sjackson
Prominent Member
Being doing some reading over the last few days on the issue of media servers and I think it's time I put one in at home. I have a Gb Netgear Switch (one of the blue ones) with Ethernet points through out the house so the infrastructure is in place. I'm thinking server first and then the media players, but which server OS I use must allow MovieJukeBox s/w and those players also use that s/w (if you know what I mean).
The machine I'm planning to use is as follows (built in 2007):
Antec P182 (7 x 3.5" bays plus 4 x 5.25" bays)
Corsair HX620W PSU (I think this is efficient so will reuse it)
ABIT IP35 PRO Motherboard
QX6850 3.00GHz S775 Quad-core CPU
4Gb Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC8500
GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB Graphics Card
Back in the day it was quite an animal but far too power hungry I think for a media server so I'm thinking of replacing the motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM etc with an Asus AT3IONT-I and just need to add the new motherboard and hard drives (2Tb 5400rpm drives should be ok).
So the very tough decision I'm having now is to go with WHS or unRAID. Both have their pro's:
unRAID
1) Probably more power efficient as it can spin down unused discs
2) If a drive dies, it can be recovered not like WHS where I would have to duplicate files on other drives (not very efficient when we're talking Tb's of video files)
3) More secure against viruses etc than WHS
WHS
1) It's windows. I have zero experience with any form of Linux
2) I could probably add a BluRay drive to the system for ISO'ing BluRay discs (could the Atom handle that though?)
3) Might be easier to set up automatic torrent downloads (based on RSS or something)
4) Not really bothered with home backups but it's something I might use. All my photos go to SmugMug.
5) MovieJukeBox software might be easier to install and run, including scheduled rebuilds/refreshes
6) Should be able to make energy efficient with wake on LAN and some sort of timeout sleep.
I'm thinking the idea of good MovieJukeBox software might swing it one way or the other. I've not yet bought any media players so I need to forward think that part - IE. if YAMJ works well on WHS and the Dune Prime can use this then it might be the way to go.
My primary uses of the player will be to play my 150 or so DVDs (backed up to ISO on the server) and play the massive amount of TV shows I have downloaded in both SD and HD. A major plus will be full use of BluRay ISO's (menus etc). Not too concerned with my MP3s but it would be nice to be able to use these too.
A nice slick but simple interface to my media is important (for the wife).
So which would suit me better? One minute I think WHS is the way to go but I keep coming back to the redundancy of unRAID. It might be an obsticle I can't overcome in my head. I think I can add some sort of software RAID to WHS but it might just be over complicating things.
Any thoughts appreciated.
The machine I'm planning to use is as follows (built in 2007):
Antec P182 (7 x 3.5" bays plus 4 x 5.25" bays)
Corsair HX620W PSU (I think this is efficient so will reuse it)
ABIT IP35 PRO Motherboard
QX6850 3.00GHz S775 Quad-core CPU
4Gb Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC8500
GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB Graphics Card
Back in the day it was quite an animal but far too power hungry I think for a media server so I'm thinking of replacing the motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM etc with an Asus AT3IONT-I and just need to add the new motherboard and hard drives (2Tb 5400rpm drives should be ok).
So the very tough decision I'm having now is to go with WHS or unRAID. Both have their pro's:
unRAID
1) Probably more power efficient as it can spin down unused discs
2) If a drive dies, it can be recovered not like WHS where I would have to duplicate files on other drives (not very efficient when we're talking Tb's of video files)
3) More secure against viruses etc than WHS
WHS
1) It's windows. I have zero experience with any form of Linux
2) I could probably add a BluRay drive to the system for ISO'ing BluRay discs (could the Atom handle that though?)
3) Might be easier to set up automatic torrent downloads (based on RSS or something)
4) Not really bothered with home backups but it's something I might use. All my photos go to SmugMug.
5) MovieJukeBox software might be easier to install and run, including scheduled rebuilds/refreshes
6) Should be able to make energy efficient with wake on LAN and some sort of timeout sleep.
I'm thinking the idea of good MovieJukeBox software might swing it one way or the other. I've not yet bought any media players so I need to forward think that part - IE. if YAMJ works well on WHS and the Dune Prime can use this then it might be the way to go.
My primary uses of the player will be to play my 150 or so DVDs (backed up to ISO on the server) and play the massive amount of TV shows I have downloaded in both SD and HD. A major plus will be full use of BluRay ISO's (menus etc). Not too concerned with my MP3s but it would be nice to be able to use these too.
A nice slick but simple interface to my media is important (for the wife).
So which would suit me better? One minute I think WHS is the way to go but I keep coming back to the redundancy of unRAID. It might be an obsticle I can't overcome in my head. I think I can add some sort of software RAID to WHS but it might just be over complicating things.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Last edited: