Good HW setup for SageTV Server?

[wikel]

Looking for feedback on this setup configuration:

Server HW:
- GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5(rev. 2.0) Socket AM3/ AMD 890FX/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&2GbE/ATX Motherboard
- Dual 1GB NIC's setup for adapter teaming to switch
- AMD Phenom II X6 Six-Core Processor 1090T (3.2GHz)
- 8GB of Kingston DDR3-1600
- (3) WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive
- Intel X25-M 80GB Mainstream SATA2 Solid State Drive

Misc Setup Info:
- ReadyNAS 10TB Array (dual 1GB NIC's bonded to switch)
- (4) DirectTV HD Receivers
- (4) HD-PVR's
- (1-4) Paterson USB TV Controllers (don't quite know who many of these I would need 1 to 1 relationship?)
- (6-8) HD200's
- Win 7 OS installed on 80GB SSD
- Recorded shows saves on (3) WD 1TB drives setup in Raid0
- Image the SSD to NAS once a week for backups.

[MitchSchaft]

That's a bit overkill, but it will do the trick.

[sic0048]

It's more than a bit overkill, but it certainly will get the job done.

[wikel]

Any issues with having the movie, music storage in a different location than what the DTV capture would be streaming to?

Forgot to add the 136" 2:35 scope screen and associated panny 4000 projector. Currently have 4 DTV receivers (3 bedrooms and living room) and don't want to add anymore and since I'm the middle of a remodel of the 1850sq ft basement where a living space, bar, office and theater room will reside.

Want to make sure this box can handle any load requested of it and it didn't make alot of sense to stream the live tv to the NAS, just to pull it back off and send it to the client (equals tons of network traffic) hence the RAID0 config.

I am looking to build the server and then get 1 HD-PVR and take one of the existing DTV receivers to it's new home location (basement media room) then start integrating the components. Once the first one gets done, I would do that with the others.

Heck having the family stop fighting over what shows are being recorded / being played at any one time would be enough to install these features.

Does the video card matter at all on the server side?

[MitchSchaft]

I have all my music, movies, and fanart at another location on the LAN with no troubles. And a video card will make a difference if you plan to watch shows directly on the server itself.

[matt91]

I guess people will complain about anything on the internet, but if you look around, you may see some complaints about Gigabyte mobo's lately. I lost one recently too.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by MitchSchaft

That's a bit overkill, but it will do the trick.

i'd say rediculously overkill. You could, instead, by a system at 1/4 the price, and send the extra cash my way... ;-)

Originally Posted by wikel

Looking for feedback on this setup configuration:

Server HW:
- GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5(rev. 2.0) Socket AM3/ AMD 890FX/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&2GbE/ATX Motherboard
- Dual 1GB NIC's setup for adapter teaming to switch
- AMD Phenom II X6 Six-Core Processor 1090T (3.2GHz)
- 8GB of Kingston DDR3-1600
- (3) WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive
- Intel X25-M 80GB Mainstream SATA2 Solid State Drive

Misc Setup Info:
- ReadyNAS 10TB Array (dual 1GB NIC's bonded to switch)
- (4) DirectTV HD Receivers
- (4) HD-PVR's
- (1-4) Paterson USB TV Controllers (don't quite know who many of these I would need 1 to 1 relationship?)
- (6-8) HD200's
- Win 7 OS installed on 80GB SSD
- Recorded shows saves on (3) WD 1TB drives setup in Raid0
- Image the SSD to NAS once a week for backups.

For feedback:
MB: Great looking board. however, I'd recommend one with onboard video.

Dual GB teamimg: Probably never be needed. Even if all 8 HD200' were streaming full-rate Blu-Ray (hinghly unlikly), that'd only end up being 320Mbps, which should survive just fine on a single Gig link.

CPU: That thing will sit there idle on all but probably 2 cores most the time. And those 2 will be running at about 15% tops.

RAM: SageTVService will never use more than about a 1.5GB, as that will be the practical cap on the JVM it runs in.

RAID0: three-times as likely to lose everything. Sage works quite well with the drives set up as just separate drives. Especially in v7, if set to performance mode (where it balances load across drives), it will work just fine.

SSD: Nice, but not worth the money on a sage server, IMO. Once the system is booted up, it won't really need to access the local drive much at all, and the stuff it DOES need will be well cached. (especially with >2GB RAM)

ReadyNAS: Don't see the point in running a separate system for the storage. the sage server will be up full-time, just connect the drives to it. For the cost of the ReadyNAS system (plus some savings from downsizing some of the other components), you could buy a decent RAID card to put in one of those PCIe x8 slots that MB is loaded with.

[PLUCKYHD]

I just wanted to say I bought the panny 4000 last year and project it on 110" and love it with sage.

Ps it is way overkill, but processor can get above 15% if you are running multiple instances of commercial skip or transcoding on it.

[Fuzzy]

Ideally, comskip woudl be done live, as it records, which really doesn't push the processor that hard.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Ideally, comskip woudl be done live, as it records, which really doesn't push the processor that hard.

Yeah but I allow 4 at a time (yes my wife records 4 at a time sometimes) 1 per processor and it can get pushed up there especially if they are h.264 recordings from a hd-pvr.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

RAID0: three-times as likely to lose everything. Sage works quite well with the drives set up as just separate drives. Especially in v7, if set to performance mode (where it balances load across drives), it will work just fine.

The only possible reason to do RAID0 would be for increased read performance, and Fuzzy is right that in this case you probably aren't gaining anything performance-wise and increasing your risk of losing your data.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

SSD: Nice, but not worth the money on a sage server, IMO. Once the system is booted up, it won't really need to access the local drive much at all, and the stuff it DOES need will be well cached. (especially with >2GB RAM)

Agreed. SSD is a waste for this.

[SHS]

Server HW:

Originally Posted by wikel

- GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5(rev. 2.0) Socket AM3/ AMD 890FX/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&2GbE/ATX Motherboard

This make a better option GIGABYTE GA-770T-USB3 with Elcheap'o video card

Originally Posted by wikel

- Dual 1GB NIC's setup for adapter teaming to switch

Useless

Originally Posted by wikel

- AMD Phenom II X6 Six-Core Processor 1090T (3.2GHz)

Way over kill but would be usefull for Game/Video Editor/Convert thing like that but other then that save your money go for lowest cost High GHz Dual/Quad-Core

Originally Posted by wikel

- 8GB of Kingston DDR3-1600

Best to stick with 4GB

Originally Posted by wikel

- (3) WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB Hard Drive

Go with 4 drive one for each tuner

Originally Posted by wikel

- Intel X25-M 80GB Mainstream SATA2 Solid State Drive

If this going be your boot drive then it waste of money in stade go for low cost 32GB

Misc Setup Info:

Originally Posted by wikel

- ReadyNAS 10TB Array (dual 1GB NIC's bonded to switch)

Boy this would make good DVD Storeage

Originally Posted by wikel

- (4) DirectTV HD Receivers
- (4) HD-PVR's
- (1-4) Paterson USB TV Controllers (don't quite know who many of these I would need 1 to 1 relationship?)
- (6-8) HD200's
- Win 7 OS installed on 80GB SSD

This look good other then high cost SSD you pick

Originally Posted by wikel

- Recorded shows saves on (3) WD 1TB drives setup in Raid0

Raid is Bad idea increasing your risk of losing your data.
Raid is only useful for Rip DVD Storeage BECUASES you have RealDeal backup copy.

Originally Posted by wikel

- Image the SSD to NAS once a week for backups.

You don't need to do this but one time ever few months
What you do want to do auto backup sagetv stuff

[sic0048]

Originally Posted by wikel

Looking for feedback on this setup configuration

Wikel - there is certainly a tendancy to want to build the biggest and fastest machine whenever we start out. But consider the fact that this SageTV server will simply be saving 0s and 1s from the tuners to a hard drive. All the hard work is done by the HD-PVRs themselves.

If you want to comskip and some of the other plugins (like playon, etc), then a slightly faster processor might be warranted. But you can still get away with a decent dual core processor. Anything more is simply overkill.

The other comments are all correct as well concerning the specific parts - like the fact that there is ZERO need for a SSD drive and a machine like this.

[wikel]

How important is the video card on a sage server setup. I will be doing trancoding to a 360 and other devices along with comskip.

Thanks for any assistance.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by wikel

How important is the video card on a sage server setup. I will be doing trancoding to a 360 and other devices along with comskip.

Thanks for any assistance.

it's not. I just built the following:

AMD Athlon X4 630
Asrock 785G (onboard video is really the way to go)
3GB of RAM
OS on RAID 1 (2 x 500GB drives for redundancy)
2 - 750GB drives (no raid) for Recordings
2 - Dell Perc 5i RAID Cards* - 1 running a 9TB RAID 5 array with hot spare and 1 running a 1TB RAID 5 array (for file storage)
HDHomerun and Avermedia HD Duet for recording 4 HD Streams
2 x HDPVR's for recording off of two Dish Network VIP211's**
Norco 4020 for housing my 15 hard drives (provides plenty of future expansion).

* These Hardware RAID cards can be picked up for $60-100 a piece. This makes them considerably cheaper than buying a separate NAS plus you save energy by doing it all in one unit
** I used to have 3 STB's but they were over kill. I never used more than 2 so I got rid of my third. Capturing locals in other ways really cuts down on STB's needed.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wikel

How important is the video card on a sage server setup. I will be doing trancoding to a 360 and other devices along with comskip.

Thanks for any assistance.

Video card is completely unused. Anything that will boot windows will work. The GPU isn't used for anything in a stand-alone server. The only time it would matter would be if you are going to also be using it for watching as well as serving.