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| Thread ID: 101659 | 2009-07-22 07:44:00 | Home Media Server - Rackmount? | Parry (5696) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 794071 | 2009-07-22 07:44:00 | Hi all, just wondering what people have done to create a high-end home media server that I can connect to my TV. I've estimated that if I rip all my DVD's and music I'll probably need about 8TB of space. I would like to mirror the drives for safety as I wouldn't want to lose all that data, so looking at 16TB in total with room to add more HD's later. So I need something that can manage a large number of hard drives so have been thinking about a standard tower with 4 or so bays and then connected to some server type arrangement in some way. I have come across a thing called a rackmount but have no idea whats involved with this - see an example www.ascent.co.nz Looks as though you may be able to use standard SATA drives but not sure if it needs a server O/S (presumably so) and whether you could lay this on a floor or needs a server rack. I don't really want a huge server as my home isn't that big so if it can hide behind the TV that would be great. Something this big may be quite noisy as well as it needs heaps of cooling - not sure if that's a likely issue. Wondered if some audiophile or PC officianado has undertaken anything of this magnitude and what my options are. Many thanks, Graham |
Parry (5696) | ||
| 794072 | 2009-07-22 08:39:00 | You'd probably be best to separate your HTPC function out from the storage of your media; as you say, all those HDD's are going to be noisy, and the key requirements for a HTPC are that it runs cool and quietly. Actually, the quietness is the reason cooling is so important, as you may want a passive graphics card (no fan). Splitting your media off from your O/S is a much better option all round as well, as you may (for example) want to use Windows 7 for your HTPC O/S, and something like FreeNAS to store everything on your media server. Just out of interest, how did you arrive at 8TB? Is that storing all your DVD's as ISO's? Because if you convert them to .MKV's using the H.264 codec, you can get no appreciable loss in quality, but a fraction of the original size. Cabling your house is really quite easy (and reasonablycheap) provided you can get under the house etc, and 802.11n wireless is fast enough to stream most media too. |
nofam (9009) | ||
| 794073 | 2009-07-22 09:31:00 | Give the guys at ProCafe.co.nz a buzz and ask them to put you together something, William from there's pretty good :) | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 794074 | 2009-07-22 10:02:00 | Cheers thanks guys. I have a lot of stuff so 8TB would be compressed video + mp3's not just the ISO's. I live in an apartment building so unfortunately cabling is out which would have been ideal in a house as I could then have the server in another room etc. No spare room I'm afraid, all open plan so HTPC would need to be in the lounge. I would like a minimum of combined 10 x 3.5" bays between a PC and server so I could expand to 20TB using 2TB drives. HP MediaSmart Server looks pretty cool but hasn't come to NZ yet and doesn't appear to support 2TB drives yet so thats why a rackmount looked interesting. Chilling, I couldn't find a web site ProCafe.co.nz. Would be good to speak to some experts. Are you able to post the URL? cheers, Graham |
Parry (5696) | ||
| 794075 | 2009-07-22 10:05:00 | Cheers thanks guys. I have a lot of stuff so 8TB would be compressed video + mp3's not just the ISO's. I live in an apartment building so unfortunately cabling is out which would have been ideal in a house as I could then have the server in another room etc. No spare room I'm afraid, all open plan so HTPC would need to be in the lounge. I would like a minimum of combined 10 x 3.5" bays between a PC and server so I could expand to 20TB using 2TB drives. HP MediaSmart Server looks pretty cool but hasn't come to NZ yet and doesn't appear to support 2TB drives yet so thats why a rackmount looked interesting. Chilling, I couldn't find a web site ProCafe.co.nz. Would be good to speak to some experts. Are you able to post the URL? cheers, Graham One thing to be aware of is that rackmount servers (those intended to be servers in a server farm, rather than the ones designed for home-theatre use) are larger than they look in photos, and can have noisy fans in them. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 794076 | 2009-07-22 10:40:00 | No way you gonna want to have something sitting behind your TV with 8-10 HDDs in it. It would be way too noisy with all the HDDs running plus fans to keep them cool plus fan in PSU to run them all. I have access to the Colorado vNet (www.coloradovnet.com) products and they have a distributed video system that allows you to keep adding storage as required. But the biggest storage server they have is 4TB so you would need 4-5 of these to get the space you want. They are in a RAID5 configuration and they have the option of being a desktop box or rack mount. They are not cheap though :xmouth: |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 794077 | 2009-07-22 10:50:00 | Sorry, Procase.co.nz ;) | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 794078 | 2009-07-22 13:31:00 | I think the best option would be to split the functionality and the storage as said previously. Have your HDD's in one place and simply stream it to a HTPC. That way you cut down on the noise and heat issues while giving you more room to expand. | beeswax34 (63) | ||
| 794079 | 2009-07-22 22:19:00 | Check out drobo on google. Smart nas, not available in nz yet but you can get online from oz i think. Keep adding drives as needed and it has multiple raid setups that configure as you add drives. Need to wait for 4Tb drives :) | Gobe1 (6290) | ||
| 794080 | 2009-07-22 22:38:00 | Check out drobo on google. Smart nas, not available in nz yet but you can get online from oz i think. Keep adding drives as needed and it has multiple raid setups that configure as you add drives. Need to wait for 4Tb drives :) These (http://www.lucidsystems.org/) guys are selling it. |
CYaBro (73) | ||
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