HTPC storage system needs a [H] upgrade!

[xFROSTx]

I'm loosely using the word "upgrade" here. They system has actually been up and running for a while now as a "proof-of-concept" phase, using parts borrowed from my other machines. I want to move these parts back to their original setups and purchase new parts that are better geared towards the intended use. My test setup has proved my guess correct - that the storage system of a HTPC is critical and can yield substansial performance gains. The storage system also makes up the majority of the borrowed parts list as well. Looks like it's time to do the upgrade the [H] way!


Setup & Usage: HTPC Server that is the heart of the home theater setup. Records up to 8 HD channels at once, 1080P playback on the main home theater TV and has 2 xbox 360's (Will be getting 2 more for a total of 4 in the next couple of months) that connect as extenders for the other TV's. DVD/BR storage is done by a dedicated fileserver, and riping/encoding is taken care of by a dedicated encoding box. Basically, the HTPC is focused on live TV recording, playback and "streaming" to the xbox extenders.

Proof-of-concept phase: It seems a little overkill, but I have been running a HTPC for 5 or 6 years now, so I'm not just going overboard for no good reason. I'm not looking to waste my money though, so advice and suggestions are appreciated on how to best upgrade the 2 main components of the HTPC storage system.

Basic Specs:

MB - MSI 890GXM-G65: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130269
CPU - AMD Phenom II 840: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...03921&cm_re=phenom_840-_-19-103-921-_-Product
RAM - 4GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1600
Viideo Card - XFX 5670 single slot
OS Drive - See below
Recorded TV Drive - See below
OS - Win7 HP


OS Storage System:

2x 32GB OCZ Vertex SSD's in RAID0: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vertex-series-sata-ii-2-5-ssd.html

This was actually somewhat of an impulse buy a couple of years ago. I was looking for a 64GB SSD, and the 32GB Vertex drives were marked down so much that I couldn't resist . Speeding up the HTPC OS drive greatly improves the speed of WMC interface (On the HTPC as well as the xbox extenders) due to all of the metadata being used, which is stored on the OS drive. The array is still working just fine, but I'm getting close to filling it up (45GB used out of 57GB avaliable). Also, I feel that the much hyped "performance degredation over time" is starting to become noticable. It's still fast, faster than any of my other drives, but I remember it being bitchin fast, not just regular old fast . Lastly, I know more about RAID and SSD's now than I did 2 years ago - like how RAID disables TRIM support.

My first thought was to go with a pair of 60GB OCZ Vertex II drives in RAID0 for around $200. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227550

When I first setup my current SSD RAID array, I was suprised at how well SSD's took to RAID0 for the everyday performance of the HTPC. Not having TRIM didn't seem to be that big of a deal (Can't miss what you never had - ha) because the performance still beat the pants off of just about everything else out there. Since I haven't had any problems with my current SSD array, I have no reason not to try it again. Only this time I wanted to do it with the best SSD's I could get my hands on, not an impulse buy. My research tells me this my not be the best course afterall. Looks like I was wrong and TRIM is actually kind of important - oops. On top of that, it looks like a single Vertex 3 drive is faster than 2 Vertex II drives in RAID0. A Vertex 3 drive is more expensive, but getting the same performance of RAID0 without the disadvantages seems like a no-brainer. Given the setup and usage, what would you guys suggest I do for the OS drive?


Recorded TV Storage System:

2x 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives in RAID0

Since my SSD's in RAID project worked so well, I decided I should try it with the Recorded TV drive as well. It's all pretty much large, sequential files, so I figured it would be a good idea. I wasn't expecting anything dramatic, so I was pleased to discover it improved the responsiveness of media playback (Pause, resume, ff and rew functions) on the HTPC as well as the extenders. Especially when 6+ recording are going on at once. The pair of Barracuda's I'm currently using are actually spare backup drives for the fileserver, and they need to be returned to their home. I have a number of options here, so I'm curious what you guys would suggest. No matter which way I go, I'm looking at spending around $200 for at least 2 drives to solve this problem. I could just leave them and pick up a pair of cheap 2TB drives for the fileserver, where I could get the most GB for my money. On the other hand, I could pick up a pair, or possibly even 3, 1TB drives geared towards speed and use them for the Recorded TV RAID0 array. I'm leaing this way because my thought is that since I already have pleantly of inexpensive storage, and I have to buy new drives, I might as well get some fast ones.



PS: Obviously, redundancy is not a factor here. The HTPC OS and Recorded TV drives are backed up to the server, so I'm prepared for drive failure. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.

 

[Dangman]

Don't bother with those OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs as their real world performance is significantly lower than stated. Hell, they're even more slower now that OCZ switched from 34nm to 25nm for their chips. However I don't recommend getting the OCZ Vertex 3 as A) OCZ's SSD track record isn't exactly stunning or indicative of high reliability and B) those drives are relatively new. As such, considering the previous two factors, I recommend waiting quite a while until it's shown that the Vertex 3 SSDs are indeed reliable.

With that said, I recommend taking a look at Intel's 320 or 510 series SSDs or Crucial's C300, C400, or m4 series SSDs or Corsair's Performance 3 series SSDs as those will be of higher quality and performance than most OCZ SSDs.

As for the storage system, since you're doing so many recordings and that TV data isn't the sole copy, I recommend going for 2-3 Samsung F3 1TB drives in RAID 0.

 

[xFROSTx]

Don't bother with those OCZ Vertex 2 SSDs as their real world performance is significantly lower than stated. Hell, they're even more slower now that OCZ switched from 34nm to 25nm for their chips. However I don't recommend getting the OCZ Vertex 3 as A) OCZ's SSD track record isn't exactly stunning or indicative of high reliability and B) those drives are relatively new. As such, considering the previous two factors, I recommend waiting quite a while until it's shown that the Vertex 3 SSDs are indeed reliable.

With that said, I recommend taking a look at Intel's 320 or 510 series SSDs or Crucial's C300, C400, or m4 series SSDs or Corsair's Performance 3 series SSDs as those will be of higher quality and performance than most OCZ SSDs.

As for the storage system, since you're doing so many recordings and that TV data isn't the sole copy, I recommend going for 2-3 Samsung F3 1TB drives in RAID 0.

Thanks for the info Danny. I've been waiting to switch from my MLC drives to something sandforce based for a while now. I've skimmed a few reviews about the Vertex3 drives over the past couple weeks and it seemed like everyone was raving about the speed jumps the new sandforce controllers were producing. I didn't realize they were still that new, so I agree with you about not wanting to jump on the first gen. I appreciate the advice, it was spot on. This isn't a critical upgrade, it was more of a crime of opportunity since I thought now was the time to buy to get a good "bang for your buck" deal. I'll definitely be waiting to upgrade the SSD's, as the reason for me not responding to my thread here recently is that my fiance got a job offer in a nearby city and we are now moving next week.

As for the Recorded TV storage, I have another question. Would 2 F3's in RAID0 offer any noticable performance increase over my current 7200.11's in RAID0? I was looking at the F3's before I made my post, as I have seen several roundups that list them as one of the faster 1TB drives avaliable. My current 7200.11's aren't far behind them though, so I'm curious if the performance increase would mostly just be in benchmark results. It's not a big deal if that's the case, as I need new drives one way or another like I said. I'm just thinking that if there really isn't much of a difference, I might keep my eyes open for a deal on a few other brands.

 

[Dangman]

As for the Recorded TV storage, I have another question. Would 2 F3's in RAID0 offer any noticable performance increase over my current 7200.11's in RAID0? I was looking at the F3's before I made my post, as I have seen several roundups that list them as one of the faster 1TB drives avaliable. My current 7200.11's aren't far behind them though, so I'm curious if the performance increase would mostly just be in benchmark results. It's not a big deal if that's the case, as I need new drives one way or another like I said. I'm just thinking that if there really isn't much of a difference, I might keep my eyes open for a deal on a few other brands.

There should be sizable difference as far as I can tell.