Building a good Server PC... (2 Viewers)

[Gixxer]

Hi and thanks to both of you !! all info is very useful when trying to decide. Thanks!

so far i have done some research and came up with something like this...
(it is still not definate as i still need to go to the shops to ask the technicians, just in case, as all this is my opinion based on internet and my knowledge)



CPU
12168**PROCESADOR AMD AM2 ATHLON 64 4850E 2.5 GHZ 1MB DUAL CORE**57,68 EUROS

MOTHERBOARD
11300**PLACA AM2 ASUS M3N WS DDR2 PCX VGA NVIDIA GEFORCE 8200**157,64 EUROS

PSU
28187**FUENTE ALIMENTACION 520W TACENS RADIX SMART II**62,30 EUROS

RAM
17330**MEMORIA KIT 2 GB ( 2X1 GB) DDR2 1066 CORSAIR DHX DOMINATOR**54,52 EUROS

OLD CASE, OLD KEYBOARD+MOUSE, NO SCREEN (REMOTE), hauppauge T500 i already have.

TOTAL: 324 EUROS


i think the only doubt is on the motherboard


btw. i will not be doing x264 encoding. about RAID, not at the beginning maybe in future when i have more drives. (so not important or not high demanding right now)

 

[flokel]

Concerning storage disks I can recommend the WD Green series: efficient, cool, silent
SATA 3.5" Preisvergleich bei Geizhals.at EU

 

[Gixxer]

Concerning storage disks I can recommend the WD Green series: efficient, cool, silent
SATA 3.5" Preisvergleich bei Geizhals.at EU

i was going to get this one...

13231 DISCO DURO 1 TB ESCLAVO SATA2 WESTERN DIGITAL 7200 16MB 131,84 euros

ill have a look to check if its the "green" one.

(another 2 drives i already have)

Thanks !!!

 

[navalynt]

If it helps any, here are the specs for my home server:

CPU: AMD Phenom x4 9850 (USD $169)
Memory: 2x2GB PC6400 DDR2 OCZ Gold Edition (USD $55 after rebate)
Motherboard: Asus M3N-HT Deluxe (USD $199)
Chasis: Lian-Li PC-2100b Full Tower (USD $240)

Video: GeForce 9800 GT 512MB (USD $130)
Optical Drive 1: LG GGC-H20L Super Multi Drive (DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray) (USD $140)
Optical Drive 2: Generic 16x DVD+-RW (USD $25)
Optical Drive 3: Generic 16x DVD+-RW (USD $25)

Raid Controller: AMCC 9590SE-8ML (USD $300)
RAID 5 Drives: 5x750GB Seagate Baracudda 7200.11 SATAII ST3750330AS (USD Each: $99)
Hard drive for temp space (video conversion): 500GB Maxtor SATAII STM3500630AS (USD $65)
Hard drive for operating system: 320GB Seagate Baracudda SATAII (USD $50)

I use a Tivo Series 3 to record my favorite programs then auto-transfer to the server which watches the transfer folder and auto-compresses the .TIVO files to x264 as MKV files. Most capture cards I've seen will not accept HD input via HDMI or Component which would be needed to capture the best quality picture from a satellite or cable provider (unless you are using exclusively OTA). I found messing with video capture was just not worth it when I could just use the Tivo method listed above.

Having a newer GeForce card from nVidia gives you the ability to use CUDA for having the GPU do video compression for you or, in the case of plain old DVD ripping with StaxRip, you can use a filter like ff3dgpu to offload a noise filter to the GPU so your CPU is freed up for other tasks. CUDA is relatively new and there are very few applications taking advantage of it yet. The technology; however, is very promising and there is soon to be released an encoder called BaDaBoom which is supposed to blow away encoding speeds from a CPU.

What is especially nice about the Asus M3N-HT Deluxe motherboard is the hybrid power and hybrid SLI. You can put a GeForce 9xxx or 2xx card into your system and the video output still runs through your on-board graphics. When extra "horsepower" is needed the add-in PCIe 2.0 card is used to render but the output is still routed through the on-board. In this manner the board can cut power to the add-in card when it's not needed to help save on the electric bill! Also, there is an HDMI output (with audio) built-in so you can use your server as a back-up media center.

This is the most well-rounded solution for my person situation. You can probably take it from there and start dropping items like the blu-ray drive or the extra RAID controller to save on cost. The 9590SE RAID controller is just awesome if you are paranoid about your data but it carries a hefty price tag!

 

[karakas]

I wouldn't recomend running all this on one server. Personally I run it on three servers.
One NexentaCore that runs as a file server.
One that runs WHS for backups, downloading and administrating media content and databases.
One that runs Windows XP for TV-Server.

I tried running it all on one server but I ended up getting problems due to "bandwith" problems. Basically I got alot of skipping and artifacts when watching movies/TV.

But if you were to put it all in one computer I would've gone for a server motherboard even tough these are a bit more expensive. Personally I run two of my servers on the Asus P5BV-C. And then a Tyan Tomcat n3400B S2925 for my fileserver since it has 100% compability with Solaris.

 

[stoked]

I wouldn't recomend running all this on one server. Personally I run it on three servers.
One NexentaCore that runs as a file server.
One that runs WHS for backups, downloading and administrating media content and databases.
One that runs Windows XP for TV-Server.

I tried running it all on one server but I ended up getting problems due to "bandwith" problems. Basically I got alot of skipping and artifacts when watching movies/TV.

But if you were to put it all in one computer I would've gone for a server motherboard even tough these are a bit more expensive. Personally I run two of my servers on the Asus P5BV-C. And then a Tyan Tomcat n3400B S2925 for my fileserver since it has 100% compability with Solaris.

You must have an odd setup, I run TVserver on XP in a Virtual Machine on my fileserver and have no problems. I can encode x264 material in the hypervisor and stream to mutiple computers without issues.

 

[Gixxer]

thanks all for your comments...

edit again... little update in the motherboard... i have noticed that i will be limited to 1 pcie and 2 pci with the previous board so im going for a bit cheaper one that has more options. it also has dual lan adapter.


CPU
12168**PROCESADOR AMD AM2 ATHLON 64 4850E 2.5 GHZ 1MB DUAL CORE**57,68 EUROS

MOTHERBOARD
PLACA BASE AM2 ASUS M3NWS ATX CD ............. 145,10 euros

PSU
28187**FUENTE ALIMENTACION 520W TACENS RADIX SMART II**62,30 EUROS

RAM
17330**MEMORIA KIT 2 GB ( 2X1 GB) DDR2 1066 CORSAIR DHX DOMINATOR**54,52 EUROS

OLD CASE, OLD KEYBOARD+MOUSE, NO SCREEN (REMOTE), hauppauge T500 i already have.

TOTAL: 323 EUROS

any comments?

 

[Gixxer]

btw, anyone knows what use does the long white pci or pcie has? the one splitted in 3 parts.

 

[x4mer]

Server motherboard

Ive been looking at getting the Gigabyte GA-G33-DS3R for some time, but can't find anyone selling it locally.

GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-G33-DS3R

It's the only board I've found that is full ATX, offers 3 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, has onboard video, onboard RAID 5, & supports Intel Quads.

The slot config provides great versatility for different tuner combos, & room for a modem to set up a call display server. The board uses Gigabyte's durability standard of solid capacitors, so it should be good to go 24/7 for a long time. My last two server boards both ended up failing due to capacitor issues.

Of course it is an Intel board, so if you were set on AMD.....