Advice on Home File Server (/HTPC?)

[DarkYendor]

Just thinking about setting up a home file server, that could possibly double as a Media Centre. I only have 6x sata ports on my MoBo, so I've run out!

Idea at the moment:

• Intel D945GCLF2/D945GCLF2D with integrated Intel Atom 330 CPU (Dual core 1.6 GHz)
• 1GB/2GB DDR2 RAM
• 2x 1TB HDDs (the samsung 103's I already have)

I figure it would make a good file server, with low power, heat and noise. It only has 2 sata ports, but a 4-port expander in it's PCI slot would give it 6 ports in total.

Finally, I'd like to be able to run it remotely - remote desktop or similar. It might also be useful if I could do this via the internet, not just though the local network...

So, my questions:
1) Is it powerful enough for a file server? (Just double checking here...)
2) If so, what OS should I go for? I can get win server 2008 free via MSDNAA?... Is it too big for such small hardware? Win7 be a better choice?
3) It seems slow by modern standards, but would it run alright as a media centre? My TV has a VGA port, if that makes a difference...
4) Would it just be better to sacrifice portability/noise/size etc..., and use a normal mobo/cpu?

[LostBenji]

Originally Posted by DarkYendor

So, my questions:
1) Is it powerful enough for a file server? (Just double checking here...)
2) If so, what OS should I go for? I can get win server 2008 free via MSDNAA?... Is it too big for such small hardware? Win7 be a better choice?
3) It seems slow by modern standards, but would it run alright as a media centre? My TV has a VGA port, if that makes a difference...
4) Would it just be better to sacrifice portability/noise/size etc..., and use a normal mobo/cpu?

1. Shit yeah, will do fine. Files (mainly media) are easy to deal with.
2. Good old XP Pro will do just fine. Already has RDP client built-in and will run with ease. Sharing is easy to setup and use.
3. A media server doesn't need a shit load of grunt and if you read the recent news section on the atom/ion HTPC, more than enough even with Win7 onboard.
4. For a system thats going to run all the time, bigger systems are going to chew power and give more heat/noise.

As for the PCI slot, hunt around for the Silicon Image chipsetted controlers that suport port multipliers. This would allow upto 20 HDD's (4 x 5) on the one card for nix.

[DarkYendor]

Originally Posted by LostBenji

1. Shit yeah, will do fine. Files (mainly media) are easy to deal with.
2. Good old XP Pro will do just fine. Already has RDP client built-in and will run with ease. Sharing is easy to setup and use.
3. A media server doesn't need a shit load of grunt and if you read the recent news section on the atom/ion HTPC, more than enough even with Win7 onboard.
4. For a system thats going to run all the time, bigger systems are going to chew power and give more heat/noise.

As for the PCI slot, hunt around for the Silicon Image chipsetted controlers that suport port multipliers. This would allow upto 20 HDD's (4 x 5) on the one card for nix.

TBPH, I don't have a legit copy of XP - but I can get legit win7/server 2k8 for free - I just wanted to check they would run alright. Otherwise, I still have a legit copy of Vista HP.

Which "recent news section" are you talking about? Link pls?

[LostBenji]

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1057/1/

There ya go. Win7 will be fine and still do everything you want within reason. In that reveiw, they didn't test with media center, they only used small standalone media players.

XP licenses are cheap and easy to come buy, plenty of old systems getting replaced that have valid licences.

[Deltoid]

Hope the thread starter doesn't mind but I'm going to chime in. I'm thinking of building a NAS / media server as well. For me the media server would just be using uPnP to serve content to my PS3.

I have a DNS-323 but it isn't flexible enough.

What sort of price would I be looking at to build a machine like the one the thread starter has suggested (no monitor, just the case and internals)

[DarkYendor]

Originally Posted by LostBenji

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1057/1/

There ya go. Win7 will be fine and still do everything you want within reason. In that reveiw, they didn't test with media center, they only used small standalone media players.

XP licenses are cheap and easy to come buy, plenty of old systems getting replaced that have valid licences.

Sweet, thanks mate! I'd probably just use MPC-HC for playing media anyway...

Originally Posted by Deltoid

Hope the thread starter doesn't mind but I'm going to chime in. I'm thinking of building a NAS / media server as well. For me the media server would just be using uPnP to serve content to my PS3.

I have a DNS-323 but it isn't flexible enough.

What sort of price would I be looking at to build a machine like the one the thread starter has suggested (no monitor, just the case and internals)

It's about $120+ for an Atom 330 MoBo (you can spend $500 if you really want), $20 for 2GB 2nd hand ram, and whatever case/PSU/HDDs you need...

[DarkYendor]

It seems the consensus is that an atom is fine for SD video, but 1080 is too intense for it. The nvidia ION (basically has a geforce 9300 in the northbridge) seems to fix the problem, and can even play some games, but they're hard to find in Aus. :S


ASUS AT3N7A-I
ION board: 4x SATA, VGA/HDMI, SPDIF, 1xPCI, 2x DDR2 slots

POV ION330-1
ION board: 4x/5x SATA, VGA/DVI/HDMI output, SPDIF, 1x PCI, 2x DDR2 slots

JetWay JATOM-GM1-330-LF Intel Atom 330 Intel 945GC Flex ATX
Not an ION board, but it has 2xPCI and 1xPCI-E slots, so plenty of room to expand...

[LostBenji]

Yeah, the 9300 allows for hardware decoding and accerleration. Awesome little bugger and make great tools to build into or onto the back of huge plasma tv's for full stand-alone network media playback.
There are even large LCD's that are touch screen and have these built in for full indipendance of mouse and keyboard. They don't use the ION yet from memory but still gives you ideas...
These are not ION's but open up the hardware taste buds.
http://h30429.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?...0f458b7a&rf=bm
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...5-3892385.html

Originally Posted by Deltoid

Hope the thread starter doesn't mind but I'm going to chime in. I'm thinking of building a NAS / media server as well. For me the media server would just be using uPnP to serve content to my PS3.

I have a DNS-323 but it isn't flexible enough.

What sort of price would I be looking at to build a machine like the one the thread starter has suggested (no monitor, just the case and internals)

You can buy complete working systems XP Home already licensed and loaded for under $450 if you want the easy option then just add drives.

[-Sk3tChY-]

1. Yes.

2. Depends on what you'd primarily like to use it for and your knowledge/patience. If it's just simply going to be a file server then XP Pro would be perfect, not to hungry on resources and you should hopefully already be very familiar with it. Remote access to an XP box via the internet is as simple as forwarding port 3389 to the local IP address.

However if you'd like to use it as a HTPC also, well then if you're going to use Windows you'll need MCE, this would mean having to use XP MCE Edition, Vista or Win7 (provided it comes with MCE like Vista does I'm not sure).

But if you're after the ultimate experience and ironically the cheapest, Linux + MythTV is definitely the way to go. Alternatively you can use Mythbuntu which I think is a little easier to get set up. It really is "an awesome bit of kit", but like I said it would probably require some patience to set up if your not familiar with it. At the end of the day though you'll be left with a rock solid system as well as many awesome options MythTV provides such as automatically cutting out Ads, and my favourite, a front end you can access via your browser from anywhere via the web that gives you complete control over the box. (schedule recordings etc.)

3. Should be fine. You can always just buy a relatively decent nVidia GFX card for $150-$200 an implement CUDA I believe it's called, where all the HD processing gets done by the Video Card.

4. What you have now should suffice. The only recommendation I'd make is considering an 8* series or above GFX card capable of CUDA for HD decoding.

At the end of the day though, get the box setup and see how it runs.

[thebrad]

Yeah I'm thinking of doing a similar thing using a atom/ion processor/board. I would have it running Linux and MythTV.

My question is would a Atom 330 be powerful enough for MythTV encoding and channel flagging? Encoding mainly. Or would I need something more powerful?

Also I'm thinking this for a low power backend to mythtv, or is there something better suited?

[Nick the Knife]

I've seen this type of setup (Atom 330) discussed over at xpmediacentre.com.au quite a bit - concensus seemed to be that for full HD playback it wasn't able to cut the mustard.

Is more than ample as a backend server - but as a front end it may have some drawbacks.....that said with use of CUDA and CoreAVC that may be able to be gotten around.

:-)

[DarkYendor]

Thanks all!

Originally Posted by -Sk3tChY-

4. What you have now should suffice. The only recommendation I'd make is considering an 8* series or above GFX card capable of CUDA for HD decoding.

Unfortunately, all of these boards (with 1 exception) lack a PCI-E slot. So that's why I was considering the ION (integrated 9300) boards.

Originally Posted by thebrad

My question is would a Atom 330 be powerful enough for MythTV encoding and channel flagging? Encoding mainly. Or would I need something more powerful?

This link might help: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3562&p=5

Originally Posted by Nick the Knife

Is more than ample as a backend server - but as a front end it may have some drawbacks.....that said with use of CUDA and CoreAVC that may be able to be gotten around.

Again, for HW decoding you'll need the nvidia ION chipset... if only it was easier to find locally!

[Rogue-X]

When you say file/media server are you referring to somehting that you can stream from that sits in a corner that isn't used as a desktop. If its something you sit in the corner you could run it headless running a version of linux.

I used to have a fileserver setup I ran headless. I had it setup so all comps in the house could stream from it and I could remote log into from work. The fact you state file server then mention in another post grpahics cards throws me on what you want to actually do.

[Daft_Munt]

ION based Atoms
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=773713

Fit-PC 2
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=763940

[-Sk3tChY-]

Originally Posted by DarkYendor

Thanks all!
Unfortunately, all of these boards (with 1 exception) lack a PCI-E slot. So that's why I was considering the ION (integrated 9300) boards.

ION comes with an Integrated 9400M, which does support hardware decoding.

Originally Posted by thebrad

Yeah I'm thinking of doing a similar thing using a atom/ion processor/board. I would have it running Linux and MythTV.

My question is would a Atom 330 be powerful enough for MythTV encoding and channel flagging? Encoding mainly. Or would I need something more powerful?

Encoding? Nothing is encoded. TV is broadcasted as MPEG2 and MythTV streams/records it as MPEG2 unless specified otherwise I believe. As for flagging, I take it you mean skipping commercials, it would be more than enough to do that. My mate runs his MythTV box on a P4 and it works beautifully.

Originally Posted by thebrad

Also I'm thinking this for a low power backend to mythtv, or is there something better suited?

Should work fine. I personally was considering an Asrock 330 for something similar.