config ideas for MythBE/NAS + Myth/XBMC/Boxee FE

[jalyst]

Myth Back-end + NAS (already own the parts; cept 3x 1/1.5TB HDD)
This machine will do all video capturing/transcoding.
It will also be the Backup Server/NAS....

1x Old Lian-Li midi-Tower or Chen Mei FT
1x Gigabyte 8600GTS .................................... [take transcoding load off CPU w/VDPAU or is this def. not doable?]
1x Hauppauge HVR-2200 .................................. [may eventually add a 2nd one]
1x GA-P35-DQ6 (ATX form-factor)
1x TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF ................................. [2x2GB DDR2 1066; 4GB enough?]
1x Core2Duo (conroe) E6420 2.13Ghz ..................... [may underclock/volt slightly?]
1x Antec True Power 3.0 650W ........................... [Less wattage possible?]
Storage Sub-sys:
1x 1TB WD Black ........................................ [video capture disk, can it handle 4 simultaneous HD streams?]
1x 150GB 10k RPM Raptor ................................. [boot/system volume?]
3x 1/1.5TB 7.2k RPM HDD ....................... [For content storage & BU, may not bother w/RAID till get hw controller?]

********************************************
Myth/XBMC Front-end (don't have the parts; cept where mentioned)
This will be the media player & MAME PC...
Later (6mth) I'll buy a top-end GPU that'll be swapped-in sometimes for gaming.

1x mATX H57 or Q57 mobo. ......... [make/model?]
1x Intel Core i3 530
2x DDR3 1GB ...................... [make/model?]
1x 30GB SSD or USB Flash*? + 74GB 10k RPM Raptor? (for local storage; already own)
OR
1x 1TB WD Black or Samsung F3? [innermost sectors -20GB?- for OS, outermost for local storage]
1x Xonar Essence ST (PCI; already own)
1x H6 (Essence daughterboard; already own)
1x PSU ................................ [perhaps BE PSU is best here if I intend to use strong GPU sometimes; make/model?]
1x Case ............................... [make/model?]
1x nV GT220 ....................... [only if IGP+CPU not enough; make/model?]

For the back-end I was thinking of doing a minimal Ubuntu install & only adding what is needed.
For the front-end I was thinking of starting the same way and gradually adding MythTVFE, XBMC, and maybe a lightweight DE like crunchbang etc.
Interested in peoples thoughts on what I'm missing hardware or software wise or just some general advice.
Thanks!
________
discarded:
********
74GB 10k RPM Raptor ....................... [very old -not used much- slightly damaged connector so connection always a bit loose]
*4GB USB flash ................................ [aside from the fact that 4GB is too small, is USB flash too much of a poor alt to SSD?]
80GB 7.2k HDD, make/model YTBD.

[deanjo]

The Raptors are a bit of a waste in a media server / NAS. You would probably be better off using them in a workstation unless you just have them already kicking around because of switching to SSD's. Otherwise all I can say is make sure that you have lots of storage capacity for HD capturing. In the year of capturing on my media server I ran through the 6 TB of internal storage in less then a year of stuff I want to keep. Since then I've added a couple of additional eSata 4 in 1 enclosures and populated them with more drives and soon will be getting another. HD chews up the TB's fast. For the OS on the server I actually use a cheap thumbdrive as it just takes up a USB port and is fast enough for the ever so rare reboot.

[jalyst]

Yeah just had them kicking round, might move the two raptor's to the front-end, but eventually I'd like to have a SSD in the front-end and maybe 1x 1TB drive. Any recommendations there?


For the actual capturing drive I was going to use the black. What do you reckon I should use in a RAID5 array for the BE/NAS? WD RE3 1TB or Samsung F3's? I think 2TB's still have a tad too much of a premium...

[deanjo]

All my drives are WD 1TB Blacks, love that drive. I wouldn't bother going with the RE3 the loads your going to have on them doesn't justify it's threading capability. As far as samsung drives go I couldn't say, had a massive failure rate with some of their older models and it was enough for me to stay away from them. Once bitten, twice shy.

[deanjo]

I really only recommend Raid 5 in a situation where there is need for it. Unless you have spare identical drives on hand to rebuild the array after disk failure it really doesn't do much. Besides Raid 5 writes using softraid I've always found less then stellar. Chances are by the time one drive fails that model may not be available anymore to replace it.

[jalyst]

so you don't reckon bother with any redundancy?
It's also meant to be a NAS for all content.

[deanjo]

so you don't reckon bother with any redundancy?
It's also meant to be a NAS for all content.

I don't bother for media stuff. If a drive craps out I can live without that media on the drive. Anything I want to keep indefinitely I back up to a external drive that then gets disconnected and turned off and put away. I generally replace critical drives on a 2 year rotation anyways before they fail.

[jalyst]

Hmm intriguing, do you have a sep. NAS & HTPC FE+BE or just an AIO?

[deanjo]

My server pulls duty for NFS / MythTV BE / FTP / Bittorrent / Backup. I run 3 other machines serving as HTPC's through out the house with a few workstations in the office.

[movieman]

Yeah, I'm up to 2.5TB just for SD shows and videos on MythTV and that's generally transcoding them to low bit-rate H.264 after capture, so 1TB is not much for HD unless you're going to watch shows quickly and delete them.

If I was to build it again I'd be tempted to use a small SSD for the OS to improve boot time; even with a bunch of non-essential software installed the OS partition is only about 12GB with about 6GB used so it doesn't need much.