My HTPC/Photo editing/Gaming/Everything setup!

[Rowdy S13]

Well after a long hiatus from building computers I decided to dive back in. My motivation for this was the fact that I have been running Photoshop CS6 on a i3 powered laptop for years now. By running, I mean suffering through and trying to not throw it through a window. That whole not throwing it though a window thing has been MUCH harder to do the last few days. Without getting into all of the boring details, I was long overdue for a powerful desktop again.

I have been keeping mostly up with whats been going on with computers, but I still did a fair amount of research the last few weeks. I did a lot of reading on here specifically to find what kind of requirements I would have for a HTPC that can handle streaming ripped DVD's and BR's. It definitely seemed like what I had already planed out should do more than fine as a "front of house" machine in a HTPC set up. I also needed this computer to handle PhotoShop CS6 proficiently, and have the ability to game as well if I get the itch.

So after doing as much research as I could handle (mostly due to my laptop pretty much not working anymore) this is what I came up with and ordered yesterday.

Case: Corsair Graphite Series 600T Artic White
Power Supply: Corsair HX750 750 Watt
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V PRO
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 PC3 14900 32GB (4X8GB)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760
SSD Hard Drives: Mushkin 120GB SATA III (2 in RAID 0)
Main Storage Hard Drive: Seagate 4TB SATA III
Optical Drive: LG Blu-ray reader/burner

I already have a Asus 23" monitor, and a basic Logitech keyboard and mouse laying around for now. I will add a second monitor, and a better keyboard/mouse later.

After I get this machine up and running, I want to build a NAS box next so I can rip and store my movie collection as well as have more space for backup. I am getting a few year old computer for free actually, so I will probably build off of that for the NAS machine. That wont be for a little while though as this machine already put a good sized dent in the bank account.

Anyway, what do you all think? I know I already ordered it all, but still would like to hear what you all think about it. I am slightly concerned about the power supply being large enough. I think it is OK for how the machine is set up now, but I don't know how much extra power it has for expanding later. Also we can start talking about specifics on software and the NAS

I will update the thread with pics when it all comes in next Thursday. I had it all sent to work since I am in an apartment and I don't trust having it sent here. So when I get it all next week from work I will update, and have some pics and things as it comes together. That is all for now!



Thanks,
Sean

 

[Grador]

Looks like you've got quite a nice rig coming to you. Don't worry, that power supply is way more than enough for your hardware.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Thanks, I am pretty excited to say the least! Good to know that the power supply is going to be OK. I tried some calculators and it seemed like I may be cutting it close, but I could never configure it exactly.

I just bought PLEX Pass What sold me on it over XBMC is the remote streaming of media (great for travel) and the device support (Samsung TV, Roku, etc.) Also I figured if I didn't like it I could always switch to XBMC, but if I went the other way it could cost me more than the $75 lifetime deal they have right now. Now I need to find a good ripping software. I have used AnyDVD in the past, and some others. As I said it has been a LONG time since I played with this stuff, so I need some guidance. Reading though some threads I saw some people have problems with audio syncing with some programs. I want reliable, high quality rips. I don't care about compressing, and probably wont even bother compressing since HD's are cheap enough. So lets hear what everyone thinks for the best ripping software out there for DVD's and BR's.


Sean

 

[Grador]

Dvdfab is probably the one you are referring to that has sync issues: it doesn't. It has trouble when it compresses video, but on strait rips I have never had a single problem.

 

[Grador]

One more thought on the system. I wouldn't run the SSDs in raid 0. I think you will find them fast enough alone to not warrant the extra risk of data loss.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

pretty serious build. Like grador said - you went already overboard with Psu, 500W would have been sufficient for this setup even with some overclock
One con thou - i'd go with single , but faster ssd than cheap mushkin - raid 0 is nice for performance, but you doubling the chance system failure

 

[Rowdy S13]

Sweet! I am glad to hear I wont have to worry

Yeah, I hear you guys on the RAID, but I have both already so I may as well. It will only house the OS and other programs, so if it dies I can survive. I have learned long ago to always have a couple (or more) backups of important files. The idea on this machine is to only install the OS and programs on the RAID SSD's, and only have files on the 4TB drive and my other backups.

So what ripping software should I be looking at?



Sean

 

[itschris]

It's a lot like FORD vs Chevy. AnyDVD and DVDFab are both excellent choices. I think for ripping pure ISO, DVDFab seems to have the fan base however.

 

[Rowdy S13]

OK. Now I was seeing that some programs, or maybe formats would rip/play in a way where if it was a TV show with multiple episodes per disc it wouldn't index to each episode like the physical disc would. I don't have much TV material, but would like to know more about that. Is it a problem of the ripped format, the player, the ripping software? Also what else do I need to know about ripping for either DVD or BD?

I am so damn excited to get started on building this beast! I already installed PLEX on all of my other devices


Sean

 

[aberkowitz]

OK. Now I was seeing that some programs, or maybe formats would rip/play in a way where if it was a TV show with multiple episodes per disc it wouldn't index to each episode like the physical disc would. I don't have much TV material, but would like to know more about that. Is it a problem of the ripped format, the player, the ripping software? Also what else do I need to know about ripping for either DVD or BD?

I am so damn excited to get started on building this beast! I already installed PLEX on all of my other devices


Sean

Congrats on your setup! I felt the same way when I started this project 6 months ago. It's been a slow go for me, but I'm almost done with my collection and I keep adding TV shows for my kids. I'm also a PLEX user and I love it for all of the reasons you cited. One of my favorite features is the ability to downgrade the file size (And of course quality) to download to an ipad/iphone. Works great for children for long plane flights or car trips, and they could care less about sparkling quality.

As for software, I've personally been a fan of MakeMKV since it makes it really easy to pull out the titles/tracks that you don't need. In my case, I no longer have time for extras so I didn't want to go full ISO. I've had no issues with audio or video quality, and with the exception of 2 discs out of 350+ so far I haven't had any issues.

 

[aberkowitz]

One more software recommendation, if you end up using MKV files, is mkvmerge. I've primarily used it for stitching together movies that are contained on two discs (e.g. LOTR extended editions) into one file. It's pretty powerful- you can edit the MKV file length, rename chapters and edit their length, and all sorts of other stuff that I haven't explored. It's not a high use piece of software, but it comes in handy.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Thank you for the insight, and recommendation aberkowitz! I have a bit of time before I start ripping, so I will add that to my list of programs to research.

Today is the day though! Any minute now the UPS man will show up to my work with all of my wonderful gear Its like Christmas all over again!!!

Lets talk NAS for a little bit since that is really the next project. Forgive me in advance if I am asking dumb questions about any of this. I know I have mentioned the possibility of building a NAS box, and I may have mentioned getting an old desktop for that exact purpose. Well I got one yesterday, and it raised some questions for me. I guess my biggest question is do I need to add in a RAID card, or does FreeNAS (or any other) do a software based RAID? Next question is do I need a RAID array for anything other than some redundancy? What I mean by that is will PLEX be able to seek out data from various drives, or do they need to be in a RAID so it shows as one large drive on the system?

I guess we can start with those questions, then go from there. I will get the old desktop hooked up today so I have more info on what I am working with there. I know its only a couple years old, so it should be more than adequate for my needs.


Sean

 

[aberkowitz]

Thank you for the insight, and recommendation aberkowitz! I have a bit of time before I start ripping, so I will add that to my list of programs to research.

Today is the day though! Any minute now the UPS man will show up to my work with all of my wonderful gear Its like Christmas all over again!!!

Lets talk NAS for a little bit since that is really the next project. Forgive me in advance if I am asking dumb questions about any of this. I know I have mentioned the possibility of building a NAS box, and I may have mentioned getting an old desktop for that exact purpose. Well I got one yesterday, and it raised some questions for me. I guess my biggest question is do I need to add in a RAID card, or does FreeNAS (or any other) do a software based RAID? Next question is do I need a RAID array for anything other than some redundancy? What I mean by that is will PLEX be able to seek out data from various drives, or do they need to be in a RAID so it shows as one large drive on the system?

I guess we can start with those questions, then go from there. I will get the old desktop hooked up today so I have more info on what I am working with there. I know its only a couple years old, so it should be more than adequate for my needs.


Sean

I'm by no means the expert, so please do your research (Assassin HTPC was a wonderful resource), but I went with a software RAID solution and used FlexRAID. I had hoped to use the hardware RAID on my motherboard, but that wasn't going to work given the number of drives I had (5 2TB for storage and 1 SSD for O/S) and the fact that I had them hooked up via different connections (SATA 3 vs SATA2). I wanted a RAID solution for redundancy since I was using so many drives and was storing so much data- plus I wanted to have the drives pooled into one large drive. Windows supposedly supports pooling, but I think you need Windows 8 (I'm using 7) and I was one of many people who couldn't get it to work (I did a lot of forum reading). In the end I liked the fact that FlexRAID was simple, web-based, had a good set of utilities and task scheduler (I get daily email updates on the status of my array), and while it wasn't free I didn't think $40 was an unreasonable price.

Again, do your research. There are multiple software based solutions (SnapRAID, UnRAID) and of course hardware. One thing I've found with HTPC, like almost all A/V, is that there are unlimited opinions- so just pick what you believe will work best for you.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Thank you again! FlexRAID seems pretty sweet to say the least. One question I couldnt quite find an answer to, can I add additional drives after the fact, or do I need them all at the time of set up? It looks like I can expand on the fly, but I couldn't verify that 100% so I figured I would ask here first. Also, it sounds like you have a single machine right? I wonder how a system like that would work for a network attached solution. I am positive its possible, but more difficult for network setup.

I am still mostly interested in the FreeNAS option, but like you said I have a lot of research to do. The NAS, and HTPC areas are where I pretty much new.



Sean

P.S. Everything came in!! Now I just need to get off of work

 

[aberkowitz]

Thank you again! FlexRAID seems pretty sweet to say the least. One question I couldnt quite find an answer to, can I add additional drives after the fact, or do I need them all at the time of set up? It looks like I can expand on the fly, but I couldn't verify that 100% so I figured I would ask here first. Also, it sounds like you have a single machine right? I wonder how a system like that would work for a network attached solution. I am positive its possible, but more difficult for network setup.

I am still mostly interested in the FreeNAS option, but like you said I have a lot of research to do. The NAS, and HTPC areas are where I pretty much new.



Sean

P.S. Everything came in!! Now I just need to get off of work

you our definitely can add drives after the fact. Assassin HTPC Server (Assassin HTPC Server | Custom Server Guides from Assassin) gives detailed instructions if you ever need them. Info is behind a paywall ($25 one time fee) so I'm not going to share, but both the Server blog and the HTPC blog are worth the money in my opinion.

I do have a single machine- didn't want to bother with NAS at this time, so I can't opine on how any of the raid solutions work with NAS or on FreeNAS. Happy to help with anything else.

 

[aberkowitz]

Btw- did some surfing and found that the Assassin Server and HTPC blogs have been combined and are now free. Absolute must reads- Assassin HTPC Blog | Custom Entertainment from www.assassinhtpcblog.com

 

[Rowdy S13]

WOO HOO It's up and running!! Man I forgot how much I miss this stuff This thing is a BEAST! I took a bunch of pics throughout the process, I will get them up tomorrow probably. Right now it is doing some updates, and I still need to clean up some wiring. But I can tell you I am all smiles over here! Everything went very smoothly, and just fell into place. I love this case! OK that is enough being giddy, back to finish some updates then off to bed.


Sean

 

[Grador]

I'm in a pretty strong minority on this one, but I don't think raid is a good idea for media setups. It provides redundancy which is great for uptime, but it's not a replacement for backups. With raid if your data gets corrupted in any way it's lost for good, offline backups can restore that for you.

 

[aberkowitz]

I'm in a pretty strong minority on this one, but I don't think raid is a good idea for media setups. It provides redundancy which is great for uptime, but it's not a replacement for backups. With raid if your data gets corrupted in any way it's lost for good, offline backups can restore that for you.

Are you talking about a solution like Crash Plan? I've heard good things, may look into it. On on site solution may be untenable depending on the amount of data you're storing. In my case, 5 3TB drives would be cost prohibitive to backup on site.

 

[Rowdy S13]

I'm in a pretty strong minority on this one, but I don't think raid is a good idea for media setups. It provides redundancy which is great for uptime, but it's not a replacement for backups. With raid if your data gets corrupted in any way it's lost for good, offline backups can restore that for you.

You are correct, the RAID (for me) is to accomplish two things.

1. Pool multiple physical drives into a single visible drive
2. Offer some protection against loosing a single (or possibly two) drives

Eventually I would add a second NAS, or back up off site if I really feel the need to. However, for me I will already have backups. For my media, the physical disc will serve as a back up. For photos, and other files I will have them stored on my main system (on two separate drives), the NAS, and any multitude of external hard drives.


Sean