Jump to content

khughes

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by khughes

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    No TV tuner in my PCs, I don't use them.

     

    unRAID is used in the server. You can't use the Microserver for unRAID and as an HTPC at the same time. I don't use an HTPC. The Popcorn Hour plays stuff.

     

    Hi Neil, so are you using your servers purely to stream your blus, dvd's and cd's from?

     

    Do you rip your material straight from your pc to the server or rip it to your pc and then copy to the server?

     

    Thanks K

     

    Yes.

     

    and

     

    Yes and Yes -- either works.

     

    Cheers Neil, it is all "gradually" becoming clearer :)

     

    It's quite funny, the more you read the more confused you become, I think my head needs a built in filter lol 

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    No TV tuner in my PCs, I don't use them.

     

    unRAID is used in the server. You can't use the Microserver for unRAID and as an HTPC at the same time. I don't use an HTPC. The Popcorn Hour plays stuff.

     

    Hi Neil, so are you using your servers purely to stream your blus, dvd's and cd's from?

     

    Do you rip your material straight from your pc to the server or rip it to your pc and then copy to the server?

     

    Thanks K

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Many of us also like more freedom in skins, menus, etc. so we build our own HTPCs based on hardware such as the Zotac Zbox and we use software such as XBMC.  It is a more expensive option, but you have more flexibility and control as well.

     

    So am I correct in thinking that an option to overcome the high power usage as mentioned by Jeff could be to use the HP Microserver as your server and the more powerful HTPC as the media player with all the software etc that you want as you could turn that off when not in use compared to being on 24/7 like the server?

     

    Thanks K

     

    Or run a 15W Popcorn Hour.

     

    Hi Neil

     

    I was thinking in terms of if you are using the Microserver as your server then you still need somewhere for your TV/Sat card etc, which  can't be housed in the Popcorn Hour can they?

     

    I know you can get a BDD in the Popcorn Hour but where does everything else go?

     

    If you used the Microserver as an htpc would you not be very limited on what you could put in it due to the lack of space and if you put a BDD in it you have lost a HDD.

     

    Thanks K

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Many of us also like more freedom in skins, menus, etc. so we build our own HTPCs based on hardware such as the Zotac Zbox and we use software such as XBMC.  It is a more expensive option, but you have more flexibility and control as well.

     

    So am I correct in thinking that an option to overcome the high power usage as mentioned by Jeff could be to use the HP Microserver as your server and the more powerful HTPC as the media player with all the software etc that you want as you could turn that off when not in use compared to being on 24/7 like the server?

     

    Thanks K

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    And lastly if in the future I needed more storage ;D could I link two of these beauty's together or would I be better getting a bigger unit when the time arises?

     

    so are you saying that I would be better building a different/larger one in the first place rather than a couple of these?

     

    How easy is it to link different servers together?

     

    You can't really link full unRAID servers together so they show up as a unified share unless you use some other software on another PC (e.g. FlexRAID View). If you think 4~6 drive bays (4x hotswap, 1x ODD, 1x internal) isn't enough for you, then I suggest getting a build that can house more drives.

     

    One thing to consider: Right now, the MicroServer is limited to a maximum of 10TB (5x2TB data, 1x2TB parity) but eventually we'll be getting bigger hard drives. unRAID currently can't utilize bigger than 2TB but it will be able to do so eventually. How much storage do you need now and how quickly do you anticipate needing more space? If you don't need a ton of space right away and have a fairly slow-growing collection, what you could do is just buy drives as you need them. Then, once you've filled up all your drives, replace the older, smaller drives with bigger ones. Caveat, the parity drive needs to be at least as big as the largest drive in the array so if you only have 2TB drives and want to move to 4TB, you need to replace both the parity and the data drive to be able to utilize the bigger space.

     

    Thanks for the reply ilovejedd, a very valid point about just changing to bigger drives as they come out to save a new build.

     

    All I need to figure out now is what is the best way to stream my media from the HP which will be my media server, do I build or buy an HTPC or any other ideas appreciated. ???

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Sorry if my questions sound daft but I am really new to all this. I was just inspired to play from your thread.

    This is about the least condescending I'll get  ;D , but other, more helpful people may pitch in. Bear in mind that I built my first unRAID server relatively recently and spent quite a long time reading up on all the documentation, the wiki, and selected threads here, before posting questions -- working it all out for yourself is really part of the whole unRAID experience, as the official documentation is sparse and out of date.

    I'll fill you in on stuff specific to this particular setup, but you may need to wait for much nicer and friendlier people than me (and more expert, too) for the general unRAID questions.

     

    Doing a search for this it brings up "non-ECC DIMM" am I missing something, could somebody point me in the right direction?

    I believe if you add non-ECC, you can't use the ECC RAM it comes with. I'm planning on adding a 4GB ECC DIMM at some point to take me to 5GB. You can use the Crucial or Kingston configurators to tell you what RAM to buy, or part numbers are in this thread: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-delivered-crescent-electronics/888083

     

    I misunderstand all of it lol, so when you are copying the media to the server would the cache not speed that process up?

    It would, but writing to the array is much faster than it used to be, so I don't use a cache drive for that reason. When you have so few drives, "wasting" one on a cache drive may not be the best option. I use my cache drive as temporary storage for used with SABnbzd and Transmission, not to speed up writes. If you are using those kind of apps, a cache drive is a must.

     

    And now you have killed me :( so are you saying that I would be better building a different/larger one in the first place rather than a couple of these?

     

    How easy is it to link different servers together?

     

    And lastly what is the reason for you building this to go with your larger one?

     

    Thanks K

    It depends how much storage you need now and in the future. If you build two servers, you will need two licenses. Linking servers together for unified shares is part of the roadmap, but not yet implemented.

     

    I am using this because it has very low power consumption, so I can leave it on 24/7. The other servers I've built use at least 4x the power consumption on idle/spindown.

     

    Thanks Neil, your help is appreciated, the link you gave me sure has given me some reading and will keep me quiet for a while :o The part of the thread I have read so far somebody states that they have mixed ecc and non-ecc ram and it is fine which is interesting but not sure I want to take that chance, I guess if I wanted a cheaper option I could abandon the 1GB ECC Ram that came with it and just put a 4GB non-ECC Ram in instead?

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Sorry if my questions sound daft but I am really new to all this. I was just inspired to play from your thread.

     

    Also what is the best way to up it to 4GB of memory instead of the 1GB it came with?

    Add 1x 4GB ECC DIMM

     

    Doing a search for this it brings up "non-ECC DIMM" am I missing something, could somebody point me in the right direction?

     

     

    Also as it is going to be used as my media server HD heavy am I better to add a cache drive or is it not really worth it?

    A cache drive doesn't help when serving streams. A cache drive speeds up writes. Any hard drive made in the last 10 years can deliver a HD stream.

    Virtually everyone misunderstands what a cache drive is, which suggests it is badly named. It should be called "Write caching drive" or similar.

     

    I misunderstand all of it lol, so when you are copying the media to the server would the cache not speed that process up?

     

     

    And lastly if in the future I needed more storage ;D could I link two of these beauty's together or would I be better getting a bigger unit when the time arises?

    IMO they're a bit limited in space. I use one of these and a much larger server that can hold more drives.

     

    And now you have killed me :( so are you saying that I would be better building a different/larger one in the first place rather than a couple of these?

     

    How easy is it to link different servers together?

     

    And lastly what was the reason for you building this to go with your larger one?

     

    Thanks K

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Hi guys, is it fine to use 5 2tb drives WD20EARS 5400RPM all the same or am I better off with a different one for the parity drive?

     

    Also what is the best way to up it to 4GB of memory instead of the 1GB it came with?

     

    Also as it is going to be used as my media server HD heavy am I better to add a cache drive or is it not really worth it?

     

    And lastly if in the future I needed more storage ;D could I link two of these beauty's together or would I be better getting a bigger unit when the time arises?

     

    Thanks K

    MicroServer N36L/N40L/N54L - 6 Drive Edition

    in Unraid Compulsive Design

    Posted

    Well I was so impressed by yours and mitrepooc's builds that I ordered myself a microserver NL36, should be here tomorrow :)

     

    Before I go buying all the bits I wondered if somebody could give me a bit of advice, it is basically going to be used as my HD movie storage server, I don't have a streamer yet but will probably be a PCH or similar but obviously this will not allow me to rip the blus from it, what is the best way to get a bdd to rip to the server without using up one of my drive spaces from on the microserver as the disc space is going to be important?

     

    I don't have any OS or any other software yet so I am totally flexible, any help or info would be gratefully received.

     

     

    Why do I think this is going to be a costly hobby ;D 

     

    Thanks in advance K

×
×
  • Create New...