February 3, 201511 yr I would like to run XBMC or Plex directly off of my NAS. My current setup doesn't have enough power and is about 2 years old. I am running this MB currently http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008Z2DCO6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . I was thinking of going to a i5 or i7 to allow me to run multiple streams of 1080p (2 streams most likely max). I am trying to keep power consumption to a minimum too. Questions: 1. Will a MB with 2 lan ports give better streaming? 2. Would I be better off running a PCI SATA card vs on the motherboard? My current setup is with 3+4TB hdds (I am currently running 5 hdds plus the parity hdd) I would like to stick with a mini itx mb. Suggestions?
February 3, 201511 yr A higher end 4th generation Core i5 should be able to handle 2 1080p streams, a 4th gen Core i7 will be able to handle more than that. I would recommend the regular models, not the S or T models - they only save power by reducing clock speed which will limit your transcoding capability. They're all going to have similar power consumption at idle. I get faster results on my motherboard SATA ports than on my PCIex card (you don't want PCI), but you can't get too hung up on that - eventually you may need more ports than your motherboard offers. Still, it is reasonable to get a mini-ITX board with 6 SATA ports so I would recommend looking at that. A MB with two lan ports will give you more network capacity but you aren't going to max out one gigabit lan port with two streams...
February 3, 201511 yr low idle= intel http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157526 Then just pick your favorite quad core, they all will idle at the same rate. If you wanted you could even get the 35 watt version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116947
February 3, 201511 yr Author A higher end 4th generation Core i5 should be able to handle 2 1080p streams, a 4th gen Core i7 will be able to handle more than that. I would recommend the regular models, not the S or T models - they only save power by reducing clock speed which will limit your transcoding capability. They're all going to have similar power consumption at idle. I get faster results on my motherboard SATA ports than on my PCIex card (you don't want PCI), but you can't get too hung up on that - eventually you may need more ports than your motherboard offers. Still, it is reasonable to get a mini-ITX board with 6 SATA ports so I would recommend looking at that. A MB with two lan ports will give you more network capacity but you aren't going to max out one gigabit lan port with two streams... Would this be good? CPU http://www.amazon.com/Core-i7-4700MQ-2-40-GHz-Processor/dp/B00D9QFP0M MB http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Z87I-Deluxe-1150-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B00E39E6FE http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1053296-REG/gigabyte_ga_z97n_wifi_mini_itx_motherboard.html
February 3, 201511 yr Author low idle= intel http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157526 Then just pick your favorite quad core, they all will idle at the same rate. If you wanted you could even get the 35 watt version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116947 I need 1 more SATA port than the above MB supports.
February 3, 201511 yr Would this be good? CPU http://www.amazon.com/Core-i7-4700MQ-2-40-GHz-Processor/dp/B00D9QFP0M MB http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Z87I-Deluxe-1150-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B00E39E6FE Good motherboard; but I wouldn't use the MQ processor. You may/may not ever want to do any virtualization with this; but the MQ does not support vt-D (for I/O pass-through), and the simple fact is a standard i7-4700 will idle at very close to the same power level, while providing significantly more "horsepower" when you need it, and full support for all Intel's advanced technologies (including vt-D). If you want to save a few $$, an i5-4690 would be fine as well ... although I tend to always use the i7's "just because"
February 3, 201511 yr Author Would this be good? CPU http://www.amazon.com/Core-i7-4700MQ-2-40-GHz-Processor/dp/B00D9QFP0M MB http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Z87I-Deluxe-1150-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B00E39E6FE Good motherboard; but I wouldn't use the MQ processor. You may/may not ever want to do any virtualization with this; but the MQ does not support vt-D (for I/O pass-through), and the simple fact is a standard i7-4700 will idle at very close to the same power level, while providing significantly more "horsepower" when you need it, and full support for all Intel's advanced technologies (including vt-D). If you want to save a few $$, an i5-4690 would be fine as well ... although I tend to always use the i7's "just because" OK... How about this then... CPU http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i7-4790-Processor-BX80646I74790/dp/B00J56YSLM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1423004369&sr=1-1&keywords=i7+processor&pebp=1423004376749&peasin=B00J56YSLM&pebp=1423004376757&peasin=B00J56YSLM MB http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Z87I-Deluxe-1150-Intel-Motherboard/dp/B00E39E6FE or this one http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1053296-REG/gigabyte_ga_z97n_wifi_mini_itx_motherboard.html Will I have to do anything special to UnRaid... Other than a safe shutdown? Will it make a difference if the controller or Bios are not the same as my old MB? tia, Ron
February 3, 201511 yr Good choice -- either board is fine ... just depends on whether you prefer Asus or Gigabyte [both are good] I'd probably use the Gigabyte board because (a) it uses the newer Z97 chipset and (b) Asus has a newer board that also uses the Z97, but has reduced the number of SATA ports on that board to 4 (no idea why - although they did add an M2 slot to it) ... but if you prefer Asus, there's nothing wrong with the Z87 board
February 3, 201511 yr Author Good choice -- either board is fine ... just depends on whether you prefer Asus or Gigabyte [both are good] I'd probably use the Gigabyte board because (a) it uses the newer Z97 chipset and (b) Asus has a newer board that also uses the Z97, but has reduced the number of SATA ports on that board to 4 (no idea why - although they did add an M2 slot to it) ... but if you prefer Asus, there's nothing wrong with the Z87 board Thanks Gary, I will save the money and get the Gigabyte.
February 3, 201511 yr Author I just saw a comment that the 4770 shouldn't be left running 24/7... Is that true? I was planning on leaving my NAS up 24/7. Is this power supply big enough... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00918MQ8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . It is the one i am currently using.
February 4, 201511 yr I just saw a comment that the 4770 shouldn't be left running 24/7... Is that true? I was planning on leaving my NAS up 24/7. Is this power supply big enough... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00918MQ8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . It is the one i am currently using. I presume you mean the 4790 ... and yes, it can be on 24/7 with no problem. It draws VERY little power when it's idling. That power supply is plenty ... I used a 300w SFX unit for a 4790 system I built a couple months ago.
February 4, 201511 yr Author I just saw a comment that the 4770 shouldn't be left running 24/7... Is that true? I was planning on leaving my NAS up 24/7. Is this power supply big enough... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00918MQ8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . It is the one i am currently using. I presume you mean the 4790 ... and yes, it can be on 24/7 with no problem. It draws VERY little power when it's idling. That power supply is plenty ... I used a 300w SFX unit for a 4790 system I built a couple months ago. How much ram should i get? Do I need the fastest? Thanks Gary, I just ordered http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J56YSLM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 , and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8HNGYW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Is there anything I need to do special because it is a new motherboard install? I don't want to lose any of my data from my HDDs on Unraid, and would like this to be a quick rebuild. tia, Ron
February 4, 201511 yr That'll be a very nice setup. As for memory -- you don't "need" 16GB (8GB is plenty for most purposes), but I'd install it anyway. I'd just buy these: http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Desktop-Memory-CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10/dp/B006EWUO22/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1423014640&sr=1-1&keywords=DDR3 Nothing special about the setup -- it should be as simple as installing the CPU and memory in the motherboard; confirming all is okay (I'd boot to the UnRAID flash drive and run MemTest for a while as a basic CPU/memory test); then attaching your drives and booting to UnRAID. ... at that point you shouldn't notice anything different from the way your Atom is running the system now -- except it will be a LOT more powerful
February 4, 201511 yr Author That'll be a very nice setup. As for memory -- you don't "need" 16GB (8GB is plenty for most purposes), but I'd install it anyway. I'd just buy these: http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Desktop-Memory-CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10/dp/B006EWUO22/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1423014640&sr=1-1&keywords=DDR3 Nothing special about the setup -- it should be as simple as installing the CPU and memory in the motherboard; confirming all is okay (I'd boot to the UnRAID flash drive and run MemTest for a while as a basic CPU/memory test); then attaching your drives and booting to UnRAID. ... at that point you shouldn't notice anything different from the way your Atom is running the system now -- except it will be a LOT more powerful Ordered. I have noticed recently that some of my 1080p mkv movies are taking a while to load or even on occasion pausing for a bit while the buffer reloads. Hopefully this will take care of that plus allow me to run the PLEX or XBMC directly off of the NAS.
February 4, 201511 yr Author So...what are you going to do with the Atom system? A close friend of mine is going to use it for a NAS in his home.
February 4, 201511 yr Author One last question (I hope)... When I swap the motherboards do the SATA HDDs get hooked up to the same SATA ports or does that make a difference? I am assuming I need to keep them the same but I am not sure how they were marked on the current setup nor how the new MB will have them marked. tia, Ron
February 4, 201511 yr One last question (I hope)... When I swap the motherboards do the SATA HDDs get hooked up to the same SATA ports or does that make a difference? I am assuming I need to keep them the same but I am not sure how they were marked on the current setup nor how the new MB will have them marked. tia, Ron Makes no difference -- just connect the drives and boot to UnRAID [it used to matter with v4, but ever since v5, UnRAID has kept track of the disks by their serial #s]
February 4, 201511 yr One last question (I hope)... When I swap the motherboards do the SATA HDDs get hooked up to the same SATA ports or does that make a difference? I am assuming I need to keep them the same but I am not sure how they were marked on the current setup nor how the new MB will have them marked. tia, Ron Makes no difference -- just connect the drives and boot to UnRAID [it used to matter with v4, but ever since v5, UnRAID has kept track of the disks by their serial #s] I LOVE this feature, i have chucked 2 mobos so far, just yank out the drives and the usb stick, pop them in the new box, and fire it up, Zero re-configuring.
February 11, 201511 yr Author Got it up and running... Turns out the new MB has a bad memory slot. I tried both memory sticks (individually in the first slot), and with one stick it works fine but as soon as i use the 2nd it will shutdown in a few seconds, and start up again. Amazon sent me a replacement so i just need to tear it down again and install the new MB. I am assuming that thhe power supply is more than is required (450w)... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00918MQ8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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