blakerwry said:
If you went with Dell option you'd have probably the fastest and cheapest result, but would be very limited on disk space as their cases cannot house more than 5 hard drives in my experience.
True. This does limit the value on the Dell solution as I'm sure I'd wind up with 8+ drives in the long run.
I would go with an Antec 3700BQE case and a PC power and cooling PSU (probably around 450watts) as you can hold 7 HDDs that are adequately cooled, plus a floppy and optical.
I'll check the case out. I've used PCP&C PSUs for along time and have no problem with them other than price. Of late I've used and liked the Antec TruePower series, although I understand that less expensive equivalents are available.
I would stick with an Intel motherboard...
Probably not, but only because I have a bias towards AMD solutions. I would have no problem using an Intel GbE NIC & a quality PCI S-ATA card, though.
I assume you dont want to hold 1000, full quality DVDs as this will likely reach 5TB alone + 200 full quality CDs (200GB) + your extra avi's
I'm sure it would involve re-compressing down to something more reasonable. The goal is to be able to watch with no noticeable loss of quality in either the audio or video. For the majority of the disks, I can strip out extras, menus, alternate audio tracks, etc. but for some I will want to keep those features. I'm presuming conservative settings on autogk or some other util will get the average DVD to under 2GB. CDs will be converted to MP3 or somesuch format that uses less space than uncompressed.
I would put the OS disk on the onboard controllers, however I would recommend putting the additional disks on a single controller.
I was thinking along those lines. Especially if I change my mind & do RAID5 for the data.
I've no problem staying with P-ATA drives except for the potential problems getting replacement units 2 years out. Because of that concern, S-ATA will likely be the interface of choice for the data drives.
mubs said:
Gary listed some Supermicro cases for Santilli in one of the threads. It would be worthwhile to check your options on these.
Good point. When the time comes to actually start buying, I'll have to re-visit that thread as well.
Mercutio said:
Am I right in thinking you don't know much about Linux, Fushigi?
Yes. My unix knowledge in general is limited and probably somewhat dated. But I'm not afraid to make this an educational experience as well.
CPU-wise, I'd go with something modest and low-heat.
If I go the NAS route, yes. If a server, it'll also run the Folding client so I'd want something decently high end. Power, heat, and noise aren't concerns as the machine will be in the basement.
1TB will very comfortably hold around 200 DVDs, but at that point organization and access are issues.
The plan is to have a small database that would contain info about all the disks. Sort of the home version of IMDB.
All outputs will be PC-driven, including the main HT system (for which I'll also probably build a small HTPC), my PC, and my wife's. Other devices as necessary.
I'd suggest purchasing one or two 400 disc DVD carousels...
What keeps me from this solution is the lack of multiple concurrent outputs. I want the ability to stream at least 2 video sources concurrently. Otherwise I'd have gone the carousel route years ago.
I'd recommend RAID5 for whatever you do.
I'm starting to give this more consideration. One facet of the database I mentioned is that it will hold the program & settings used to re-compress the disc as well as what HD the data was stored on. So in theory a rebuild script could be built from the database & reloading from a failed drive would just involve building & running the script + manually loading all of the DVDs that were contained on teh failed drive.
The DVDs, once loaded, will be boxed and stored based on what drive they're on, so retrieving any batch should be easy enough.
Still, with RAID5 that sort of rebuild shouldn't even be necessary. My largest concern is availability of equivalent replacement drives a couple of years down the road. If I go RAID5, this is a concern. If I just start using drive letters (or directory mounts if Linux), I can replace drives with equal or larger capacity units at will.
Since the 'view' will be the database, I won't stripe or JBOD the disks.
Casewise, I like rackmount stuff.
I do to but I don't have a PC rack. I suppose I could pick one up. The remaining HT gear in the main setup (Receiver, HTPC, etc.) will remain in the AV cabinet it's in now or will move to shelving in the stand for an HD TV when I do that upgrade.
For remote control, RF is the way to go!
I've got an AIW9600 in my main PC and would probably use it. Because it's on the other side of the wall from the HT gear, it may even work as the HTPC. For all others, either the Remote Wonder or a wireless kbd/mouse will suffice as it will need to be able to navigate the database app as well as control the media player.
One thing I would absolutely not recommend is putting a media server on a wireless link.
Well, that was just a thought as it'd let me avoid drilling some holes. My Internet feed enters through my den, so I've got the cable modem & router there. But it'd be no big deal to move those to the basement I suppose.
