My HTPC/Photo editing/Gaming/Everything setup!

[Grador]

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.

I own a set of external hard drives that I keep relatively up to date. They're kept at work and brought in occasionally.

 

[Rowdy S13]

OK, so since I am bored at work lets try to figure out a couple glitches I had.

First one is easy, I was just dumb. I have 32GB of memory, but it is only using 16GB. For those of you who dont know, windows 7 Home Premium has a limit of 16GB. So I need to change to Windows 7 Pro, or Ultimate, both of which can use up to 192GB. All of that info only pertains to 64bit versions BTW.

The next one I think is easy, but has me a bit more stumped. I have a 4TB SATA 3 drive for bulk storage. When I was installing windows I didn't do anything with it (probably the first mistake), so I tried to install it from Windows after the fact. I could see it, and it was partitioned into 3 sections that were approximately 100mb, 1.99TB, and 1.99TB. I formatted the one section, and it worked just fine, and I now see a "E" drive that is 1.99TB. However I cant do anything with the remaining ~2TB. Also, I really would prefer to see the full ~4TB as one drive to make things easier. Just wondering what people think I guess. I need to reinstall the proper version of Windows, so when I do that I can format that drive then and I think I should be OK.

That also ties in with the SATA connections on the board, which are a little confusing. So I will try and explain this the best I can. I guess that Intel only supports 2 SATA 3 ports, but my board has 4. So that means two are on the Intel chipset, and two are on another chipset. Right now I have the the two SSD's on the Intel ports in a RAID 0 since that seemed like the right thing to do. It says in the paperwork that the other two SATA 3 ports are only for hard drives, so I hooked up the 4TB drive there (with a standard SATA cable, so not 6gb/sec). I believe that I can have those be RAID as well, but I know it would be a little more difficult to set up. Something along the lines of installing drivers off of a jump drive I imagine. There are also 4 SATA 2 ports, and I have the optical drive hooked up there for now.

So I wonder if I have everything hooked up the best way possible? It seems like it would be better to have the SSD's on the non-Intel ports, and then the 4TB drive and the Optical drive on the two Intel SATA 3 ports. What do you guys think?



Sean

 

[Grador]

Did you possibly format it fat32? Partition limit is 2 gig, for that.

 

[aberkowitz]

OK, so since I am bored at work lets try to figure out a couple glitches I had.

The next one I think is easy, but has me a bit more stumped. I have a 4TB SATA 3 drive for bulk storage. When I was installing windows I didn't do anything with it (probably the first mistake), so I tried to install it from Windows after the fact. I could see it, and it was partitioned into 3 sections that were approximately 100mb, 1.99TB, and 1.99TB. I formatted the one section, and it worked just fine, and I now see a "E" drive that is 1.99TB. However I cant do anything with the remaining ~2TB. Also, I really would prefer to see the full ~4TB as one drive to make things easier. Just wondering what people think I guess. I need to reinstall the proper version of Windows, so when I do that I can format that drive then and I think I should be OK.

That also ties in with the SATA connections on the board, which are a little confusing. So I will try and explain this the best I can. I guess that Intel only supports 2 SATA 3 ports, but my board has 4. So that means two are on the Intel chipset, and two are on another chipset. Right now I have the the two SSD's on the Intel ports in a RAID 0 since that seemed like the right thing to do. It says in the paperwork that the other two SATA 3 ports are only for hard drives, so I hooked up the 4TB drive there (with a standard SATA cable, so not 6gb/sec). I believe that I can have those be RAID as well, but I know it would be a little more difficult to set up. Something along the lines of installing drivers off of a jump drive I imagine. There are also 4 SATA 2 ports, and I have the optical drive hooked up there for now.

So I wonder if I have everything hooked up the best way possible? It seems like it would be better to have the SSD's on the non-Intel ports, and then the 4TB drive and the Optical drive on the two Intel SATA 3 ports. What do you guys think?

Sean

Your second item is a known problem with Windows and how it displays drives that are larger than 2TB. A bit of googling will find the exact answer, but here's one thread I found quickly from Tom's Hardware- 3TB Hard Drive only showing 2TB in control panel... [Solved] - Hard Drives - Storage

The last item is similar to what I was describing in an earlier post, and why I eventually went with a software based RAID instead of hardware. IIRC, you want the drives running your O/S hooked up to the Intel supported SATA ports (but I don't recall the reason). I then had issues using the hardware RAID with 5 drives spread across the non-Intel SATA 3 ports and the SATA 2 ports- and instead of buying a RAID controller I just went with a software solution.

 

[Rowdy S13]

I should have known it would be something like that! Oh well, at least it seems like an easy fix for me.

I just grabbed a VGA cable from IT, so I will be able to get more info on my possible NAS box when I get home. Also will get the pics from yesterday uploaded and posted up on here.


Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

OK I am so bored at work, and still have a couple hours to waste, so I am going to post some cell phone pics


Everything all ready to go before I started.

Memory, CPU, and CPU cooler all installed

Everything mounted and installed before I turned it on

Horrible picture of it on for the first time!

Close up shot of the water cooler block on the CPU, kind of cool

That's all for now, like I said I will get the good pics up later.


Sean

P.S. That did not waste enough time!

 

[Rowdy S13]

OK I am having some trouble over here. I cannot for the life of me get the 4TB to show as a single 4TB drive. It is partitioned, and I cant un-partition it. I tried to mess around with the windows disc, and ended up reformatting which kind of sucked. Since that takes forever (updates) I just gave up. I am now formatting the other computer which will eventually be my NAS box. Ill keep reading, but let me know what you guys think I am missing here.


Thanks,
Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

I finally solved the elusive 4TB drive problem. Long story short, it was installing the boot file on that drive for whatever reason. So the other day when I tried to reformat that drive with the windows disk I had to re install, and again yesterday when I formatted and converted it to GPT I had to do it again. Yesterday I finally found something that said to disconnect any other drives because windows may install the boot file on them. So I did that and poof, it all worked perfect! I still need to get Windows 7 Pro though so I can use all of my memory.

In other new I got the other computer formatted and set up as the PLEX server just to try it out. SO DAMN COOL! Everything worked perfect, and is even cooler than I thought it would be! I really cant wait to get that set up properly with some big hard drives. On a side note, the BIOS on that one list the SD and CF card slots as bootable, do we think I can install whatever OS on a SD card so I can free up the HD to be completely open for storage?


Sean

P.S. Pics are still coming, I had stopped working on them to get the main computer squared away.

 

[aberkowitz]

I finally solved the elusive 4TB drive problem. Long story short, it was installing the boot file on that drive for whatever reason. So the other day when I tried to reformat that drive with the windows disk I had to re install, and again yesterday when I formatted and converted it to GPT I had to do it again. Yesterday I finally found something that said to disconnect any other drives because windows may install the boot file on them. So I did that and poof, it all worked perfect! I still need to get Windows 7 Pro though so I can use all of my memory.

In other new I got the other computer formatted and set up as the PLEX server just to try it out. SO DAMN COOL! Everything worked perfect, and is even cooler than I thought it would be! I really cant wait to get that set up properly with some big hard drives. On a side note, the BIOS on that one list the SD and CF card slots as bootable, do we think I can install whatever OS on a SD card so I can free up the HD to be completely open for storage?


Sean

P.S. Pics are still coming, I had stopped working on them to get the main computer squared away.

nice!! One way I got around this issue (via a web suggestion), was to install windows on the SSD before hooking up the HDDs. Meant there was no chance of boot files being copied over.

Regarding the SD/CF suggestion, I'm can't comment on the ability to run an O/S off of one but I'd have a real question about reliability. Those cards were not designed to withstand the heat and the continuous use. I did a bit of googling and found links that were a couple years old- but here's the most useful one: Windows on a SD Card ? - MacRumors Forums. Post #3 addresses speed issues. Again, it's old and dealing with dated tech, but I can't imagine flash cards have changed that much.

Just look for deals on another SSD. Prices have dropped significantly.

 

[Rowdy S13]

I probably should have explained, I was looking to install FreeNAS on a flash drive. I ended up finding a old Micro SD card laying around and installed it on that. Now I have been setting up the Plex media server plugin on that. I am not sure if I will stay with this set up or not though. I would like the NAS box to show up as a drive in windows so that my wife can save files to it like she would an attached HD. I am sure there is a way to configure FreeNAS to do this, but I don't know how yet. Also I don't know how well it works adding additional drives after I already have a set with data.

Either way I am just experimenting with some options right now. It is something to do, and has been fun


Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

So thinking out loud here, what does everyone think about flexraid in my main system? I have 6 open sata 2 ports, and no need for them. That way I am only running one machine. Not the best idea for safe back up, but what other possible down sides am I missing?

Sean

 

[Grador]

So thinking out loud here, what does everyone think about flexraid in my main system? I have 6 open sata 2 ports, and no need for them. That way I am only running one machine. Not the best idea for safe back up, but what other possible down sides am I missing?

Sean

Hard drives are noisy. If this system is near your a/v rig I wouldn't.

 

[aberkowitz]

Hard drives are noisy. If this system is near your a/v rig I wouldn't.

My HTPC is running 5 HDDs and sits right upfront with the rest of my AV equipment. I've never had a problem with noise. The fan on my PS3 (now retired) was significantly noisier than anything I've heard coming off of my machine.

As for for flexraid, it has been a great software solution for me. There's a free trial (30 days I think). Give it a go.

 

[Rowdy S13]

So yesterdays question was a little in left field for sure. I was waiting to get an MRI, and dreaming of my computers Today I think I have a bit more of a realistic idea. I have been playing with the FreeNAS for a couple days now, and it is just a bit too complicated for my taste. I am positive I can figure it all out, and it can do anything and everything I would want, but I don't want to invest the time to learn. Long story short I am leaning toward FlexRAID on that old computer. I am thinking I can install Windows Home Premium (already has a key) on a small IDE drive, run FlexRAID, and Plex Server on this machine and just stuff it with some large SATA drives for the array. This seems like the best solution for me after looking at all of the options for a while now.

So now on to some questions

Do I need Windows Home Server 2011 for FlexRAID?
How many drives do I need to start an array?
Am I correct in thinking that my parity drive needs to be equal to, or larger than the largest drive in the array?
Does the parity drive get used for only that, or is it able to have data on it as well? So if I had a 4TB parity drive and also a 2TB drive would I have 2TB of space, or something closer to 6TB?
Should I add more more memory? Currently there is 3GB of memory
Should I upgrade to a gigabit network card?

Any other tips, tricks, advice? I have already read most of the Assassin HTPC guide for FlexRAID and will probably read it a few times before I am done I also tried signing up to their forums twice to ask these more specific questions, but none of my emails seem to like it.

Anyway, thank you guys for all of the help so far, it is really appreciated!


Thanks,
Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

Alright, I am bumping this up to get some answers! I have already sorted out some of the above,

Do I need Windows Home Server 2011 for FlexRAID? Answer: NO
How many drives do I need to start an array?
Am I correct in thinking that my parity drive needs to be equal to, or larger than the largest drive in the array? Answer: Yes
Does the parity drive get used for only that, or is it able to have data on it as well? So if I had a 4TB parity drive and also a 2TB drive would I have 2TB of space, or something closer to 6TB?
Should I add more more memory? Currently there is 3GB of memory?
Should I upgrade to a gigabit network card? Answer: Seems like the common thought on this is yes go with a Intel based gigabit card.

That still leaves a couple things unanswered though. Also, after more reading and some playing around I have yet even more questions! My main question right now is which machine does the transcoding in a Plex system? It seems like the server is tasked with this, but that doesn't make a ton of sense if you are using something like FreeNAS. Let me lay out a couple issues I have had in testing.

First issue I ran into is once I changed to FreeNAS, I was unable to stream onto my phone when off of my home network. I thought the server turned off, but it was on and fine when I got home. I tried to use it when I got home, and on my own network and it worked just fine. Initially I had it set up the same machine I used for the FreeNAS box, but formatted with Windows 7 Home Premium. I had it plugged into my router (just like it was on FreeNAS) and I had the movie files and Plex server both on that machine (I think I partitioned the hard drive). With that set up I could stream multiple movies, and was able to stream on my phone while in the car. I have to assume this was more of a networking/router issue, but I didn't look into it very much.

Next up, I decided to try ripping a BD movie to see how that works and so on. I ripped I am legend on BD using MakeMKV. I did absolutely nothing at all other than give it a destination folder, and hit start. That file ended up being 32.X GB, which I then sent over to the FreeNAS box into the same folder as the other movies. The next day when it was done I tried to stream it first to my phone where it froze right away. I then tried to stream it to my main PC and it "played" but pretty much did not work at all. I can understand the phone not working since it has to transcode on top of anything else, but the PC seems like it should have worked? The other movies I use to test are various quality and size, but one for sure is 720p. I have streamed 4 movies to 4 devices (including the one 720p movie) at the same time with no issues at all with the FreeNAS box. I probably also did that with the windows setup, but I don't remember if I did them ALL at the same time.

Anyway, what does everyone think my problem(s) is/are? I would like to use the existing old computer with Windows 7 Home (have a key) and FlexRAID, but only if it can handle the work load. If it cant, then I will likely just build something specific as a server.



Thanks,
Sean

 

[aberkowitz]

Alright, I am bumping this up to get some answers! I have already sorted out some of the above,

Do I need Windows Home Server 2011 for FlexRAID? Answer: NO
How many drives do I need to start an array?
Am I correct in thinking that my parity drive needs to be equal to, or larger than the largest drive in the array? Answer: Yes
Does the parity drive get used for only that, or is it able to have data on it as well? So if I had a 4TB parity drive and also a 2TB drive would I have 2TB of space, or something closer to 6TB?
Should I add more more memory? Currently there is 3GB of memory?
Should I upgrade to a gigabit network card? Answer: Seems like the common thought on this is yes go with a Intel based gigabit card.

That still leaves a couple things unanswered though. Also, after more reading and some playing around I have yet even more questions! My main question right now is which machine does the transcoding in a Plex system? It seems like the server is tasked with this, but that doesn't make a ton of sense if you are using something like FreeNAS. Let me lay out a couple issues I have had in testing.

First issue I ran into is once I changed to FreeNAS, I was unable to stream onto my phone when off of my home network. I thought the server turned off, but it was on and fine when I got home. I tried to use it when I got home, and on my own network and it worked just fine. Initially I had it set up the same machine I used for the FreeNAS box, but formatted with Windows 7 Home Premium. I had it plugged into my router (just like it was on FreeNAS) and I had the movie files and Plex server both on that machine (I think I partitioned the hard drive). With that set up I could stream multiple movies, and was able to stream on my phone while in the car. I have to assume this was more of a networking/router issue, but I didn't look into it very much.

Next up, I decided to try ripping a BD movie to see how that works and so on. I ripped I am legend on BD using MakeMKV. I did absolutely nothing at all other than give it a destination folder, and hit start. That file ended up being 32.X GB, which I then sent over to the FreeNAS box into the same folder as the other movies. The next day when it was done I tried to stream it first to my phone where it froze right away. I then tried to stream it to my main PC and it "played" but pretty much did not work at all. I can understand the phone not working since it has to transcode on top of anything else, but the PC seems like it should have worked? The other movies I use to test are various quality and size, but one for sure is 720p. I have streamed 4 movies to 4 devices (including the one 720p movie) at the same time with no issues at all with the FreeNAS box. I probably also did that with the windows setup, but I don't remember if I did them ALL at the same time.

Anyway, what does everyone think my problem(s) is/are? I would like to use the existing old computer with Windows 7 Home (have a key) and FlexRAID, but only if it can handle the work load. If it cant, then I will likely just build something specific as a server.



Thanks,
Sean

Sean,

You are using Plex, correct? You may want to visit the Plex boards to help with your streaming issues. There are a bunch of experts there that can help parse your log files for issues.

Also, to address some of your flexraid questions: you need 3 drives for an array, parity drive is only used for parity and does not count as available space,and 3 GB of memory is probably ok- but I don't think you're going to need more than 4.

 

[Rowdy S13]

Thanks for the response! I did do some playing around over the weekend, and learned some things. I also had my daily driver completely die, so I was more focused on getting that replaced. Then on Monday the wife's car wouldn't start, so I had to fix that too. Hers was just a battery not liking the -30+ temps we had around here! I had to take her battery inside for an hour or two and then also jump it since it was dead from trying earlier.

Anyway, I got a new car last night, so I can get back to playing with the computer(s)! So over the weekend I changed some things around and I have it all working pretty good now. Turns out that the Plex server machine (not necessarily an actual server) is the workhorse of the system, which makes sense. I changed it around and installed the Plex server software on the main machine, and for testing also the media, and it worked flawlessly. I was streaming 1080p, 720p, and 3 other feeds to various other devices without an issue. Since its only the wife and I, this is WAY more work than it will ever need to do.

So now I need to decide how I want to get everything set up. If the main computer is going to be the Plex server, then I think I may as well have it be the main storage location as well. As I said previously, I have 6 SATA2 ports open on the motherboard. Not to mention more than enough power and space to handle everything. I am kind of struggling to see why I would need a separate box. If I was to run green drive for the storage array, and also spin them down, I dont think it would be bad for heat or noise. I am not really too concerned with noise anyway, but if I can spin them down when not needed it should be fine? Only real downside is that its not very secure with it all in one box.


What do you guys think?!
Sean

 

[Rowdy S13]

OK, as promised some pics (finally)!! I got the new power supply wiring early this week, and finally got around to installing them and cleaning everything up today. I will apologize in advance for a lot of these pics looking like crap. When I was building it I was more focused on getting it built, and less on getting decent pics. When I took the final pics today I was at least good enough to get out the tripod, but too lazy to get out some lighting. Enough excuses, on with the pics!

Here is the full pile-o-parts before assembly

The motherboard installed in the case

Blurry shot of the motherboard, and drives installed. Its hard to see, but the optical, both SSD's and the 4TB HD are all installed there.

Power supply, and CPU radiator are installed here

CPU radiator installed

CPU is in its home

Water block installed. This is actually the block, pump, and controller all in one. Pretty sweet setup. Later on you will see a cable plugged into the left side, that is a USB cable that goes to a MB header for a GUI that gives you all the data and control for the system.

Dual 120mm fans installed on the top of the case to keep the inside cleaner looking

Memory installed

Kind of a cool shot with the memory and the water cooler

 

[Rowdy S13]

Video card installed (man is it long)

Wiring on the backside of the board. It is kind of messy, but there is a lot there and without making my own wires it hard to get it much nicer. It all fits under the side panel without being smashed though

Inside of the case all done, computer off

Inside case, computer on

And lastly a pic of the computer on with the side panel installed. There is a company who makes a full plexiglass side panel for this case that I will probably get. I grew used to seeing it open, and now the window seems way too small

And there you have it, my complete do everything machine! Well complete for now anyway, we all know how that goes!


Sean

 

[itschris]

That's a beast of a machine. That video card is crazy with the fans. Are doing water cooling? Is that what tubes by the CPU are for?