zaz2102

Hello,

I've recently decided to build an HTPC, but prior to my shopping and comparing I run into a question which I couldn't find an answer to. I was trying to decide whether I should build a machine with multiple large hard drives or a machine with less disk space connected to a media server which would be built later.

Besides the expense and time, what are the pros and cons for each system? My main concerns are performance and quietness.

Also, keep in mind the purpose of the HTPC.

1080p output of Stored Media
DVR (Recording two shows at once)
High Quality Audio System
Play Blu-Ray Discs
Stream Internet Video/Audio
Play Old School Video Games (Optional)

Raptor_Jesus

The pros of a separated back/front end server:

1) Quietness
You can make the front-end near silent with passive/quiet cooling, while the back end stores all the movies/records TV on lots of loud whirring hard drives/fans in another room.

2) Scalability:
You could build multiple frontends to stream from one back-end server, so you could watch it in multiple rooms.

Cons:
1) Cost
Multiple machines = higher cost

2) Power consumption
This is not a huge con, but something to keep in mind

3) Network usage
You have to have a decent network in place to stream media smoothly. Also, this will increase your bandwidth usage within your network.

Whatever you go with, best of luck to you

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zaz2102

Thank you, Raptor Jesus. I will use the information wisely.

Raptor_Jesus

And I'm sure there are other HTPC wizzes that can add/correct my above statement for you too.

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DuckieHo

Don't forget added complexity... both the file server and the HTPC have to be up and running.

I was going to do this but I take my server down occasionally. The GF would be pissed if I took the it down while she was watching.

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zaz2102

hmm, that's a good point. I'll do my research, but could you achieve a high performance and quiet HTPC and what type of drives would be necessary?

DuckieHo

Any HDD drive will do really. A 1080p movie will need less than 5MB/s. All recent HDs do 70MB/s+ in worst case.

What do you need the high-performance for though? Encoding?

A simple HTPC that plays everything would be like a 785G + X2 235e (45w).

__________________
To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

Raptor_Jesus

I would go with the 1TB WD Greens, personally. If you really need the performance, go with the WD Blacks. But remember that the Greens can't saturate a 1Gbit LAN, so if you are doing separate front-ends and back-ends, the Greens are your best bit.

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Want Dedicated servers in MW2? Vote here! If we hit 200k+ Someone at IW will sit up and listen.

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zaz2102

Thanks again. Yeah, I guess high performance was the wrong word. The last hard drive I bought was in 2006 and I guess being new to HTPCs, I kinda forgot that it won't have to use the resources that my PC has to. Although that may be due to my RAM or Graphics Card anyway.

AMv8(1day)

I was looking at basically the same issue and have decided to go with a Synology DS409 NAS Server w/ 4 1.5TB WD Caviar Greens in RAID 5 attached to a wired cat5e Gbit home network pulling backup duty and media streaming duty for all the comps in the house.

Meanwhile going with a fast, silent, and small SSD (OCZ Vertex Turbo 30Gb) for OS and App storage on my HTPC. Load times and silence are the main reason I'm going with this SSD over others (240 & 145 MB/s read & write). In the process of collecting parts at a reasonable price right now but this thing should fly through bootup, shutdown, and app load times. If I'm still not satisfied I've already made sure I've got room for another identical drive for RAID 0 duty.

Yeah, I'm trying for a 10 second Win7 boot time.