My New HTPC

[Cavediver]

WD 2TB Caviar Green HDD

Capacity: 2TB (2000GB)
Spindle speed: between 5400 and 7200 RPM

The spindle speed on the WD Green Drives is 5400 only (not variable). I don't know how many blu-ray movies you plan to store on your HDDs but you can get between 35 - 40 or so movies per 2 TB drive if you're going to store them as ISOs. Unless you're gaming, the lower wattage cpu's and lower horsepower GPU's as stated earlier are fine for playing blu-ray. The higher end stuff will generate alot of heat which requires more fans which results in more noise.

 

[Warpdrv]

Come on guys, stop pissing in his cheerios, Jealous much?

If you had the money to invest in a sweet setup like that to possibly future proof your system for a couple of years to come - you probably would.

Who knows what is in store for his needs down the line, much less what OS's will be demanding in years to come... Nothing wrong with overkill !!! You Go Bro !!

I would have gone with 7200's myself, but everything else it awesome.

As if I need 3 - 18" + 1 - 15" subs in my room... ridiculous, but who's stopping me

I can only hope you have smooth sailing with whatever frontend you choose to use. ie Vista or Windows 7 - ugh

 

[davidtwotrees]

Come on guys, stop pissing in his cheerios, Jealous much?
If you had the money to invest in a sweet setup like that to possibly future proof your system for a couple of years to come - you probably would.

Who knows what is in store for his needs down the line, much less what OS's will be demanding in years to come... Nothing wrong with overkill !!! You Go Bro !! ..........

You're right on, Warp. ADTG- Looks really awesome. I hope it all works out for you, you're rig is really the future and I get how you are embracing the new codecs and blu ray- the best quality video and audio. Makes perfect sense to me. Keep up the good work. David

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yeah, I sure hope it works out perfectly.

Right now I have two of the 2TB WD HDDs. I'm still kind of debating about getting 2 more.

One other thing I don't quite get are the 2 terms Assess Time & Throughput.

According to Tom's Hardware review, this 5400 RPM WD 2TB HDD has the FASTEST Read/Write Access Time when compared to the likes of Seagate Baracuda 7200 RPM HDDs. The review said that they couldn't believe it and had to redo the tests just to make sure. But the 2TB WD came up with the fastest Access Time every time. For example, the 2TB WD was 7 seconds, and the Baracuda 1TB was 11 seconds.

But when it came to throughput (MB/sec), the Baracuda came up on top - avg 104 MB/s vs avg 78 MB/s.

I thought Access Time & Throughput go hand-and-hand?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

...you can get between 35 - 40 or so movies per 2 TB drive if you're going to store them as ISOs...

I've been able to save from 62 blu-ray ISO movies (full disc) to 102 blu-ray ISO movies (main movies only) on each 2TB HDD. So far, I have four 2TB HDDs completely filled. I'm on my 5th one.

 

[Cavediver]

I've been able to save from 62 blu-ray ISO movies (full disc) to 102 blu-ray ISO movies (main movies only) on each 2TB HDD. So far, I have four 2TB HDDs completely filled. I'm on my 5th one.

You're right. I'm sorry, my bad. I meant per 1 TB. Your results are consistent. I'm just saving the main m2ts file and I have over 9.5 TB so far and continually growing. I recently bought 4 of the new 1.5 TB Seagate LP drives and 2 of the WD 2 TB Green drives for my new DIY WHS media server. I've noticed that the 1.5 TB LP Seagates are running 3 - 5 degrees F cooler than the 2 TB WD Green drives.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have over 9.5 TB so far and continually growing. I recently bought 4 of the new 1.5 TB Seagate LP drives and 2 of the WD 2 TB Green drives.

Good to see another BD Ripper fan.

Do you ever delete any BD files - I mean even the ones that really suck?

My wife & I just saw "Meet the Browns" (BD ISO) the other day. Man, we thought it sucks so badly. She said I should just delete it. But I didn't.

 

[GlocksRock]

I would delete it, you will never go back and watch it again, and you will want the space you have for movies you will eventually rewatch.

 

[Cavediver]

Good to see another BD Ripper fan.

Do you ever delete any BD files - I mean even the ones that really suck?

My wife & I just saw "Meet the Browns" (BD ISO) the other day. Man, we thought it sucks so badly. She said I should just delete it. But I didn't.

I haven't deleted any yet. I've come close a couple of times. However, I reserve the right to do so at any time. Are you mounting the BD ISO via Virtual Clone Drive? What software player are you using? I stream the m2ts files from my WHS to a Popcorn Hour via wired ethernet.

 

[GlocksRock]

I mount my .iso files with Daemon Tools, and playback with either Power DVD 9 Ultra, or Total Media Theater 3. Although I may check out Alcohol 120% for mounting the iso files.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yeah, I'm getting pretty close to permanently deleting "Meet the Browns".
I keep on thinking that maybe one day, a guess might come over to my house and he/she might just have the desire to watch this crappy movie. If I can just get one person to like this movie, it would be "justified".

I use Virtual Clone Drive. I normally use PDVD9. I use TMT3 for HDDVDs.

However, I will be using TMT3 exclusively on my new HTPC because the ASUS Xonar sound card is only compatible with TMT. I tried using PDVD with it once, and it didn't work at all.

My brother has the WDTV. It can also play m2ts or iso files without having to mount. It can bitstream DTS & DD. I almost bought one, but I didn't only because it cannot bitstream or decode TrueHD/DTS-HD.

I hope my motherboard gets here today so that I can install the MB, CPU, Sound & Graphics cards, & everything else.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I mount my .iso files with Daemon Tools, and playback with either Power DVD 9 Ultra, or Total Media Theater 3. Although I may check out Alcohol 120% for mounting the iso files.

I've heard a lot of issues with Alcohol 120%.

Virtual Clone Drive has been great for me.

I have 2 Virtual Clone Drive (picture of a Sheep) Icons on my taskbar. One Icon is for Unmounting. One is for Mounting. It is so easy & cool.

 

[GlocksRock]

Have you ever tried daemon-tools? It's a free, and very easy to use program. You can setup multiple virtual drives, but I really only need one or two at the most. I may try virtual clone drive, just because I can.

 

[Warpdrv]

One other thing I don't quite get are the 2 terms Assess Time & Throughput.



I thought Access Time & Throughput go hand-and-hand?

Access time is basically just how long it takes the drive arms from a park position to get to and read the area where the DATA is stored..... (Like how long it takes you to answer the door when the doorbell rings.)

Throughput is once it starts reading - the continuous flow of DATA out of the drive - top speed of DATA being transmitted... which can vary on the spindle speed of the drive... therefore there is a top speed of Data output with a platter spinning at 5400rpm's and it will be faster with a platter spinning at 7200rpm - and so on. They have 10,000rpm drives as well...

 

[GlocksRock]

Too bad the 10,000 rpm drives cost a lot, and aren't available in high capacity. I wouldn't mind a couple 2 TB WD Raptor drives, too bad they don't exist.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Access time is basically just how long it takes the drive arms from a park position to get to and read the area where the DATA is stored..... (Like how long it takes you to answer the door when the doorbell rings.)

Throughput is once it starts reading - the continuous flow of DATA out of the drive - top speed of DATA being transmitted... which can vary on the spindle speed of the drive... therefore there is a top speed of Data output with a platter spinning at 5400rpm's and it will be faster with a platter spinning at 7200rpm - and so on. They have 10,000rpm drives as well...

That is a great explanation. Thanks.

So like for a foot race, when the whistle blows, I take off running. The initial take-off sprint time would be the ACCESS TIME. But how fast I run the rest of the way is the THROUGHPUT?

Or maybe like Horsepower vs Torque?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Have you ever tried daemon-tools? It's a free, and very easy to use program. You can setup multiple virtual drives, but I really only need one or two at the most. I may try virtual clone drive, just because I can.

No, I've never tried daemon-tools.

Virtual Clone Drive, which is free & made by Slysoft (AnyDVD HD), is so great I just don't see the point of trying anything else. It has never failed me once.

I've opened 6 different Virtual Clone Drives concurrently for TsMuxer. That's a lot of work. I feel exhausted just recalling that.

One Clone Drive is good enough. One click to mount (then select). One click to unmount.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD, LPCM bitstream glory

I popped in the blu-ray "Red Cliff".

When playing LP"CM, my receiver reads "MULTI CH DIRECT".

when playing DTS-HD MA, my receiver reads "DTS-HD MASTR".

When playing TrueHD, my receiver reads "DOLBY TrueHD".

I've went with 4G RAM & 4TB HDD & using Vista32.

 

[alexwakelin]

Sweet system, is there a reason you didn't go with a quad core?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Sweet system, is there a reason you didn't go with a quad core?

The Quad Core I wanted cost too much.