Advice on HTPC and NAS

[SeanJ]

Hi

So I have read the numerous threads on HTPC's and on NAS here at MyBB, still not 100% sure on how to proceed.

I'm wanting to setup an HTPC, so naturally I came to this forum to get some advice on how others have setup there's etc, but started reading about a NAS with and HTPC, NAS as an HTPC, Standalone HTPC and then lost the plot and decided to start a thread in hope of more experienced users helping me out.

I have an old computer gathering dust whose parts I thought I could use to build my HTPC.

Specs: Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5Ghz), 4GB RAM, 4TB Seagate Hard Drive, GT 220 MSI Graphics Card, ASUS P5QPL-AM Motherboard.

Would the above be powerful enough and last me a good few years still (the computer parts were bought in 2010), or should I rather start from scratch with new parts? If so, what would you recommend to go in the HTPC?

I was also reading about people having a NAS that "streams" to the HTPC etc. Would this mean my HTPC would not need such a big HDD to store all my movies and series , but rather and SSD to just run the OS and then have everything come through via Ethernet?

With the NAS, what would you recommend, I read about the HP Proliant Microservers being used? Any advice/experience on these?

If I were to setup a NAS I was thinking of starting with 8TB of storage (4TB for movies and series and 4TB for photos,home videos and computer backups). Suggestions welcome though.

Last question(and I do apologize for the long thread): We have 3 TV's at our place. 1 in the lounge, 2 in two separate bedrooms. Lounge and 1st bedroom both Full HD whilst 2nd is HD Ready. Could we connect the 2 bedrooms to the HTPC and each having their own XBMC instance running?

Thanks in advance

 

[alkit]

I also went down this road a few months ago. I hope I can help out based on my experience:

1) Based on the specs you mentioned, the computer should be more than capable of running a HTPC setup.
You need to put on a program like XBMC on the machine to catalogue and play all your videos. With those specs, you should be able to play 1080p without an issue, especially since the video card will have it's own decoding abilities (called DXVA).

2) The only thing you should be concerned about is the noise level. I personally have a Corsair VX430 power supply in my HTPC. That is very quite. I also have CPU fan throttling enabled in my BIOS options. Lastly, I use a 64GB SSD drive in the HTPC. Keeps everything less audible than my DTSV PVR.

3) I highly recommend using an SSD drive (small - 32 or 64GB). It makes no noise and your HTPC will start up in around 15 seconds.

4) For the NAS, I can highly recommend the HP Microserver. This is what I use. I have around 12TB worth of drives installed, with 2 HTPCs around the house streaming from the microserver using ethernet cables.
The benefit of having an HTPC is total customization, as well as running programs like "sickbeard" which automatically downloads new series and stores them in the correct folder and name etc, without you needing to touch a thing.
I do have a spare Microserver for sale, feel free to PM me if you are interested in buying one.

With the HTPC/Microserver setup, I always have my series up to date, have a quiet HTPC, and feed 2 TVs with the same series etc. in different parts of the house.

Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions or need help with any of the setup.

Good luck!

Hi

So I have read the numerous threads on HTPC's and on NAS here at MyBB, still not 100% sure on how to proceed.

I'm wanting to setup an HTPC, so naturally I came to this forum to get some advice on how others have setup there's etc, but started reading about a NAS with and HTPC, NAS as an HTPC, Standalone HTPC and then lost the plot and decided to start a thread in hope of more experienced users helping me out.

I have an old computer gathering dust whose parts I thought I could use to build my HTPC.

Specs: Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5Ghz), 4GB RAM, 4TB Seagate Hard Drive, GT 220 MSI Graphics Card, ASUS P5QPL-AM Motherboard.

Would the above be powerful enough and last me a good few years still (the computer parts were bought in 2010), or should I rather start from scratch with new parts? If so, what would you recommend to go in the HTPC?

I was also reading about people having a NAS that "streams" to the HTPC etc. Would this mean my HTPC would not need such a big HDD to store all my movies and series , but rather and SSD to just run the OS and then have everything come through via Ethernet?

With the NAS, what would you recommend, I read about the HP Proliant Microservers being used? Any advice/experience on these?

If I were to setup a NAS I was thinking of starting with 8TB of storage (4TB for movies and series and 4TB for photos,home videos and computer backups). Suggestions welcome though.

Last question(and I do apologize for the long thread): We have 3 TV's at our place. 1 in the lounge, 2 in two separate bedrooms. Lounge and 1st bedroom both Full HD whilst 2nd is HD Ready. Could we connect the 2 bedrooms to the HTPC and each having their own XBMC instance running?

Thanks in advance

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

That PC is great for a media server. Why don't you make that your all-in-one media server and NAS. Put a bunch of hard drives in there, load up Plex and you're good to go.

What TV's do you have in these rooms?

 

[SeanJ]

That PC is great for a media server. Why don't you make that your all-in-one media server and NAS. Put a bunch of hard drives in there, load up Plex and you're good to go.

What TV's do you have in these rooms?[/QUOTE

2 Samsung's (1x40inch Full HD 3D, 1x 32inch HD Ready) 1 JVC (Full HD, 29inch).

I kind of like the idea of having a NAS that can be used to stream aswell as serve as a backup for our computers around the house

 

[DJ...]

I have a microserver running Windows 7 that serves as my central media storage unit and main HTPC in the lounge (hidden behind the TV on a deep stand). It streams my content wirelessly to all other devices. Works flawlessly for 1080p but once you go BluRay you need a cable connection or a solid 802.11.ac wireless network.

I then have XBMC installed on about 7 other devices around the house. No need for transcoding, NAS software, complicated setups etc. Just map the shared drives as a drive on the XBMC client-end in the operating system and add your content to XBMC as you normally would. I've also got three routers in the house on different channels so that each group of XBMC clients connects via a different wireless router, ensuring that at there is no wireless throughput issues if more than one device is streaming from the central HTPC at any given point in time.

You can also get away with syncing your XBMC clients' watched and unwatched statuses without a SQL library. Simply register a trakt account and install the plugin. Set trakt to sync after each library update and you're good to go. All XBMC boxes will be synced up - you can't resume from another XBMC client, but to be honest I don't mind clicking the right arrow twice, maybe three times if need be to get to where I was...

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

That PC is great for a media server. Why don't you make that your all-in-one media server and NAS. Put a bunch of hard drives in there, load up Plex and you're good to go.

What TV's do you have in these rooms?[/QUOTE

2 Samsung's (1x40inch Full HD 3D, 1x 32inch HD Ready) 1 JVC (Full HD, 29inch).

I kind of like the idea of having a NAS that can be used to stream aswell as serve as a backup for our computers around the house

A NAS is just a computer with hard drives in it. You can save yourself on power by just having one machine to do it all, which your machine is perfectly capable of. You can even load FreeNAS on it which you can install Plex on.

If any of your Samsung's are Smart TVs then you can run the Plex player app directly on the TV. If not then I don't really know how you're going to get streams to multiple TVs without buying additional media playing devices (e.g. Roku, Chromecast).

My perfect setup with your hardware would be:

1 x Main PC (Q8300) running FreeNAS. 6 x 3 TB drives in RAIDz2 with Plex installed.
3 x Roku 3's or Roku streaming sticks.

This would give you one central media server which can be accessed from any of the Roku's.

 

[SeanJ]

I have a microserver running Windows 7 that serves as my central media storage unit and main HTPC in the lounge (hidden behind the TV on a deep stand). It streams my content wirelessly to all other devices. Works flawlessly for 1080p but once you go BluRay you need a cable connection or a solid 802.11.ac wireless network.

I then have XBMC installed on about 7 other devices around the house. No need for transcoding, NAS software, complicated setups etc. Just map the shared drives as a drive on the XBMC client-end in the operating system and add your content to XBMC as you normally would. I've also got three routers in the house on different channels so that each group of XBMC clients connects via a different wireless router, ensuring that at there is no wireless throughput issues if more than one device is streaming from the central HTPC at any given point in time.

You can also get away with syncing your XBMC clients' watched and unwatched statuses without a SQL library. Simply register a trakt account and install the plugin. Set trakt to sync after each library update and you're good to go. All XBMC boxes will be synced up - you can't resume from another XBMC client, but to be honest I don't mind clicking the right arrow twice, maybe three times if need be to get to where I was...

I downloaded XBMC last night to see how it works etc so Im not completely familiar with all of its workings. So far, ive just added a series and tried out the android remote control app.

We have BrRips on most movies, would this be considered "True BluRay" or a watered down version (if I could put it that way) and would this affect the streaming?

Wireless would be brilliant for us. What I had in mind was having the NAS in a central position in the house which would then stream to an HTPC in the lounge, and also to the 2 other TVs in the bedrooms, im at a loss on how to stream to the 2 other TV's, it would be great if all 3 TV's could have different movies or series playing.

 

[alkit]

Agree with all that was said in this post... however:

1) Install Windows Server Home Edition on the Microserver. It is cheaper than Windows 7 and gives you backup facilities if you ever need them from your client machines...
2) Wireless will work, but I've found wired connections to be the most stable when streaming. Look into a homeplug product rather to keep everything wired if possible for the best results.

I have a microserver running Windows 7 that serves as my central media storage unit and main HTPC in the lounge (hidden behind the TV on a deep stand). It streams my content wirelessly to all other devices. Works flawlessly for 1080p but once you go BluRay you need a cable connection or a solid 802.11.ac wireless network.

I then have XBMC installed on about 7 other devices around the house. No need for transcoding, NAS software, complicated setups etc. Just map the shared drives as a drive on the XBMC client-end in the operating system and add your content to XBMC as you normally would. I've also got three routers in the house on different channels so that each group of XBMC clients connects via a different wireless router, ensuring that at there is no wireless throughput issues if more than one device is streaming from the central HTPC at any given point in time.

You can also get away with syncing your XBMC clients' watched and unwatched statuses without a SQL library. Simply register a trakt account and install the plugin. Set trakt to sync after each library update and you're good to go. All XBMC boxes will be synced up - you can't resume from another XBMC client, but to be honest I don't mind clicking the right arrow twice, maybe three times if need be to get to where I was...

 

[Hemps]

I setup an htpc running win7
Dual Core E6700
4gb ram
450w
3x 4TB hdd

Thats it.

Running plex server connected via GB lan to my router which feeds Apple TV 4

Lately from the plex app on ATV4 its been taking time to play some mp4 video files, also now and again get the network is too slow to play this video, i then restart it and it plays fine.
thinking it transcoding some videos ?

Black friday coming up do I need to upgrade this unit?