This should let me use the 4x2 TB drives in raid 5 which my Microserver does not support and keep a separate OS drive. Maybe a SSD to cut down on noise. The Media drives can then power save and stay quiet.

Mainly talking myself through it atm but if anyone has any experience with "silent" media servers that would be great.

 

[Deebs]

Stop!

Keep your NAS (MicroServer) and just build a HTPC frontend to run XBMC, no transcoding required for nearly everything you will throw at it. I have 3 NAS full of crap with a Asus CoreHT SFF sat under the tv with a SSD in it running XBMC. Bitstreaming of HD audio, passthrough, 3D, interwebs all of which is extremely quiet as the NAS' are not in my lounge

 

[soze]

That is my other choice but finding a front end PC that is silent and boot as fast as the Roku or similar is not easy. Little Black Box and the like look OK but I am jet to find one as fast as the Zotac box which is great apart from being far too loud.

 

[Deebs]

I purchased this for a NAS, small and would do everything you need for a HTPC: Asus

 

[caLLous]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html

This will set you back about 300 notes *but* you have to add RAM (SO-DIMMs, max 16gb). A review said you had to put an (mSATA) SSD in as well but I don't see why you can't boot from a USB stick. I fully intend to buy one of these and whack Ubuntu on it with Plex running everything from my media server/encoder in the garage.

The Intel NUC box is passively cooled, absolutely tiny (about 4 inches square) and (with an SSD I guess) I don't see why it wouldn't boot super quick. It also has a built-in IR receiver, which might be handy.

 

[Deebs]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html

This will set you back about 300 notes *but*, you have to add RAM. A review said you had to put an (mSATA) SSD in as well but I don't see why you can't boot from a USB stick. I fully intend to buy one of these and whack Ubuntu on it with Plex running everything from my media server/encoder in the garage.

The Intel NUC box is passively cooled, absolutely tiny (about 4 inches square) and (with an SSD I guess) I don't see why it wouldn't boot super quick. It also has a built-in IR receiver, which might be handy.

Interesting little box of tricks that.

 

[caLLous]

Interesting little box of tricks that.

It really is, you would've thought they'd put some pissy little i3 in it or something but it's got a decent dual core i5. It's actually a very powerful little box (especially when you consider its size).

 

[Deebs]

It really is, you would've thought they'd put some pissy little i3 in it or something but it's got a decent dual core i5. It's actually a very powerful little box (especially when you consider its size).

I am impressed and it has HD5000 graphics which are very capable of full HD accelerated playback, hell, my Asus only has an i3 and HD3000 and still plays back everything (including my own ripped blu-rays) with no problems whatsoever.

 

[soze]

It really is, you would've thought they'd put some pissy little i3 in it or something but it's got a decent dual core i5. It's actually a very powerful little box (especially when you consider its size).

They look great but if it is like my Zotac box which is about the same size it is very noisy. But building one of them with passive cooling could be sweet.

 

[MYstIC G]

What are you running on the microserver? My N36L runs multi transcode streams from plex just fine.

 

[soze]

What are you running on the microserver? My N36L runs multi transcode streams from plex just fine.

Server 2008 R2 with Sab, SB, CP and Plex. What OS are you using. My cheapest option would be to keep the Microserver and buy a USB3 disk for backups to makeup for the lack of Raid 5.

 

[MYstIC G]

Server 2008 R2 with Sab, SB, CP and Plex. What OS are you using. My cheapest option would be to keep the Microserver and buy a USB3 disk for backups to makeup for the lack of Raid 5.

FreeNAS that probably explains it. FreeBSD doesn't have the same overhead. I can stream to PS3 and Now TV at the same time even over WiFi.

 

[Deebs]

FreeNAS that probably explains it. FreeBSD doesn't have the same overhead. I can stream to PS3 and Now TV at the same time even over WiFi.

WinDoze 2008, grab a Cray or someone's backyard supercomputer. Seriously, I love MS but for server deployments in the real world they just suck.

 

[soze]

I was affraid you might say that. I am not sure I am ready for FreeNAS yet.

 

[Deebs]

I was affraid you might say that. I am not sure I am ready for FreeNAS yet.

I have 3 FreeNas deployments in my house, 2 are based on the HP microserver, the 3rd is on my own build. It fucking rocks, running 9.2.x here

 

[soze]

I have 3 FreeNas deployments in my house, 2 are based on the HP microserver, the 3rd is on my own build. It fucking rocks, running 9.2.x here

I will give it a try before spending money but I need to move data around before I can do it. I would want 4 x 2 TB in it to run it up but i need to steal at least one from my NAS. Something to play with tomorrow.

 

[Deebs]

I will give it a try before spending money but I need to move data around before I can do it. I would want 4 x 2 TB in it to run it up but i need to steal at least one from my NAS. Something to play with tomorrow.

My home storage is:

• NAS 1: 4 x 1TB
• NAS 2: 4 x 2 TB
• NAS 3: 4 x 2 TB

Going to have to build a new NAS now

 

[soze]

I will empty the synology tonight and rebuild using two drives and start this tomorrow. Well tomorrow night by the time everything has moved.

 

[Deebs]

Fuck, just checked my special area, 408G, oops

 

[soze]

haha the "Stuff" folder FreeNAS runs off a USB stick right? If I don't want to connect a monitor up to it can I install it using the laptop and then just boot off it?

 

[Deebs]

haha the "Stuff" folder FreeNAS runs off a USB stick right? If I don't want to connect a monitor up to it can I install it using the laptop and then just boot off it?

There is not a USB stick that can hold my special area. Christ, 408G of pr0n, record?

 

[soze]

There is not a USB stick that can hold my special area. Christ, 408G of pr0n, record?

It beats mine, with the exceptions of 100gb of ifeelmyself.com I don't have nay saved anymore.

 

[Deebs]

It beats mine, with the exceptions of 100gb of ifeelmyself.com I don't have nay saved anymore.

I am happy to put my collection online if there is a demand for it but I feel that @Edmond might have something to say

 

[Edmond]

408gb, fucking amateurs. couldn't give you exact figures but I have 2 x 1tb externals full and of the 2 x 1tb internals, 1 is about 80% full with the stuff I post here the other one is running this baby

 

[Deebs]

Haha, I fear you, well not really... I am in awe, I thought 500gb of pr0n was impressive, just been owned by a childhood friend

 

[Edmond]

Tbh, I'm not sure if that was too much information

 

[caLLous]

Well, if we're sharing...

media@mediaserver:~$ sudo zfs list
NAME  USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
tank  19.2T  1.05T  358K  /tank

Ubuntu Server for me with ZFS (raidz2). I'm over the moon with it. I already have plans to expand next year with a SAS HBA into another case with more drives. I just *love* having everything in one place, with redundancy (before I had a collection of external 2/3/4tb USB disks, waiting for them to spin up was awful).

I played with FreeNAS, it was good as just a NAS solution but I wanted this box to be much more of an all-rounder. It downloads, it encodes, it's now my Plex server as well, it will (at some point, hopefully) serve a VM for a zero client setup I have in mind, I can SSH/VNC into it from anywhere. I bloody love it.

 

[soze]

From looking FreeNAS can do Plex, SAB, SB and CP which is everything I need.

 

[Deebs]

Freenas or Napp-IT, nothing else will bring my 3 NAS together, god, they are like babies, number four in 2014... wtf

 

[caLLous]

I would say that FreeNAS is a better out-of-the-box solution, especially if it's just for a NAS and it can do everything you need (or everything you think you might need in the future).