Building a new media server

  • Thread starter Thread starter Schrodinger
  • Start date Start date
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Schrodinger

Hi.

I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family DVD and
CD collection.

This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main other
rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.

They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.

What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a Sempron
2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA)
should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter plus a
booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.

I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but this will
save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if just
serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.

What do you all think?
 
Excellent idea, I had built one a few years ago. Here's another tip...
You can add 4 more HD's using one of those PCI RAID Cards, you'll just have
to make some modifications to handle the 4 more HD's (i.e. power cable
splitters and HD moutings) to make more room. There is a way to to "make 4
Hard Drives to look like 1 HD" or a single Volume that'll span several
disks.

Dave


| Hi.
|
| I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family DVD
and
| CD collection.
|
| This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main
other
| rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
|
| They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.
|
| What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a Sempron
| 2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA)
| should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter plus
a
| booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
|
| I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but this
will
| save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if just
| serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
|
| What do you all think?
|
|
 
Schrodinger said:
Hi.

I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family DVD
and CD collection.

This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main
other rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.

They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.

What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a Sempron
2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA)
should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter plus
a booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.

I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but this
will save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if
just serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.

What do you all think?
Click to expand...

How do you plan on playing the served media? Unless it
is only to other computers, you are going to need a Wireless
Media Player(s). You might want to be sure that your setup
is compatible with those also.

Check out: www.buffalotech.com http://snazzistore.com
www.dlink.com

I use a Buffalo Wireless HD "LinkTheater" that I have connected
via wire to my LAN and one of their "TeraStation" NAS with a
built-in media server. With this setup I can play media off the NAS
without having to have any PCs turned on. All the networkable
media players come with software to have a PC function as a server.

Luck;
Ken
 
| Hi.
|
| I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family DVD
and
| CD collection.
|
| This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main
other
| rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
|
| They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.
|
| What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a Sempron
| 2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm
SATA)
| should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter
plus
a
| booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
|
| I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but this
will
| save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if
just
| serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
|
| What do you all think?
|
|
Click to expand...


Dave said:
Excellent idea, I had built one a few years ago. Here's another tip...
You can add 4 more HD's using one of those PCI RAID Cards, you'll just
have
to make some modifications to handle the 4 more HD's (i.e. power cable
splitters and HD mountings) to make more room.
Click to expand...

Good point about HD mountings. Not thought about that aspect and I guess a
full size tower is overkill given that there'll be sod all else in the box.
There is a way to to "make 4
Hard Drives to look like 1 HD" or a single Volume that'll span several
disks.
Click to expand...

Is this RAID 0? I worry about using this in case one HD goes down taking
the lot with it?. Knowing my friend he will never ever back up.
 
Ken Maltby said:
How do you plan on playing the served media? Unless it
is only to other computers, you are going to need a Wireless
Media Player(s). You might want to be sure that your setup
is compatible with those also.

Check out: www.buffalotech.com http://snazzistore.com
www.dlink.com

I use a Buffalo Wireless HD "LinkTheater" that I have connected
via wire to my LAN and one of their "TeraStation" NAS with a
built-in media server. With this setup I can play media off the NAS
without having to have any PCs turned on. All the networkable
media players come with software to have a PC function as a server.

Luck;
Ken
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and links. I was thinking of using the Pinnacle Show
Center 200 - only because ComputerShopper gave it 5 stars. I am taking it
that I need one of these for each room in the house?
 
Schrodinger said:
Thanks for the info and links. I was thinking of using the Pinnacle Show
Center 200 - only because ComputerShopper gave it 5 stars. I am taking it
that I need one of these for each room in the house?
Click to expand...

That should have been http://snazzishop.com

I would be reluctant to suggest any "Pinnacle" products, but who
knows they could have got it right this time, I'll check it out. It
appears to use the same chipset as the Buffalo product, but looks
to have a neat integration with their PCTV cards, also. The
Buffalo "LinkTheater" has a special integration with their NAS.
Both are at the $300 price point.

What you'll need will depend on how and to what you will be
playing the served media. Where you want to use a HD display
device, (projector, HDTV, Plasma, whatever...) you would need
a HD Media Player. Where you will be using a normal TV, the
much cheaper Media players will do fine.

Luck;
Ken
 
Ken Maltby said:
That should have been http://snazzishop.com

I would be reluctant to suggest any "Pinnacle" products, but who
knows they could have got it right this time, I'll check it out. It
appears to use the same chipset as the Buffalo product, but looks
to have a neat integration with their PCTV cards, also. The
Buffalo "LinkTheater" has a special integration with their NAS.
Both are at the $300 price point.

What you'll need will depend on how and to what you will be
playing the served media. Where you want to use a HD display
device, (projector, HDTV, Plasma, whatever...) you would need
a HD Media Player. Where you will be using a normal TV, the
much cheaper Media players will do fine.

Luck;
Ken
Click to expand...

Aha! Why didn't I remember that the most buggy piece of software/hardware I
have ever used is Studio versions 1 thru 8 by Pinnacle Sys!

Thanks for the headsup - no way am I touching anything by them again - I
can't believe I didn't link the 2 given the amount of time and effort I
spent with that software/hardware combination - now ditched for Sony.

There will be no need for HDTV for at least some years. As with many
subjects, I can see this subject being as easy to get a hold of as wet
blancmange!
 
Schrodinger said:
Aha! Why didn't I remember that the most buggy piece of software/hardware
I have ever used is Studio versions 1 thru 8 by Pinnacle Sys!

Thanks for the headsup - no way am I touching anything by them again - I
can't believe I didn't link the 2 given the amount of time and effort I
spent with that software/hardware combination - now ditched for Sony.

There will be no need for HDTV for at least some years. As with many
subjects, I can see this subject being as easy to get a hold of as wet
blancmange!
Click to expand...

You can sometimes find a good deal on the SMC EZ-Stream
Wireless Multimedia Receiver (SMCWMR-AG) for ~$100.
You might decide which wireless protocols you will have available,
802.11(a,b&g) are the most common and work with most media
receivers.

Luck;
Ken
 
I saw it today at Fry's, Best Buy and CompUseless (CompUSA).

Its a little card that plugs into an empty PCI slot on the MB for IDE
drives(iffen you'replanning on using IDE drives - I didn't see one for
SCSI). From there you can plug 4 more devices into it i.e. HD's DVD drives
and CD drives.

here is some info on this link:

http://www.nowdirect.com/direct/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?partid=16456


Dave


|
| > | > | Hi.
| > |
| > | I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family
DVD
| > and
| > | CD collection.
| > |
| > | This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main
| > other
| > | rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
| > |
| > | They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.
| > |
| > | What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a
Sempron
| > | 2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm
| > SATA)
| > | should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter
| > plus
| > a
| > | booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
| > |
| > | I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but
this
| > will
| > | save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if
| > just
| > | serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
| > |
| > | What do you all think?
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|
|
| | > Excellent idea, I had built one a few years ago. Here's another tip...
| > You can add 4 more HD's using one of those PCI RAID Cards, you'll just
| > have
| > to make some modifications to handle the 4 more HD's (i.e. power cable
| > splitters and HD mountings) to make more room.
|
| Good point about HD mountings. Not thought about that aspect and I guess
a
| full size tower is overkill given that there'll be sod all else in the
box.
|
| >There is a way to to "make 4
| > Hard Drives to look like 1 HD" or a single Volume that'll span several
| > disks.
|
| Is this RAID 0? I worry about using this in case one HD goes down taking
| the lot with it?. Knowing my friend he will never ever back up.
|
| > Dave
| >
|
 
another:

http://www.krex.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=125



| I saw it today at Fry's, Best Buy and CompUseless (CompUSA).
|
| Its a little card that plugs into an empty PCI slot on the MB for IDE
| drives(iffen you'replanning on using IDE drives - I didn't see one for
| SCSI). From there you can plug 4 more devices into it i.e. HD's DVD drives
| and CD drives.
|
| here is some info on this link:
|
| http://www.nowdirect.com/direct/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?partid=16456
|
|
| Dave
|
|
| | |
| | > | | > | Hi.
| | > |
| | > | I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family
| DVD
| | > and
| | > | CD collection.
| | > |
| | > | This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the
main
| | > other
| | > | rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
| | > |
| | > | They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.
| | > |
| | > | What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a
| Sempron
| | > | 2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm
| | > SATA)
| | > | should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter
| | > plus
| | > a
| | > | booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
| | > |
| | > | I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but
| this
| | > will
| | > | save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance if
| | > just
| | > | serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
| | > |
| | > | What do you all think?
| | > |
| | > |
| | >
| | >
| |
| |
| | | | > Excellent idea, I had built one a few years ago. Here's another tip...
| | > You can add 4 more HD's using one of those PCI RAID Cards, you'll just
| | > have
| | > to make some modifications to handle the 4 more HD's (i.e. power cable
| | > splitters and HD mountings) to make more room.
| |
| | Good point about HD mountings. Not thought about that aspect and I
guess
| a
| | full size tower is overkill given that there'll be sod all else in the
| box.
| |
| | >There is a way to to "make 4
| | > Hard Drives to look like 1 HD" or a single Volume that'll span several
| | > disks.
| |
| | Is this RAID 0? I worry about using this in case one HD goes down
taking
| | the lot with it?. Knowing my friend he will never ever back up.
| |
| | > Dave
| | >
| |
|
|
 
Thanks!

Dave said:
another:

http://www.krex.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=125



| I saw it today at Fry's, Best Buy and CompUseless (CompUSA).
|
| Its a little card that plugs into an empty PCI slot on the MB for IDE
| drives(iffen you'replanning on using IDE drives - I didn't see one for
| SCSI). From there you can plug 4 more devices into it i.e. HD's DVD
drives
| and CD drives.
|
| here is some info on this link:
|
| http://www.nowdirect.com/direct/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?partid=16456
|
|
| Dave
|
|
| | |
| | > | | > | Hi.
| | > |
| | > | I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the
family
| DVD
| | > and
| | > | CD collection.
| | > |
| | > | This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the
main
| | > other
| | > | rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
| | > |
| | > | They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.
| | > |
| | > | What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a
| Sempron
| | > | 2600), plenty of ram - 1GB+ and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB
7200rpm
| | > SATA)
| | > | should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL
adapter
| | > plus
| | > a
| | > | booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
| | > |
| | > | I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but
| this
| | > will
| | > | save a lot and I figure that this will not affect the performance
if
| | > just
| | > | serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
| | > |
| | > | What do you all think?
| | > |
| | > |
| | >
| | >
| |
| |
| | | | > Excellent idea, I had built one a few years ago. Here's another
tip...
| | > You can add 4 more HD's using one of those PCI RAID Cards, you'll
just
| | > have
| | > to make some modifications to handle the 4 more HD's (i.e. power
cable
| | > splitters and HD mountings) to make more room.
| |
| | Good point about HD mountings. Not thought about that aspect and I
guess
| a
| | full size tower is overkill given that there'll be sod all else in the
| box.
| |
| | >There is a way to to "make 4
| | > Hard Drives to look like 1 HD" or a single Volume that'll span
several
| | > disks.
| |
| | Is this RAID 0? I worry about using this in case one HD goes down
taking
| | the lot with it?. Knowing my friend he will never ever back up.
| |
| | > Dave
| | >
| |
|
|
Click to expand...
 
Hi.

I want to build a pc for a friend to act as a server for the family DVD and
CD collection.

This is so that we can used a wireless media server thing in the main other
rooms to pipe CDs and DVDs around the house.
Click to expand...

Wireless media is a bad idea. Wifi bandwidth is low, you
end up with either lower quality or stuttering unless your
connection is near perfect. It might be beside the point
though, you may as well try it and go from there.

They don't want to play games or anything of that nature.

What I'm figuring, is that a fairly mediocre processor (maybe a Sempron
2600),
Click to expand...

overkill, a Pentium 1 is sufficient... seriously, any CPU is
enough, the system merely needs PCI and DMA which any
Pentium 1 or thereafter has.
plenty of ram - 1GB+
Click to expand...

Also overkill, if you had a giant database or 200 concurrent
users it'd be a different matter, but for a home fileserver,
even 32MB is plenty providing the OS has small footprint.

Point being, adding to the cost, noise and power consumption
for no benefit isn't useful. Literally, a Pentium 1 with
32MB of memory and a 100Mb wired ethernet connection will be
faster... let alone GbE. For a middling option, something
like a Celeron 800 and 256MB of memory is still overkill but
at least comes nearer a low heat and low noise potential.

Also keep in mind that more heat doesn't just mean more fans
or airflow, it means more frequent service interval to clean
out dust.
and lots of HD space (4 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA)
should do it. Couple this with the USRobotics wireless ADSL adapter plus a
booster somewhere around the middle of the large detached house.
Click to expand...

Why SATA? PATA would be cheaper and performance is not at
issue at all given anything slower than gigabit ethernet.
It'll work fine though with SATA.
I'm not sure about skimping on the processor and motherboard - but this will
save a lot
Click to expand...

This is totally over-the-top cost wise already. It's far
more cost effective to buy larger or more drives and a
faster networking interface. Drives for obvious reason,
more storage space. Network itself is by far the largest
bottleneck to an extreme extent, nothing else matters much
at all in it's context.
and I figure that this will not affect the performance if just
serving DVDs etc to the wireless media server.
Click to expand...

Via Epia if you want newer parts. This job needs no
particular floating point performance, and you may cut power
usage in half, noise by more than half. Ever since drive
controllers went DMA a decade ago, the CPU load was trivial.
Because of the wifi, there will not be any point were a
limited # of users would have any benefit from a lot of
memory.

It's all about the bottlenecks. Another poster made a good
suggestion about a PCI card for another drive controller,
the next "upgrade" above a Celeron 800 and 256MB of memory
would be to have a RAID1 or 5 array(s) out of more drives.
 
kony said:
Wireless media is a bad idea. Wifi bandwidth is low, you
end up with either lower quality or stuttering unless your
connection is near perfect. It might be beside the point
though, you may as well try it and go from there.



overkill, a Pentium 1 is sufficient... seriously, any CPU is
enough, the system merely needs PCI and DMA which any
Pentium 1 or thereafter has.


Also overkill, if you had a giant database or 200 concurrent
users it'd be a different matter, but for a home fileserver,
even 32MB is plenty providing the OS has small footprint.

Point being, adding to the cost, noise and power consumption
for no benefit isn't useful. Literally, a Pentium 1 with
32MB of memory and a 100Mb wired ethernet connection will be
faster... let alone GbE. For a middling option, something
like a Celeron 800 and 256MB of memory is still overkill but
at least comes nearer a low heat and low noise potential.

Also keep in mind that more heat doesn't just mean more fans
or airflow, it means more frequent service interval to clean
out dust.


Why SATA? PATA would be cheaper and performance is not at
issue at all given anything slower than gigabit ethernet.
It'll work fine though with SATA.


This is totally over-the-top cost wise already. It's far
more cost effective to buy larger or more drives and a
faster networking interface. Drives for obvious reason,
more storage space. Network itself is by far the largest
bottleneck to an extreme extent, nothing else matters much
at all in it's context.


Via Epia if you want newer parts. This job needs no
particular floating point performance, and you may cut power
usage in half, noise by more than half. Ever since drive
controllers went DMA a decade ago, the CPU load was trivial.
Because of the wifi, there will not be any point were a
limited # of users would have any benefit from a lot of
memory.

It's all about the bottlenecks. Another poster made a good
suggestion about a PCI card for another drive controller,
the next "upgrade" above a Celeron 800 and 256MB of memory
would be to have a RAID1 or 5 array(s) out of more drives.
Click to expand...

Kony, thanks for the very helpful response - you've given me exactly the
answers I was hoping for!
 
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