Media Server

[p0lish]

Hey all, i'm planning on doing a media server for a home. The plan is lots of storage, and to use Ceton InfiniTV cards to provide cable tv via xbox/ceton echo extenders. No actual tv will be hooked up to this computer, but i believe i have to run Windows 7 on it. Please check out the specs and let me know.

Norco RPC-4220 4U Rackmount Server Chassis
.
Areca ARC-1680IX-24-2G
.
MSI Z77A-GD80 Motherboard
.
Intel Core i7 Processor
.
Seasonic X-Series X-1050W Power Supply
.
Corsair Vengenance 16GB Ram Kit
.
2x Intel 520 120GB SSD
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20x Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB Hard Drives
.
Norco RL-26 Heavy Duty Slide Rails

The plan is to install the 2 Intel SSDs in Raid 1, and most likely do 2 Raid 6s and a global hotspare for the storage. 2 or 3 Ceton InfiniTVs will be installed, and shared via this computer. The storage will be used to store all the recordings that are initiated by the extenders, and some ripped blu-rays and dvds. There will most likely be 6-8 extenders running off of this system, all with a wired gigabit ethernet network.

Feel free to offer any upgrades/advice. - Bill

 

[J Macker]

why exactly do you need an i7 and caviar blacks? is there really much benefit for transcoding/compressing over an i5? how much transcoding/compressing are you planning on doing?
are you (really) going to overclock your server?

why the Intel 520 ssds?
The price premium for Intel over Crucial or Samsung isn't worth it, imo.

Is it really worth the price premium for the Areca raid cards?
I bought an IBM m1015 card and am using it for 8 drives. What makes the Areca card worth $1000 more?

I thought most folks here used some sort of flexraid, zfs or unraid. Is it your hardware raid 6 really going to give you that much more performance? to be worth $1k more? seems like you could just build two servers and half the costs.

Sure it's nice to have the rackmount, but $330 is pretty expensive to me. I could have the same functions with two mid-atx cases with 10 drives each for less money. I'm pretty new to the home server front though. I'm just curious as to why you've chosen to go "all out" and seemingly spare no expense.

I'd also choose 3TB drives over 2TB drives unless there's a limit with your hardware.

 

[J Macker]

for the sake of simplicity, keep the same psu, ssd and ram.

here's what I'd do instead to give me 36TB:
$100 ibm m1015 card (8 sata devices, 4 on motherboard, use zfs raid or something)
$50 nzxt source 210 elite case + $30 adapter for 4in3 hdd cage=12 bays
$200 i5
$1800 12x3TB seagate hard drives ($150ea)
= $2180

Your parts 40TB would be:
$1100 raid card
$330 case
$300 cpu
$3600 hard drives
= $5330

Okay, now you argue reliability and the 1-year warranty on seagate hard drives. Fine. 50% failure rate means buy 6 more hard drives in 4 years. $900. It's still $3080 vs $5330.

Is it really worth the difference for hot swap? sure you have a nicer setup picked out, but there is a huge cost difference for not much otherwise.

 

[p0lish]

why exactly do you need an i7 and caviar blacks? is there really much benefit for transcoding/compressing over an i5? how much transcoding/compressing are you planning on doing?
are you (really) going to overclock your server?

No overclocking, just not looking to skimp. I could put an I5 in there, but it would only save a few bucks. Blu-ray ripping will be common. Blacks are fast and reliable, also with a 5yr warranty.

why the Intel 520 ssds? The price premium for Intel over Crucial or Samsung isn't worth it, imo.

I like the additional 2 years of warranty, and i've never had a problem with intel SSDS

Is it really worth the price premium for the Areca raid cards?
I bought an IBM m1015 card and am using it for 8 drives. What makes the Areca card worth $1000 more?

Most builds i reviewed before putting this together used areca cards. I would like to only use 1 PCI-E slot for the controller. This is the part i know the least about.

I thought most folks here used some sort of flexraid, zfs or unraid. Is it your hardware raid 6 really going to give you that much more performance? to be worth $1k more? seems like you could just build two servers and half the costs.

I'm not completely familiar with zfs or unraid. I looked into flexraid, but figured i could do real raid and be better off. Re ripping the blu-ray collection would be a nightmare. One of the primary reasons this is a single server is that WMC7 only records to local drives. You can modify registry keys and "trick it" but can lead to many problems down the road, even on the best network.

Sure it's nice to have the rackmount, but $330 is pretty expensive to me. I could have the same functions with two mid-atx cases with 10 drives each for less money. I'm pretty new to the home server front though. I'm just curious as to why you've chosen to go "all out" and seemingly spare no expense.

There is already a 22u rackmount that is being used for other components, so no point in not going rackmount. Much cleaner.

I'd also choose 3TB drives over 2TB drives unless there's a limit with your hardware.

Still looking at that option. Thanks for the input.

 

[JohnDC]

Just so you know, Blu-Ray ripping is almost entirely drive speed dependant, an Atom could power it just fine for that.