New Build - unRaid and Transcoding (HandBrakeCLI) server

[GJones]

I just built a server (first unRaid) this week with good results thus far.

 

Biostar TA785G3+ AM3 Motherboard - $68

AMD Athlon II X4 605e Low-Power CPU ~ $120

Crucial 2x2GB DDR3 Memory - $44

Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB Drives (Qty 4) ~ $95 each

Zalman HS2 case (6 drive trays in two 3-in-3 enclosures included) - $183

Corsair 430CX PSU ~ $40

Extra fans (120mm and 92mm), Sata Cables, etc ~ $30

 

I also had an old Seagate 160 GB SATA II drive and a Hitachi 2Tb SATA II drive lying around.  The Hitachi was liberated from the external drive that the unRaid server replaces.

 

Aside from normal duties as an unRaid server, it will also serve as a transcoding maching for DVD and Blu-Ray rips.  Contents of the server will be served to XBMC clients (Revo 3610) setup with autofs through NFS.  MakeMKV (actually makemkvcon) is used on one of the clients to create MKVs from DVDs and Blu-Rays.  These MKVs are stored on the server as they are produced.  I have modified existing scripts used to automate the transcoding of these MKVs for the process to occur on the unRaid server.

 

I chose the motherboard for stability and cost, being one of the cheaper boards to support DDR3 and a Phenom II X6 at a later time.  For the CPU, I chose the 605e for relatively high performance for a low-power chip.  Using something very close to the High Quality default (except AC3 audio is copied and q=17) in HandBrakeCLI, I get 35-40 fps consistently on DVD content.  This is adequate for my needs at this time.  A bonus is the 45W rating on the CPU, meaning it is likely to last much longer with much less cooling.  The best way to keep a case cool is to not produce heat that has to be removed.

 

The 2TB drives averaged approximately 85 MB/s during the preclear with 4 running simultaneously.  Copying from the NTFS formatted Hitachi to the (then-unprotected) array ran at an average of just over 60 Mb/s.

 

Aside from the 4 drives, the case was by far the most expensive component.  Having built many machines before, I never have a problem spending a little more on a decent case.  While the enclosures are not the best, they are a good (not great) value for a build requiring no more than 9 drives total.  I don't move drives in and out of the box often at all, so their lower build quality was not a factor.

 

So far, I would recommend this build for anyone whose needs are similar to mine.  I will post updates as the system settles in.  Currently, the array is storing approximately 2.3 TB happily.

 

 

 

[Rajahal]

So you rip the DVDs on another computer and just use the server to transcode them to mkv?

[GJones]

Correct.

 

• Client + makemkvcon rips content to a directory on unraid
  
• Client indexes content (XBMC)
  
• cron job on unraid identified movies that can be transcoded
  
• each movie is transcoded and placed back in the same directory
  
• original mkv file is moves to a "replaced" directory on the same physical disk (for speed)
  
• new transcoded file is indexed automatically by XBMC client