Media server: advice needed

[TRWOV]

I currently have 5 HDDs in my PC, 3 of which hold my media. One of the things that I wanted for my next build was to move my media to a machine on it's own and only keep 3 drives in the PC (2 in raid0 and 1 for data).

I'm thinking on the following:

Sempron 140
2GB DDR3-1333
basic mATX board with at least 4 SATA ports (I'm thinking PCCHIPS A51G at the moment)
2xPCI to 4 SATA ports card (already own one)
Cooler Master Elite 335 ATX case + 2x Evercool HDD Armor (12 HDDs max)
2x Seagate ST2000DL003 2TB HDDs (for the time being)

I have a few questions:


RAID or concatenation?
For the time being I'll just keep the 2 drives as they are but I'm planning to buy more as I'm going to start ripping my BDs. As this is going to be a media server I don't know if RAID is worth in this situation (low HDD activity, mostly access operations).


FreeNAS, WHS, W7+Remote Desktop.... what OS is best to use?

 

[Mussels]

if you're doing HD media playback, get at least a dual core - arent those semprons singles?

if you intend to rip/convert BD's, then the faster the CPU the better. i got an Athlon II x3 for that reason.

 

[kciaccio]

I have an Unraid server that I built for media server purposes. It is very flexable.

http://lime-technology.com/company

I used an XClio tower I bought off of craigslist for $40.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Put in a power supply and 775 socket MB and single core CPU and 1 gig of ram.

Added drives. Unraid has a 3 drive free version if you want to try it.

I am using the pro version. It can handle 19 drives.

 

[kciaccio]

if you're doing HD media playback, get at least a dual core - arent those semprons singles?

if you intend to rip/convert BD's, then the faster the CPU the better. i got an Athlon II x3 for that reason.

Not necessarily if you are using it as a server. I use my Unraid server just to stream the file. The component on the other end does all the work, like my WD media player or other computers.

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, you can get a single core if all it is doing is serving up the files. Though I would get a dual core anyway just in case you decide to do something more, like transcode files for play on consoles.


As for storage, unless the data is easily replaceable, I would go with RAID5.

 

[kciaccio]

Yeah, you can get a single core if all it is doing is serving up the files. Though I would get a dual core anyway just in case you decide to do something more, like transcode files for play on consoles.


As for storage, unless the data is easily replaceable, I would go with RAID5.

Agreed. My Unraid is very user friendly.

You can add all different size disks to your set up and is parity protected.

Meaning when a drive fails just pop in a new one and it will be rebuilt. The only stip is the parity drive has to be the largest or equal to the largest drive in your array.

Unlike regular raid you can take out your disks and put them in another computer and read the files. With striping you cannot do that.

If you have two disks fail you will only lose data on one of the disks. But that is Very unusual to have two drives go at the exact same time unless you have some electrical disaster. lol

 

[TRWOV]

if you're doing HD media playback, get at least a dual core - arent those semprons singles?

if you intend to rip/convert BD's, then the faster the CPU the better. i got an Athlon II x3 for that reason.

The server will only keep the files. My current PC will become my HTPC next year and I'll build a new machine which will do the ripping/encoding.

Yeah, you can get a single core if all it is doing is serving up the files. Though I would get a dual core anyway just in case you decide to do something more, like transcode files for play on consoles.

The motherboard has UCC so I could unlock the 140 with some luck. Anyway, transcoding isn't in the cards ATM. I would even look into Atom if there were mATX boards available over here, all I've seen are mini ITX boards.





I'm currently looking into unRAID and looks pretty sweet! Sounds like a homemade Drobo. I'll definitively test it, thank you.