Lets build me a HTPC/Server!

[Rowdy S13]

What about this board for a happy medium

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157547


Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

Well it is finally all ordered!!! I actually ordered everything on Saturday morning, and planned on updating in here later in the day. I stared work on the big wiring project for my home theater/house. Then I had to run to a friends kids birthday party. I planned on grabbing some food, and the updating, but then my night went down hill. First I crashed my car on the way home. Nothing bad, nobody hurt, but just a stupid unavoidable accident. After I got home I ate, and then let the dog out. I started to make some coffee and I smelled skunk. That of course meant that my dog got sprayed, so I had to clean him up by myself since the wife was out of town. No easy task let me tell you. THEN I got an email that the person who bought my camera lens, the lens that was paying for this project (and the tires for my car which were what cause the aforementioned accident) decided that she got "hacked" and wanted to cancel the order. That pretty much put me in a funk the rest of the weekend. Today I dealt with it as best I could, but I havent heard back yet. I did however decide to let the computer order ride for now. since I should be able to sell the lens if/when I get it back.

ANYWAY, the short version is that I ordered everything! I went with the following components
Case: Fractal Node 304
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E
CPU: Intel i3 4130 Haswell (Dual core 3.4GHz)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2x 4GB)
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced 120GB
Parity drive: Seagate 4TB
Storage drive 1: Western Digital 3TB Green (Existing)
Storage drive 2: Western Digital 4TB Green
Tuner: SiliconDust HD Home Run Extend-2
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro (64bit)
RAID software: FlexRAID RAID-F pooling and protection

I also ordered up a few other things while I was at it

Samsung 28" 720p LED TV
TP-Link 24 port Gigabit unmanaged switch

The TV will serve as a display for the whole system (this computer, and the home theater gear) so I can set things up and make adjustments without firing up the projector. The switch is obviously for my network that I am installing. I had a 48 port switch I got from work, but the fans were dead, and it was managed, so I opted to keep it simple with new gear. I am super excited to build this little monster!!! Hopefully I will have some build pics in a the next week or two.



Thanks for all the help!
Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

All of the gear came the other day! I fail though, and only uploaded one pic to facebook, but here it is anyway

I started putting it together a little last night,but didn't get very far. I did get the TV mounted to my rack though.

And here is a quick shot of the case next to my PS3

It is pretty much the perfect size! I am really happy with the case so far, but we will see if I am still happy when I start building

Last up is a quick pic of the switch and patch panel mounted in the bracket. I still need to order the 2RU shelf to finish it off. I will have a few smaller things on the shelf like the modem, and possibly the UPS.

I will get some more (and better) pictures up of assembling and setting everything up. Should be a very nice little computer, I am excited!



Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

Well no pics yet, but problems abound!!! Not really, but there were a few snags along the way. So first up I was a little hesitant on putting everything together as I mentioned, but decided to do it anyway. I was pretty busy all week, so I only was able to get a little done each day. The first day (maybe Wednesday?) I started getting the motherboard ready. I have pics of that, but I haven't gotten them off of my camera yet. Anyway, that was all pretty straight forward. The board is very nice, CPU and heat sink went in no issue at all. I did have some trouble on the memory which is where I stopped for the night. The manual does not specify which slots for memory, so I just went 1 and 3 which is pretty standard.

The next day I focused more on the case. Of course that was the first thing I had opened as you saw, but now I started getting it all ready. I got the power supply installed, got the standoffs in, and everything else all set to go. Then I tried to put the Micro-ATX board in AND no dice! I am an idiot and did not catch that the Node 304 accepts Mini-ITX boards. I was mainly looking to use the Node 804, which does use Micro-ATX boards, and just never noticed when I changed to the 304. Not a huge deal, just need to order up the 804 like I wanted from the start.

Late Friday night I decided to at least bench test the system and install windows. Everything went great with that, no issues at all which is always nice! Yesterday I got the 4TB drive installed, and got all the updates done, and various things installed/setup. I have all of the basics working how I want right now, proper video output, proper audio output (bit stream), and it is finding all of the media files correctly. That doesn't mean everything went without a hitch though. Just like BoredSysAdmin warned, the NEW WD Green 3TB drive was essentially DOA. At first it showed up, but had an I/O error when trying to add it to the system. Then after trying various cables, various ports, various power connections (different rails) it wasn't even showing in the BIOS anymore. I am just going to send it back, and get another Seagate 4TB drive. My other WD Green 3TB drive worked just fine though, and I was able to build my FlexRAID pool just fine with it. I did take FOREVER since that drive was pretty full, but it is doing everything just the way I want

I decided to revamp my main computer while I was at it since I needed to take the 3TB drive from it, as well as borrow my optical drive to install windows. Now that thing is in pieces in the middle of my basement, and I just added to my work load. It actually works out though since I don't really want it running while we are cutting open walls to run all the wiring for my home theater.

Boring update I know, but an update none the less.



Sean

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Oops, I didn't checked looking into Case/mobo sizes. I Should've checked and caught that. Sorry for DOA WD green. Many Newegg's reviewers mention same issue.

 

[Rowdy S13]

It's not your responsibility to check the compatibility of my build I should have paid more attention, but it was a bit of a last minute change and I have never built a small case before so I didn't even think about it. Its not a big deal I already have an RMA with newegg to send it (and the HD) back. Same goes for the drive, poop happens. Ill change it to the 4TB Seagate (which BTW is what I have in my main computer) and be happy! I am waiting on ordering the replacement pieces though since a lot of money has been going out lately. I will likely start to put it together and then place a FrozenCPU order for some specific cables and maybe lights. Since this now will have a clear side I have to make it look nice! Plus I need some new things for my main computer to make it look a little cleaner/nicer.


Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

Quick update, ITS AWESOME!!! It really is a pretty sweet little computer. I am very happy with how it all came together and how well everything seems to be working so far. I got my replacement HD today (Changed WD Green 3TB to Seagate 4TB) and have it formatted and installed. Adding it to the FlexRAID array was very simple and only took a minute. Now I can finish ripping all of my bluray movies, which I have already started

I do have one slight hangup that I cant figure out. I have the Siliconedust tuner (which is GREAT!) and it really just worked with no issues. It is also working in WMC no problem which is awesome. My issue is that WMC will only record to my "C" drive which is the 120GB SSD. It does not recognize the FlexRAID drive. I have tried to map the drive, and also the folder, but so far no dice. I also tried to redirect the folder that it records to, also with no luck. Like I said, I am not as good with software so hopefully this is an easy fix. The "easy" fix is to add an additional drive that is not in the array just to store recorded TV since I am sure it would allow me to select a standard "D" drive. If I had more than 6 native SATA III ports I would maybe consider this option, but if I am going to give up a port for anything I think I'd rather add an optical drive. Anyone have any ideas? BoredSysAdmin I am looking in your direction


Thanks!
Sean

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Not an expert on flexraid. If you remember i tried everything to steer you away from it
But honestly I could try to create a symbol link. Might work

 

[Rowdy S13]

I know you did, but I like to be a pain Actually I am very happy with the FlexRAID so far. It has done everything I wanted it to do with no problem, which is all I could ask. This is the first minor issue I have seen with going that route and really is not much of a deal breaker by any means.

What do I need to do to try the symbol link? I am not at home right now, but I will probably mess with it when I get back in a couple hours.


Sean

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Google for "ntfs symbolic link"

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

oops, looks like symlinks are NOT supported for FlexRaid in windows
http://forum.flexraid.com/index.php?topic=128.0

btw: Win8.1 supports Storage spaces - I need to catch up on that, but so far it seems promising

 

[Rowdy S13]

I was just coming here to say that I will figure SOMETHING out for it, just not sure what yet. Two "worst case" solutions would be,

1. Install a HD in the HTPC whos sole purpose in life is to store my DVR'ed TV
2. Record TV on another computer (probably my Main system) and either play it on that system, or somehow share that folder to the HTPC for it to playback

I still have faith that I can come up with a better solution than those, but if all else fails neither would really be THAT bad. To be honest, there probably isn't even anything on OTA TV that I even care about recording. I know my wife is all excited about some show coming back on air, but for sure it is available on Hulu (and we have a Hulu+ subscription) so its not really a deal breaker there either. For now I am going to set up her laptop to be able to record that show so that she can watch it on her laptop whenever she wants. That is a nice advantage to the HD Home Run tuner for sure!


Sean

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

It's sounds like you are on right way.
Just another idea:
Or you could do a dedicated Freenas storage box and use iSCSI protocol to share storage to your DVR windows 7/8 machine. Since support for iscsi is build-in to windows all windows apps will treat iscsi attached drive like a true local hard drive drive. With 1gig network iscsi performance will be nearly same as local hard drive.

I had a use case for it, not too long ago. My client wanted to have his MS Outlook email archive (aka PSTs) stored on a reliable storage ie. Nas with Raid and have it nightly backup. Microsoft Outlook has build-in protection against storing PSTs on the regular windows network shares - it's considered "risky".
However with iSCSI share - it was sufficient to full Outlook thinking the drive was local - aka problem solved.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Upon further review, I think my best bet is to have a dedicated HD for recording. Of course I will probably use it for more than JUST recording TV, but I need another HD that is not part of the FlexRAID array. I am thinking that I will take the 3TB WD Green drive out of the array and replace it with a 4TB unit (either WD Red or Seagate) and use that for my "D" drive.

The NAS idea is another interesting one. I happen to have a spare old computer that I got with the intention of doing just that. I know very little about iSCSI, but I saw it suggested as an option last night. I have had that computer running FreeNAS off of a Micro SD card before, and could simply add the 3TB drive to it. However I see a couple issues with this idea. First off is another computer that is running 24/7. Second, can I add a 3TB drive to FreeNAS without issue? I know in Windows it will only recognize 2TB if it is not formatted correctly. Next up is memory, I think that computer only has 1GB (single stick) and I don't really want to throw money at it. Last is the network card, I am pretty sure it is only 10/100 and again I don't want to throw money at it.

I can see me playing with that system more to try and learn FreeNAS, but I don't see swapping over right now. I think for now I will just replace that 3TB drive and use it as a separate storage drive. Seems like the easiest solution, though not exactly the cheapest.


Sean

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I built purpose-build NAS to run 24/7 - I used all green components and I am very glad I have it. Besides PVR which is running on my box, i have always available media. I could also stream SD video to my cellphone while on the road.

Memory is very important for zfs. Freenas with 1gb is not the way to go, but it's cousin NAS4Free just might work. I wont recommend running the storage of a single HD in any case. At least have a second 3tb drive and mirror them. Yes - not very space efficient, but HDs are cheap and green drives are even cheaper and will work fine. 3TB should not be a problem for NAS4Free.
http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=documentation:setup_and_user_guide:hardware_requirements

With a single 3TB hd you don;t need to use zfs. Older UFS system will need less memory.
As for 10/100 nic - I think it's not great. I think this one should work with nas4free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166005