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Pick the Right Kodi Box (UPDATED FEB 2015) - Printable Version

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- Choque - 2011-04-12

Hehe ok, your point. But I don't need 16 bays Smile As I only use it to have my RAW files (I do photography) protected. For that I'm ok with the 4 bay version. As for my media files, I just copy the whole collection to new HDDs every 2-3 years or so. Never had a single HDD fail on me till now.


- ion_man - 2011-04-14

I think this thread should be made sticky.


2nd build - flymods - 2011-04-19

Sorry in advance if im posting this in the wrong place.

I am looking for suggestions on a 2nd XBMC live box to build for my living room. I currently have the Zotac Ion 330 (1.6ghz with 4gb ddr2 ram) which I plan to move to another room. I want to build or buy something more robust that can still run xbmc live and output 1080p 120hz with fiber audio. I will be using a ssd for the OS and have all my content on a custom FreeNAS box on my gigE network. I want a solution with more power for browsing fanart and the menu but only use my htpc's for HD video content. I would also like something as quiet as possible with relatively low power consumption. If I have to build something with full size fans that is a little louder to get better performance running a long hdmi cable to a closet could be an option but I would prefer not to.

I say some people commenting on the different NAS solutions and I just wanted to say I have had a GREAT experience with FreeNAS for about the last 2 years. I am currently running the latest version and have 2 raid sets set up: 5 1tb drives in raid 0 for performance and 2 2tb drives in raid 0 acting as my main raid backup. I know its a little overkill but I don't trust the software raid and had most of the drives and equipment laying around from old projects. The great thing about FreeNAS is you can use it with just about anything you have laying around or if you want supreme redundancy you can order a $1200 raid card...

Anyway thanks for any advice on the new build!


- Choque - 2011-04-20

Most ppl here are using unRAID for their NAS builds. You may want to check that out. As for the suggestions, check the first three pages of this thread (especially the posts from poofyhairguy) and check eskro's thread here


- flymods - 2011-04-20

Unraid is nice but if I remember correctly its not free, I saw the posts about FreeNAS and noticed no one said anything about it so I just wanted to give it a bump. Its a great OS, I have it running on a 2gb compact flash card with other services set up other that just smb shares (ftp, rsynch server ect).

I saw both posts about all the different options for building a new xbmc box I was more or less hoping to hear from someone who had a nice quiet system already set up that could make a good suggestion. I am leaning towards just going with a core i3 and 430 but am weary because of power consumption and noise from fans.


- Superorb - 2011-04-20

The 3 disk version is free, but that's only good for 1 parity and 2 data drives.

If you only use XBMC to watch movies, an i3 would be overkill. Even a Sempron 140 or Celeron/Atom, etc would work wonders for you. If you really need the 430 you can use that as well. AMD Zacate boards are also a great choice.

I run a large heat sink on my main PC, but I removed the fan and it still idles at around 33C and full load at 40C. As long as your case has decent airflow you can sometimes get away with no fan on the heatsink.


- flymods - 2011-04-20

Thanks for the info. I just want something thats a little faster than my current zotac ion. Don't get me wrong the ion runs content great its just a little lacking when trying to do things in various menu's while watching content. Are the AMD Zacate boards currently supported with xbmc live? Do you think I would see a performance improvement with it? Thanks again.


- Superorb - 2011-04-20

Have you tried overclocking the Atom you already have? I also don't see why the Zacate boards wouldn't work for XBMC, I've read several reviews on Newegg of people using them for this.

EDIT: Have you tried turning on debugging so you can see CPU usage while you're going through menus while also playing content?


- nemek - 2011-04-20

Quote:Do you think I would see a performance improvement with it?
Don't think so - its just a bit faster then atom


- flymods - 2011-04-20

Superorb Wrote:Have you tried overclocking the Atom you already have? I also don't see why the Zacate boards wouldn't work for XBMC, I've read several reviews on Newegg of people using them for this.

EDIT: Have you tried turning on debugging so you can see CPU usage while you're going through menus while also playing content?

I haven't debugged but I can do that tonight, I am running the latest xbmcfreak maverick 10.1 which I just installed the other day, it actually runs a little better on 10.1 imo.

I want to overclock the atom but the zotac bios is terrible and I am a novice at adjusting variables for overclocking. I have looked all over and people say they have them overclocked stable at 2ghz but I cant seem to find the settings they used to get there...

I think the Zacate boards are running with win but not xbmc live, that may be incorrect info as I remember reading it a while ago and am not sure how old the info is.


- rbrohman - 2011-04-24

poofyhairguy Wrote:My favorite option, and the only one I use, is Unraid (note I have nothing to do with those who run Unraid other than I like the software). You have to pay money for this software, but I think its very much worth it because its the only NAS software on the market which is pretty much designed for mediaservers.

Advantages of Unraid
-Allows you to mix and match drives of different sizes and makes into a single "User Share" of pooled storage (one big folder across drives)
-Allows you to pull the drives of the array out and read the data on them on another computer
-Allows drives to spin down if they are not being accessed, saving power and possible prolonging their life
-Unraid allows for the growing of the array in size by replacing one drive at a time with full use of that drive after addition and no data loss
-Unraid is easy to install, runs off a pen drive to save sata ports for data, and is configured by and easy to use web interface

Downsides:
-Unraid costs money for real versions
-Unraid's write speeds are pretty low without a cache drive
-Unraid's read speeds are slightly lower than the drives by themselves, but still more than fast enough for media
-Unraid is a dedicated NAS OS, meaning that it can't easily do other server stuff for you
Poofy, I'm currently rounding up the hardware to start on a media server. While unraid was in the running, I'm strongly leaning towards flexraid because I can install it on top of Win7 and have SAB, SickBeard, uTorrent and CouchPotato all on a single box along with flexraid.

I know you use SAB, SB and CP - can you perhaps describe your full setup? Do you have the content acquisition on another box (aside from the HTPCs and the "server")? Do you download directly to the unraid array, or use an intermediary location?

Thanks


- Superorb - 2011-04-24

rbrohman Wrote:Poofy, I'm currently rounding up the hardware to start on a media server. While unraid was in the running, I'm strongly leaning towards flexraid because I can install it on top of Win7 and have SAB, SickBeard, uTorrent and CouchPotato all on a single box along with flexraid.

I know you use SAB, SB and CP - can you perhaps describe your full setup? Do you have the content acquisition on another box (aside from the HTPCs and the "server")? Do you download directly to the unraid array, or use an intermediary location?

Thanks
You can run SAB, SickBeard, Transmission and CouchPotato on an unRAID server as well, plus you don't incur the cost of a Win7 license.


- flymods - 2011-04-24

Superorb Wrote:You can run SAB, SickBeard, Transmission and CouchPotato on an unRAID server as well, plus you don't incur the cost of a Win7 license.

FreeNAS as the name implies is free. it runs on free bsd.


- Superorb - 2011-04-24

flymods Wrote:FreeNAS as the name implies is free. it runs on free bsd.
Yes, but I was replying to the other poster that wanted to install it on top of a Win7 install. unRAID is also free up to 3 disks.

The problem I have with FreeNAS is that they take forever to release new versions. Also, it uses ZFS, and as I understand it, you cannot easily just add a single, larger drive to the system to increase available storage space. Nor can you mix different sized disks with ease.


- flymods - 2011-04-25

Superorb Wrote:Yes, but I was replying to the other poster that wanted to install it on top of a Win7 install. unRAID is also free up to 3 disks.

The problem I have with FreeNAS is that they take forever to release new versions. Also, it uses ZFS, and as I understand it, you cannot easily just add a single, larger drive to the system to increase available storage space. Nor can you mix different sized disks with ease.

FreeNAS is more of a business and professional solution. They take a while to release updates but thats because its free and they test everything, no one is paid to make updates. You can add disk's of any size with ZFS but you can only raid disks of the same size (which is normal for any raid). At the end of the day its just preference, I have been using FreeNAS for over a year and I never even have to reboot it, its alway on 24/7 but I set the drives to spin down when im not using them to save on power and drive life Smile