Ongoing Proposal for Client/Server Setup (1 Viewer)

[Mr. V]

I have been using MP for 4 years now on a single-seat setup. I am looking at setuping up a media server and am toying with some ideas. These are my thoughts for hardware selection so far;

1. NETWORK: Due to being unable to use a wired connection, i will have to go wireless. So wireless n would be my choice. I am not sure what issues i may come across using this connection.
* I will be streaming 1080 and 720 HD compressed movies and HDTV.

2. SERVER OPTION 1:
I have a spare computer consisting of;
*AMD Athlon x2 4200+
*Asus A8V deluxe motherboard
*2gig ram
*Nvidia 6600GT
*Thermaltake M9 case with enough room for 8 hard disk.
*4x onboard sata ports and 4x sata ports on PCI card(all at 150mbs)

I need to buy
*2x PCI dual digital HD tv tuners

This setup is is about 3-4 years old
I probably would buy a new motherboard for this with better sata support.

Can anyone comment if this is adequate for the server?

3. SERVER OPTION 2:
If option 1 isnt adequate i could use my HTPC instead and setup a new client machine, then the server would consist of;
*Intel core 2 quad
*p5k pro
*4 gb ram
*9600gt
*6x sata ports at 300mbs
*1x pcie dual digital tune and 1x PCI digital tuner
*solid state drive

4. CLIENT OPTION 1:
As per server option 2 without the digital tuners

5. CLIENT OPTION 2:
*Intel dual core
*ASUS MOBO with 9600gt
*4gig ram
*solid state drive

6. STORAGE OPTION 1:
5x WD 1tb drives in raid config

7. STORAGE OPTION 2:
4x WD 1tb drives
and 1x external WD 4tb drive for backup


So my questions are what problems could i expect to encounter with wireless n?, Is Server Option 1 enough and what would be the best way to handle my storage?

 

[polarie]

Do u wanna have a dedicated Server?

or will a single-seat-installed PC allso do the Server job?

i have a dedicated TV-Server in use:

TV-Server (5 Tuners)

1 x Intel Atom330 1 Gig Ram
1 x WInXP Pro SP III
1 x MS SQL (not mySQL) + TV-Server (MePo) 1.0.2

1 x DVB-T USB-Stick MSI EVO III
1 x DVB-S DUAL-Tuner PCTV-4000i
1 x DVB-S2 TT-2300 (for FTA-HD)
1 x DVB-S2 USB mit CI + Alphacrypt-ligth (Sky/Nagra3 = nFTA-HD)

2 x 60 Gig 2.5" BS -MePo
1 x 500 Gig 3.5" Recording

that server serves 3 Clients (one HD-Stream, two SD-Streams) AND one or two recordings...
and it runs .... so i think the options u wrote in ur first post are a bit hmm oversized Imho ?


i also have a second Server in use with also the same MoBo:
(i love my own movie DB)

Files Server
1 x Intel Atom330 1 Gig Ram
1 x WinXP

2 x 500 Gig 2.5" (WinXP / pagefile.sys) 10gig /460 gig partition on both
2 x 500 Gig
2 x 1000 Gig

2 x 2000 Gig USB "a wanna Have for christmas "

if this board now had a few more PCI-ports (for an extra SATA controller) i think
it would run all on one system/MoBo

 

[Mr. V]

Thankyou for the reply.

Seems like ill go with option 1.

Still not sure about the wireless n and what problems i could encounter.

 

[polarie]

well just test it ...

i have one Client @ my neighbours house and we use a normal 108 Mbit Wlan connection to my file-Server
only movies (MKV-HD'S) with more than 7 Gigabyte size stutter a bit ...
all the other things go smooth ...

a few weeks ago we tested the connection to my TV-Server
everything was working
SDTV - and also HDTV ...
(but only ONE client was using that WLAN -
i am not sure what will happen if TWO clients use one A-Point)

so if u are using the Server Option 1 ...
(as a dedicated 24/7 TV-server)
let the 6600 GT away ...
cost to much power - makes to much heat

a TV-Server needs not much CPU power ...
also is a single or dual core more than enought. (quad-core is absolutly oversized)

think about that ... think "green" (and for ur purse - the electricity bill)