New Hardware advice...again

[pvr599]

I know, I know a SSD would be nice. In a couple years they should come down to a reasonable cost. I should have the board to support it YAY. lol

Anyway, I would like to reuse some of the drives I have if I could. I will no doubt get bigger ones. Maybe one now and one later. Right now I have a

1 Segate 80Gb 3Gb/s 7200RPM 8mb cache partitioned. One for OS and another for Programs including Sage
1 Seagate 1TB 3 Gb/s7200RPM 32mb cache for all movies, music, pictures and stuff
2 WD 320Gb 3Gb/s(I know, small. but they worked for SD :0) recordings are split up between both drives equally.
1 WD 320Gb external drive that I'm not using for anything right now

What would you guys do with these drives? How would you split them up to get the best use out of them? I will more than likely go by exactly what you say.

SWKerr, what would you suggest as a step down on the CPU and memory? The memory is so cheap, that would probably be ok for the budget.

[panteragstk]

As far as cpu's go you could use this processor, but wouldn't be more than $60. Are you trying to stay around a specific $ amt?

As for those older drives. You could use the 320gb ones as recording drives or replace the 80gb as the os drive. The 320gb drive is going to be faster than the 80gb drive so you would see a slight increase in performance there. If you plan to replace all drives with the cheap 2tb drives then I wold just save them for external drives for backing up your stuff.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

As far as cpu's go you could use this processor, but wouldn't be more than $60. Are you trying to stay around a specific $ amt?

As for those older drives. You could use the 320gb ones as recording drives or replace the 80gb as the os drive. The 320gb drive is going to be faster than the 80gb drive so you would see a slight increase in performance there. If you plan to replace all drives with the cheap 2tb drives then I wold just save them for external drives for backing up your stuff.

I agree but if you already have Win 7 installed on the 80GB drive I wouldn't worry about re-installing. Use the 1TB for storage and the other 320GB for additional storage, and use the external 320GB for back-ups.

Down the road you can easily add a 2TB or 3TB HD when you need more storage.

You can step down to an i3 CPU to save $. The i3 has 2 physical cores and 2 virtual cores. The i5 has 4 physical cores and Turbo. So if you have the $ go with the i5 if you need to save a few $ the i3 is still an excellent CPU.

[pvr599]

Uhhg you guys are killing me lol

As far as cpu's go you could use this processor, but wouldn't be more than $60. Are you trying to stay around a specific $ amt?

Well money is for sure an object. I can't go nuts, but I would like something that will be stable and last a while. This would be a great option I think, but a tough decision.

I agree but if you already have Win 7 installed on the 80GB drive I wouldn't worry about re-installing.

I don't have Win7 installed right now on the 80Gb drive, I have WinXP. This is going to basically starting from scratch.

You can step down to an i3 CPU to save $. The i3 has 2 physical cores and 2 virtual cores.

I've been reading about core unlocking. Is that a possibility with the i3?

The 320gb drive is going to be faster than the 80gb drive so you would see a slight increase in performance there.

I always thought a smaller faster drive performs better than a larger drive. Less disk to read from. Damn, I have a lot to catch up on

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by pvr599

I don't have Win7 installed right now on the 80Gb drive, I have WinXP. This is going to basically starting from scratch.

Then install the OS and programs on the 320GB drive and use the 1TB for storage.

Originally Posted by pvr599

I've been reading about core unlocking. Is that a possibility with the i3?

No. An i3 would be fast enough for most people, including running comskip. The i5 would help in overall responsiveness and if you are comskipping multiple recording simultaneously.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

I've been reading about core unlocking. Is that a possibility with the i3?

Core unlocking is for overclocking. Don't overclock a server. Servers are supposed to be as stable as possible. I have my server oc'd a bit, but that is due to such a low powered cpu. It is not oc'd now due to stability.

It all depends on how much you want your server to do as to which processor you need. Over-buying is always better than under-buying. Better to have power to spare than not enough.

I always thought a smaller faster drive performs better than a larger drive. Less disk to read from. Damn, I have a lot to catch up on

Not necessarily smaller drives, but single platter drives are faster. Plus an 80gig drive is probably older so it would be slower just because of older technology.

[wayner]

I would install the OS on a relatively small partition to facilitate moving to an SSD in the future without having to do a reinstall. If you keep your OS partition below 60GB then it should be easy to just use True Image or Ghost or PING to backup your hard drive sys partition and restore to the SSD. And it is unlikely that you will be buying an SSD smaller than 60GB.

Note that Win7 can resize a partition to a smaller size but that doesn't always work so well if there are unmovable files that "block" a resize. You can also use the Acronis Disk Doctor to resize as well.

Note - I am in the middle of doing this right now, I had trouble shrinking my partition to 60GB, but I have now completed that. When I find some time when no one is using the Sage server I want to restore my nightly WHS backup to the 60GB SSD I bought a few weeks ago.

[panteragstk]

My ssd in my client speeds things up nicely. What would be the benefit of having an ssd in the server?

[wayner]

I don't have clients, just extenders 5-6 extenders. Whenever the extender needs data such as Fanart, show listings, metadata, etc it has to hit the server. So I imagine the benefits in this instance would be similar to whaat you are seeing in your client. However note that the media is not on the SSD - but you generally don't need higher data transfer rates for video files since they only run at realtime.

[pvr599]

Note that Win7 can resize a partition to a smaller size but that doesn't always work so well if there are unmovable files that "block" a resize. You can also use the Acronis Disk Doctor to resize as well.

Does Win7 have the partition option at the beginning of the install like previous Windows versions have?

It all depends on how much you want your server to do as to which processor you need. Over-buying is always better than under-buying. Better to have power to spare than not enough.

I completely agree. I don't think I'll be doing more than one comskip at a time. It usually takes me a day or two to get to shows I want to watch. I use Dirmon now and as far as I can remember it only does one at a time. I hope I can still use it. I'll be recording from 2 HDHR's and 2 Colossus', for playback over extenders. Really, the i3 is going to be ok? The only other thing I do on the server is download music and stuff.

I know I'll be starting a new thread with installation help. If you can't remember, it's been 4+ years since I originally setup what I have now. I remember it being a HUGE PITA (but fun). But things have changed and I'm thinking it should be much easier.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Does Win7 have the partition option at the beginning of the install like previous Windows versions have?

Yes, I am pretty sure that it does. If not you can immediately resize in the disk manager and you should be fine.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Does Win7 have the partition option at the beginning of the install like previous Windows versions have?



I completely agree. I don't think I'll be doing more than one comskip at a time. It usually takes me a day or two to get to shows I want to watch. I use Dirmon now and as far as I can remember it only does one at a time. I hope I can still use it. I'll be recording from 2 HDHR's and 2 Colossus', for playback over extenders. Really, the i3 is going to be ok? The only other thing I do on the server is download music and stuff.

Yes.

The i3 will be more than enough to run ComSkip on one file at a time.

[pvr599]

ok then I think I know what I'm getting.

THANKS SOOOO MUCH to everyone for the help. I appreciate it more than you know.

Keep an eye out for my installation HELP thread lol

[pvr599]

For anyone following this thread. Thanks to the expert help, here is the hardware I've decided to go with for:

Recording from 2 HDHR's and 2 Colossus', for playback over extenders.
Using comskip one file at at time

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128475
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231253
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
One or two of the hdd, not sure yet about that.

Hopefully this will help someone else that is planning to rebuild.
Thanks again!!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

For anyone following this thread. Thanks to the expert help, here is the hardware I've decided to go with for:

Recording from 2 HDHR's and 2 Colossus', for playback over extenders.
Using comskip one file at at time

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128475
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231253
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
One or two of the hdd, not sure yet about that.

Hopefully this will help someone else that is planning to rebuild.
Thanks again!!

The only thing I'd change would be to pay an extra $15 for twice as much space.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136514

7200rpm vs 5400rpm won't make any difference.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

The only thing I'd change would be to pay an extra $15 for twice as much space.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136514

7200rpm vs 5400rpm won't make any difference.

+1

[pvr599]

Oh damn, the RPM's won't make a difference?

I noticed that that's a "green drive". I've read here in the forums not to go with a "green drive" although, I can't remember why.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Oh damn, the RPM's won't make a difference?

I noticed that that's a "green drive". I've read here in the forums not to go with a "green drive" although, I can't remember why.

In RAID configurations the "green" drives can show up as a "failed" drive when they spin down. I've got 3 (1tb and 2 2tb) and have never had any issues. I use one as a recording drive too.

[pvr599]

Well, my hardware is here and I'm debating on the HDD's that panteragstk suggested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136514

One question to panteragstk. Are you using RAID with these drives? Sounds like you are. If in fact you are, what which RAID are you using?

Thanks!!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pvr599

Well, my hardware is here and I'm debating on the HDD's that panteragstk suggested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136514

One question to panteragstk. Are you using RAID with these drives? Sounds like you are. If in fact you are, what which RAID are you using?

Thanks!!

Actually no, I'm not using raid. I don't want to mess with raid. I do plan to build an unraid server when I get the time ($) but not yet. I'd get the drive with the extra space. $80 for a 2tb drive is a great price. You will not notice any performance difference between the two for media storage. If you were transferring files that would be another story, but the difference is not much. Average read on a black (7200rpm) WD 2tb drive is 108Mbps, a green drive (5400rpm) is 93Mbps. A blu ray has a max bitrate of 48mbps (6Mbps) so you would have to be streaming ~15 blu-rays at once from that drive at the same time to run out of bandwidth. The downside comes when you are reading and writing to a drive at the same time. Even then you would have a hard time running out of bandwidth. Random read/write is bad for any mechanical drive, but in recording tv and file server situations with sagetv it won't matter. Using it as an OS drive might make it seem slower than a 7200rpm drive, but if it is a headless server then that won't matter. You wouldn't want to use the OS drive for anything else anyway.