BMAPC Entertainment Server

[Moriath]

i got a qnap box and a netgear duo box .. will someone give me the bits i will need to build my own so i can see if its cheaper or not .. i gouess i get 4 x 3gb disks raided so that will give me 6gb right ?

just need the items to buy case box (disks i can work out) proc etc with some sort of pricing so i can see if its cheaper than the pre built

cheers

 

[caLLous]

The most space you get with 4 x 3tb (not gb I hope) disks with RAID would 9tb with RAID5 (which uses one disk's worth of space for distributed parity information). WIth something like RAID10, you would get 6tb in a mirror of stripes (2 identical RAID0 arrays of 2 disks).

As for buying stuff, you don't need much in the processor or RAM department if it's just a NAS fileserver. The biggest expense will be the disks and the biggest headache (for me) was finding the icklest case I could that could house the most possible 3.5" disks. I ended up with the Lian-Li PC-A04B which can hold 9 + an SSD.

 

[TdC]

I bloody love it.

glad that ZFS stuff is working out for you Cal

in other news, that NUC stuff is surprisingly expensive over here in the NL imo, ~350 europes each, and that is not even for the best spec, and no ram or disk 0_o

 

[Embattle]

Well part the way through last year I replaced my Synology DS410 with a DS1512+ and recently equipped it with 5x3TB drives in RAID 6, ironically I also replaced a WDTV with a Roku 3 in November using the DS Video app that you can get on Roku. What I noticed however was that the videos were stuttering which occurred to me might be down to it trying to transcode the various blu-rays etc which in my opinion wasn't required since nearly everything in our house has the ability the ability to play the files as is so I decided to install Plex and used the Direct Play function instead of the DS Video app and it worked fine since it now doesn't try and transcode.

 

[caLLous]

glad that ZFS stuff is working out for you Cal

It really is. Not just ZFS but Linux as a whole. I still have the Ubuntu Server core but now I've installed gnome-core on top of it but it only runs through vncserver so I have a desktop there if I need it for desktop-y things. Also, how amazing is screen? It allows me to log in and out of terminal sessions so I can leave commands (eg handbrake) running but without being logged in via SSH! This is probably old news to Linux aficionados but I think it's incredible.

in other news, that NUC stuff is surprisingly expensive over here in the NL imo, ~350 europes each, and that is not even for the best spec, and no ram or disk 0_o

And yeah, it's not cheap for what you get. You're paying for Intel's proprietary motherboard and that dinky little case. I still think I'm going to go for it though, it will sit very well on top of other boxes under the TV. I haven't seen it on amazon.fr (I would want the D54250WYK) but Overclockers have it in the UK for £309 (which is about 370 of our real money). Add on £80-90 for an mSATA SSD and another £70-80 for 8giggles of SO-DIMM RAM and it gets expensive mighty quick.

 

[soze]

Moving Data about is fooking boring. And I know the only shit I lose will be the only stuff I do not have saved online

 

[MYstIC G]

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).

Anything that runs on FreeBSD will run on FreeNAS using the jails system. That covers most Linux stuff now with the Linux compatibility layer jails.

 

[Moriath]

I guess you need a monitor for these home built nas servers or can you make them up headless ?

 

[caLLous]

They can be (and should be, imo) completely headless. If it's a Linux solution you can easily SSH into the box (if you have something like PuTTY) or use something like Webmin to do it all via a very intuitive web interface or VNC/RDP into it if it's a desktop OS. FreeNAS and all of the ready-to-go NAS solutions can only be controlled via web interface iirc. I only plugged a monitor and keyboard into mine when I originally installed Ubuntu Server, otherwise it's sat at the end of a network cable, being controlled completely remotely. I only need to go near it if I want to plug in a USB drive or something (but even then I can plug it into the Win7 box and put stuff to the server over the network).

 

[MYstIC G]

FreeNAS can be directly accessed via ssh if enabled or direct access if you hook up a keyboard and monitor. With any NAS or other headless box it's always handy to be able to hook up a screen imho.

 

[soze]

I am hoping my Microserver is set to boot off USB then I don't think I need a monitor which is handy as I can't find the fecking power supply.

 

[MYstIC G]

It's a default setting I believe but it might require the use of the internal USB port, I can't remember tbfh. If you have no joy then try the one inside the unit.

 

[soze]

It's a default setting I believe but it might require the use of the internal USB port, I can't remember tbfh. If you have no joy then try the one inside the unit.

Cheers I have it running on the internal port now but I get no disks showing in FreeNAS. From looking at it this could be due to the NAS having hardware raid turned on so I need a monitor!

 

[caLLous]

Yeah make sure it is just presenting the disks to the OS in JBOD mode or whatever, all hardware RAID turned off to give FreeNAS/ZFS full control of everything.

 

[soze]

Wow this will be a learning curve. After an hour I know have a share and have started syncing data The creating directories is a bit of a chore but it is good to know.

 

[MYstIC G]

Wow this will be a learning curve. After an hour I know have a share and have started syncing data The creating directories is a bit of a chore but it is good to know.

Look on the bright side, FreeNAS now comes with plugins. When I started with the current version, you had to get any shit you wanted to work done using the ports tree, e.g. transmission (my notes for that are here: http://www.mysticg.com/2013/01/15/freenas-jail-with-transmission/ ) but now it's all heading towards click and install plugins

 

[Embattle]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7566/intels-haswell-nuc-d54250wyk-ucff-pc-review

 

[Embattle]

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4888&m=n#ov

 

[soze]

This is the one I already have and will be trying to sell not as soon as I cba to eBay it.

 

[smurkin]

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4888&m=n#ov

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7648/gigabyte-brix-pro

 

[soze]

I am still a bit underwhelmed with my micro server performance and i have just been offered £150 for it (warranty extension pays off). So I am going to build my own one.

Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Case
Asrock FM2A85X-ITX Socket FM2 VGA DVI HDMI 7.1 Channel audio Mini ITX Motherboard
AMD APU A8 6500 4.1GHz Socket FM2 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Kingston 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM SR x8 (Kit of 2)
Coolermaster 520W Silent Pro M2 Modular PSU
NH-U12S Noctua Slim U-Series

£400 all in for a much more powerful machine which will let me add 6 of my 2TB drives in Raid 5. Windows 7 and I will be happier and less prone to having to Google everything I do on it. I have been copying stuff to my laptop to transcode it and this way the server will be an all in one workhorse. I will be checking the dead equipment pile at work first I know I have several i3 machines in various states of disrepair so I might be able to steal a few bits

 

[caLLous]

It might just be me but, now I've seen the light that is Linux (and Ubuntu in particular), I would never go back to Windows for a server machine. This is a fantastic guide that taught me pretty much everything to get me started.

Also, depending on the value (and the replaceableness) of your data, you might want to look at RAID 6 instead of 5 if you're going with 6 drives. If a drive dies in RAID 5 and you replace it, a lot more stress is placed on the remaining x drives while the array rebuilds.

 

[soze]

It might just be me but, now I've seen the light that is Linux (and Ubuntu in particular), I would never go back to Windows for a server machine. This is a fantastic guide that taught me pretty much everything to get me started.

Also, depending on the value (and the replaceableness) of your data, you might want to look at RAID 6 instead of 5 if you're going with 6 drives. If a drive dies in RAID 5 and you replace it, a lot more stress is placed on the remaining x drives while the array rebuilds.

A Linux machine might be an idea. I do like playing with Linux and the like but FreeNAS is just a bit too far out of my comfort zone and it tends to take me minutes rather than seconds to get stuff done.

The majority of my data is of no real importance. iTunes, Pictures and Documents are all "in the cloud". Eveything else can be re sourced. I am tempted to use Raid 0 for speed and use USB disks for backups instead.

 

[caLLous]

Depending what you want to do with the data, you don't need a great deal of speed. If it's for streaming (even to multiple devices simultaneously) then you'll never need more than a RAID5/6 array can provide and for encoding you'll hit the limit of the encoding speed of your CPU long before you reach the limit with which the array can provide the data.

If you go with Linux you should really look into ZFS on Linux as a RAID solution. It's a piece of piss to admin. As is the whole server tbh. The first couple of weeks I was getting arsey with it because I just didn't know a lot of commands and had to keep turning to the internet but make a text file on your Windows desktop with commonly used commands in it and then it's right there when you're SSH'ing into the server. And most of the commands I've used have great embedded documentation (either "<command> --help" or "man <command>" for more in-depth usage).

 

[soze]

I tried to watch a show just now a 720p MKV. It will not play more than 10 seconds without going away for nearly a minute. The episodes either side of it play fine so it might be a file the Roku does not like. I have heard it is possible. I have just started Handbreak on the server and a convert to MP4 will take 49 hours lol

 

[caLLous]

:\

I don't have my TV box set up yet but I can stream to Plex on my phone from Plex Media Server in 1080p with no transcoding and it's practically instant. It takes maybe 3 or 4 seconds to find itself when I'm seeking but other than that it's fine. Encoding in Handbrake (from a full Bluray iso to a 1080p x264 mkv) takes anything from 4 (animation mostly) to 12 hours (loads of grain and complicated scenes).

 

[soze]

Yeah it looks like a fucked MKV VLC craps out on it too.

 

[MYstIC G]

I tried to watch a show just now a 720p MKV. It will not play more than 10 seconds without going away for nearly a minute. The episodes either side of it play fine so it might be a file the Roku does not like. I have heard it is possible. I have just started Handbreak on the server and a convert to MP4 will take 49 hours lol

Make sure you try all the playback modes, direct stream is preferable iirc.

 

[soze]

Make sure you try all the playback modes, direct stream is preferable iirc.

Yeah it still buffered like buggery on direct stream. Having failed to play on Windows I have re-downloaded the episode and it was fine. With any MKV or MP4 it performs fine. But when it starts to transcode even a 200mb avi I get a 10 second delay and at least one transcode screen. That is on Server 2008, Windows 7 or FreeNAS. I only have the 1.3ghz server and that may be the issue and my fiends with the 1.8 version do not have similar complaints. I may just blow my expenses on the components and run something up with a bit more fire power.

 

[Poag]

Try this

http://www.matroska.org/downloads/mkclean.html

I run all my mkvs through this before playing them, automated part of the download process. Newer mkvs have extra header info which some devices have issues with. This cleans them out