Been 10 yrs since I built a comp. Help with my low power NAS/HTPC build pls.
#1
Hello Everyone!
Been a long while since I got my hands dirty. Looking to get back in the game with a multi-purpose box. Can you help and recommend some good parts?

Here's my goals for this build.
1. support for 9 hardrives
2. cpu that is capable of 1080p transcode (Plex)
3. lowest possible power consumption
4. budget around $1000 not including HDD
5. Data redundancy either via Raid or some other means

Yes. I know. This is a tall order.

Thinking of starting with...
1. U-Nas Case $220 http://www.u-nas.com/product/nsc800.html
2. PSU Athena Power 1U 400w $60 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.asp...6817338059
3. HDD for storage. Western Digital 2 TB x8 (have these already)
4. Windows 7 (have a spare license already)
5. Small SSD for OS?
6. ITX Motherboard?
7. CPU?
8. Lo Voltage memory?
9. SATA Controller


Thanks in advance for any help or advice!!
Reply
#2
Asus Z87I-Pro ist an itx board that supports 6 SATA Ports. You have to add a extra SATA Controller for more Ports.
If you add an 8channel SATA Controller you can use almost any itx board.

Raid2? You are kidding, are you?

Low power consumption and transcoding don't fit together. Transcoding will need a strong cpu. And forget about 4k transcoding in realtime with a current cpu.
Reply
#3
Captain

Thanks for your the thoughts. I've edited my original post as a result

The Z871-Pro is a sweet board. Cripes! they can pack a lot into a small space
Any suggestions for a SATA controller...or are they all the same?
What do you think is the minimum required CPU for 1080p transcoding?
Dual lan on the mother board worth looking at?

Thanks again!
Reply
#4
I am wanting to do the same thing as you. I just haven't decided on what I am going to do yet
I was thinking

SILVERSTONE Grandia Series SST-GD08B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811163196
$144.99

AMD A10-6800K Richland ------------might go a6 and wait on Kaveri
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819113331
$139.99

ASUS A88X-PLUS FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813132054
$109.99

Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817182133
$89.99

thats all I got so far
also this is my first build any tips will help
Reply
#5
(2013-12-03, 04:23)despicableme Wrote: Any suggestions for a SATA controller...or are they all the same?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6816101358
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6816115096

These cards support 8 drives. So you just need one sata port on your mainboard,
You won't need the raid functions of the card.

Think about using the internal "raid"-functionallity of Win 8 when using windows.

I've got my controller for about 35€ on eBay.

(2013-12-03, 04:23)despicableme Wrote: What do you think is the minimum required CPU for 1080p transcoding?

Core i5 quadcore with 3GHz+ should be able to transcode nearly every 1080p material in realtime.

(2013-12-03, 04:23)despicableme Wrote: Dual lan on the mother board worth looking at?

I don't think so. You'll need to have a switch wich supports bonding too and i don't think you'll need over 120MB/s in your Homenetwork.
Reply
#6
(2013-12-03, 08:02)JustinBeaird Wrote: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817182133
$89.99

Why 750W?
I'm powering a 65W CPU, RaidController, TV-Card, 2x 2,5" HDD and 11 x 3,5" WD Green with a 400W power supply.
Take less W and a better efficency gold or platinum.
Power supplies are also more efficient when running at 50% or so. On 10 or 20% they are way less efficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus#Eff...ifications
Your nas will run a lot and safe some bucks over the time.

The power drain when spinning up the drives should be not reason nowadays because most platforms support Staggered spin-up.
Reply
#7
(2013-12-02, 19:52)despicableme Wrote: Hello Everyone!
Been a long while

Here's my goals for this build.
1. support for 9 hardrives
2. cpu that is capable of 1080p transcode (Plex)
3. lowest possible power consumption
4. budget around $1000 not including HDD
5. Data redundancy either via Raid or some other means

Yes. I know. This is a tall order.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!!

Ok... time to "GET WITH THE TIMES". Seperate this into two devices for low power.

Build a low power NAS with an Atom, Celeron, or Pentium chip driving it. 9 Drives its probably overkill.
NAS could be built using an HP Microserver N54L + Disks.
Low power NAS = any device you want gets to see your files.

Build a low power PC, or get a Low power box.
Eg. D34010WYK NUC, or a Celeron NUC. (Celeron is fine for most video - just not Hi10P encoded films, and full frame 3D. 3D SBS rips are fine).
Or. Look at Cubox-i2Ultra for $100.

There's nothing worse than a super box, whose components become outdated after a few years.You use more power, because everything is on all the time.
By using a modular build, you can change pieces as you need to.
Reply
#8
(2013-12-03, 17:02)joelbaby Wrote: Ok... time to "GET WITH THE TIMES". Seperate this into two devices for low power.

He want's a device for NAS and Transcoding. Not for NAS and playback. Wink

(2013-12-03, 17:02)joelbaby Wrote: Build a low power NAS with an Atom, Celeron, or Pentium chip driving it. 9 Drives its probably overkill.

He already has 8 drives.
And nowadays with 2TB+ drives you should use RAID6 to avoid complete data loss on an URE during rebuild. So 8 drives is quite reasonable.
Reply
#9
(2013-12-03, 17:02)joelbaby Wrote: There's nothing worse than a super box, whose components become outdated after a few years.You use more power, because everything is on all the time.

A high clocked quad-core haswell i5, i7 cpu will use as less idle power as a low clocked dual-core haswell cpu.
Reply
#10
(2013-12-03, 08:02)JustinBeaird Wrote: I am wanting to do the same thing as you. I just haven't decided on what I am going to do yet
I was thinking

SILVERSTONE Grandia Series SST-GD08B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811163196
$144.99

AMD A10-6800K Richland ------------might go a6 and wait on Kaveri
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819113331
$139.99

ASUS A88X-PLUS FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813132054
$109.99

Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817182133
$89.99

thats all I got so far
also this is my first build any tips will help

I have use this case and it looks very nice, but before you insert the optical drive, put some cardboard in the flap that is used to prevent it closing fully , to line up drive button with the ejection button.
Reply
#11
Where are you guys putting these boxes? Living or family room and what will be the main purpose? To use XBMC and also as a computer and storage. You do realize that with all the stuff you are jamming in a small space will increase the heat in the box, thus creating another problem to get rid of that heat, meaning more fans which means more noise.

I can understand a small HTPC with a drive 2 in it but with 9 drives you may want to split the system into 2 boxes, 1 for storage and 1 for a XBMC or computer. This will lead you to have a quiet computer (XBMC Box) that you could use in any room and also a noisier storage box placed where it would not be noticed or heard. Yes cost wise it will be more going this route but in the long run it will be worth the money spent.

I run a 32 Tb server which is running on a 500w PSU fine, why would you guys need a 750w PSU for a mix of XBMC and storage? I just helped "helpermonkey" with a unraid build that he will use for transcoding. He basically went with "Helpermonkey's build" This will be a solid build for years to come for his storage, now add a NUC into the mix and you have it all.
Reply
#12
@Harro
Have you read the openers requirements?
Reply
#13
(2013-12-03, 17:16)CaptainPsycho Wrote: He want's a device for NAS and Transcoding. Not for NAS and playback. Wink

A Cubox-i can transcode in real time, costs $95 and uses 2W of power. I think that should satisfy the OP's need for low power.
It is a newer version of Cubox, and has dual and quad core models.
See post by rabeeh here: http://imx.solid-run.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=230

Running XBMC would be less CPU intensive than transcoding.

It can also be used to run a NAS by attaching a SATA Port Multiplier to the eSATA port. However, by the time you've factored in the cost of a housing and small power supply for the hard disks, it may have been cheaper to buy a Microserver.

I think one 9-bay NAS is a mistake. OP could have got some 4TB drives instead of 2TB and have 5 drives. 9-Bay = more expensive equipment, uses more space and more power. If OP buys rack mount items, it is likely to be noisy. Even an 8 bay NAS is not cheap. So I agree with earlier comment of considering splitting the drives if they must be kept.

HP Microserver N54L which I also mentioned in my post, will run Plex and transcode. There is a Gen8 model which is more powerful.

Using Cubox-i as a NAS: http://cubox-i.com/cubox-i-network-attac...storage-2/
Cubox-i1 can also run Plex. The $45 single core base model is 2.5x faster than a Raspberry Pi, and people run Plex on a Pi.
Cubox-i2 has more cores, more RAM, more bandwidth, and a better GPU.

CaptainPsycho Wrote:i5 3GHz
More expensive. Higher power usage. Overkill. But apart from that it ticks all the boxes.

CaptainPsycho Wrote:Have you read the openers requirements?
Yeah.
Reply
#14
(2013-12-04, 09:58)joelbaby Wrote:
(2013-12-03, 17:16)CaptainPsycho Wrote: He want's a device for NAS and Transcoding. Not for NAS and playback. Wink
A Cubox-i can transcode in real time, costs $95 and uses 2W of power. I think that should satisfy the OP's need for low power.
It is a newer version of Cubox, and has dual and quad core models.
See post by rabeeh here: http://imx.solid-run.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=230

Wow, seems to have a HW encoder onboard. If this is really working it would be a solution to think about, if theres only need to transcode one stream at a time.

I'm doing a lot of other stuff on my NAS-box so I tend to recommend more x86_64 stuff. Wink

For NAS i'm afraid one eSATA 3G Port will result in slow rebuild speeds.

8 disks, replacing one means 7x read and one write, 300MB / 8s = 37,5MB/s with 2000GB drives this will result in 2000000MB / 37,5MB / 3600 = 14,8h in best case for rebuild after a disk failed. To be honest this is ok. Reshaping after adding another Disk would take at least twice the time but wil be unlikely cause you will have a 8 port external case.
To use normal linux mdadm is great.

It's a pitty that the NIC is limited to 470MBit/s.

But for 120$ the cubox and 300$ for the enclosure it would be quite cheap in comparison.
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Been 10 yrs since I built a comp. Help with my low power NAS/HTPC build pls.0