My SageTV server died :( Recover it or ?

[Brent94Z]

Hmm... I'll take a look at some smaller power supplies then. I was drawn to that one due to it being very popular with very good reviews. But, I do plan on loading it up with probably 4 or 5 hard drives plus the SSD so maybe the bigger is better?

Is something like this what you are talking about for the Crucial SSD? I don't think I need the slim and this one is $50 off right now which doesn't hurt

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148526

How about this one? It is slower and refurbished but for the price, it might work OK? If the faster ones are really what I should just do then I'll do that but I'm not sure how the differing speeds really matter in a "real world" SageTV computer. It's $125 for a 240gig so that makes it a little appealing

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-20227927-L06C

[Fuzzy]

Does your case even have room for that many HDD's? Either way, the 400W+ power supplies are designed primarily for gaming systems, or large storage servers. That A10 APU has a max TDP of only 100W, and that's for CPU AND GPU. Hardrives max out at about 10W/each. A good quality 350-400W power supply is likely going to be much more appropriate for that system.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Does your case even have room for that many HDD's? Either way, the 400W+ power supplies are designed primarily for gaming systems, or large storage servers. That A10 APU has a max TDP of only 100W, and that's for CPU AND GPU. Hardrives max out at about 10W/each. A good quality 350-400W power supply is likely going to be much more appropriate for that system.

Thanks, Fuzzy! Yes, the case I'm looking at has 6 internal 3.5" drive bays. My current case has only room for 3 internal hard drives but thinking rather than butchering that computer just building another.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Thanks, Fuzzy! Yes, the case I'm looking at has 6 internal 3.5" drive bays. My current case has only room for 3 internal hard drives but thinking rather than butchering that computer just building another.

Okay, I didn't notice the new case in the list as well.

[drewg]

Yes, that crucial looks to be the "big brother" of the ones that I've had good luck with (1x 64GB, 2x 128GB). I like Crucial, I've been using them for RAM for 15 years. I'm not sure about the refurb OCZ..

I'd figure between 7.5w and 15w per hard drive for PSU capacity planning. Even a wild over-estimate of 25w gives you ~125w for 5 HDDs. With ~125w for the APU, and 50w for everything else (all over-estimates), you're still at just 300w. FWIW, I think people historically have over-provisioned PSUs due to how badly older, no-name PSUs performed when close to their rated max. With a brand-name, 80+ rated PSU, you can generally count on it performing in-spec pretty close to its rated max. There are some PSU reviews at sites like anandtech.

Drew

[Brent94Z]

Excellent

Thank you much guys. I appreciate your help. I would have gone Intel if not for your recommendations and it would have cost me a bit more.

Getting a little late for me now (on night shift) but will do some further looking at the power supply and maybe make an order tonight!

[wayner]

I agree with Fuzzy that a 120GB SSD is all you need. In fact I don't see the point in SSDs larger than 120GB since the only reason for a drive of that size is to hold video and if you want to store videos you may as well step up to drives of Terabyte size.

It sounds like this is a system that will sit by your TV. If that is the case make sure to keep in mind noise - Silent PC Review is a great web site for reviews on components that focuses on noise and power usage which aligns very well with HTPCs. Check their reviews for quieter components when it comes to CPU coolers and Power Supplies. For a bit of a premium you can also get a fanless power supply.

When it comes to CPUs I have been partial to Intel and I second some of the recos above. As a personal preference I like Asus mobos just because I am familiar with them.

For the PS, Seasonic is a good brand that are generally fairly quiet. Their S12 series got very good ratings for quietness. Perhaps you could go for an S12II-380 and save yourself $20.

In terms of power usage I have an i3-2100 system that draws about 17W when idle or light load and maxes out at 55W. My office PC is a i5-2500K based system and it draws 40W when idle which goes up to 100W when stressed. Neither of these system have mechanical hard drives but even adding 3 hard drives isn't going to change that too much - even 200W is plenty of power.

You don't mention CPU cooler. You might want to think about getting something that does a better job at a quieter level than the stock cooler, like one of the Scythe coolers. They make very good coolers that are reasonably priced.

[panteragstk]

Only suggestion I have is to use faster ram. For video that can actually help performance a bit depending on which APU you choose.

[Fuzzy]

Yes, with that a85 based board, faster ram would be a improvement. The a75 I posted earlier has some problem with some faster ram.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Hmm... I'll take a look at some smaller power supplies then. I was drawn to that one due to it being very popular with very good reviews. But, I do plan on loading it up with probably 4 or 5 hard drives plus the SSD so maybe the bigger is better?

Is something like this what you are talking about for the Crucial SSD? I don't think I need the slim and this one is $50 off right now which doesn't hurt

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148526

How about this one? It is slower and refurbished but for the price, it might work OK? If the faster ones are really what I should just do then I'll do that but I'm not sure how the differing speeds really matter in a "real world" SageTV computer. It's $125 for a 240gig so that makes it a little appealing

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-20227927-L06C

Knowing OCZ's stuff quite well, I would avoid the Vertex 2. The OCZ Vertex 2 was hit or miss on quality initially, however OCZ has historically taken the lead on the fastest drives available at a given point in time - they stuck their necks out far before these other players even got involved in nand memory SSD's. I've used them in RAID0 for almost 4 years (the original Vertex) and they have been flawless. If you go OCZ get the Vertex 3 or Agility 3 at a bare minimum. You would also be fine with the Intel 330 series, I actually purchased two of the 240GB Intel 330 series drive for $140 on sale. The M4's are getting a bit long in the tooth and generally suffered from slower sequential write speeds.

One thing that folks aften seem to leave out for some reason or another - the larger the SSD, the faster it will typically move data. I lived for years on 90GB on that 3 SSD RAID0 and I was so sick of constantly having to move data off the operating system drive. I always tell folks to think forward, and I kick myself for purchasing SSD's less than 180GB's, especially when I decided I wanted to move my 120GB SSD into a notebook computer, that was disappoinment.

I would stick with Intel, but I like to think a little further forward and am willing to pay for more work.

One more thing - I regret the micro-ATX board that I purchased for my latest Sage build. I dropped my pcie cards in only to realize that the lower pcie device on the board blocks use of those USB headers - that sucks.

Regardless of what you decide, enjoy your new system!

[KryptoNyte]

Oh, hey, you can't go wrong with that Seasonic PSU that you linked to. Not only is it rock solid, has room for future expansion (I've moved mine into other systems even), but it's modular, and that's mighty handy in any computer case.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Knowing OCZ's stuff quite well, I would avoid the Vertex 2. The OCZ Vertex 2 was hit or miss on quality initially, however OCZ has historically taken the lead on the fastest drives available at a given point in time - they stuck their necks out far before these other players even got involved in nand memory SSD's. I've used them in RAID0 for almost 4 years (the original Vertex) and they have been flawless. If you go OCZ get the Vertex 3 or Agility 3 at a bare minimum. You would also be fine with the Intel 330 series, I actually purchased two of the 240GB Intel 330 series drive for $140 on sale. The M4's are getting a bit long in the tooth and generally suffered from slower sequential write speeds.

One thing that folks aften seem to leave out for some reason or another - the larger the SSD, the faster it will typically move data. I lived for years on 90GB on that 3 SSD RAID0 and I was so sick of constantly having to move data off the operating system drive. I always tell folks to think forward, and I kick myself for purchasing SSD's less than 180GB's, especially when I decided I wanted to move my 120GB SSD into a notebook computer, that was disappoinment.

I would stick with Intel, but I like to think a little further forward and am willing to pay for more work.

One more thing - I regret the micro-ATX board that I purchased for my latest Sage build. I dropped my pcie cards in only to realize that the lower pcie device on the board blocks use of those USB headers - that sucks.

Regardless of what you decide, enjoy your new system!

I have 2 Vertex 2 120gb drives that have been flawless since day one. If I were to buy an SSD I would go vertex 4, Samsung 830, 840, 840 pro, and crucial m4. All fantastic drives. Great reliability, and speed.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I always tell folks to think forward, and I kick myself for purchasing SSD's less than 180GB's, especially when I decided I wanted to move my 120GB SSD into a notebook computer, that was disappoinment.

This is getting a little OT from the original topic but I really see no point in SSDs above 120GB in any usage (with the possible exception of laptops where you want tons of video files). I have been using SSDs for 3 years, I started at 60GB but given current pricing I have moved up to 120GB. I have about 5-6 PCs in the house and I can't see myself ever having need for an SSD larger than 120GB. I am moving towards all of my PCs having SSDs for the system drive. I also like to keep a spare handy so that I can quickly restore any system that dies from its WHS backup.

120GB is more than enough for OS+applications+data files. All of my media (video files, photos, music) is centrally hosted on my SageTV server and I also synch the media drives of my Sage server (except unarchived TV) to my WHS on a regular basis using SyncToy. All of my PCs have mapped drives to the media content on the server so every PC can see and access all media data. Every six months or so I backup photos, music and some video to a hard drive that I keep offsite at my workplace.

Since I have a lot of content on my two servers I have larger drives - I think all of my content drives are now 1.5TB and larger. There is no need to use SSDs for this purpose since mechanical drives are fast enough and it would cost thousands to buy the 10TB or so of drives that I need for primary and backup.

If the delta between 120GB drives and larger drives falls to $10 to $20 then I might move up to the bigger drive, but otherwise I really see no point.

[Fuzzy]

I can see the need for larger SSD's as applications themselves become bigger - primarily games here. The increase in cutscene quality and quantity has increased the folder size of games considerably as of late. I can see a heavy gamers definitely wanting a larger system drive for this purpose.

[wayner]

OK, that is true for gamers, but for the rest of us MS Office, iTunes, VLC, MPC-HC, etc don't take up 100GB. In fact the biggest hog on my hard drive, which are hard to move from a local drive, are backups for iPhone/iPads. That was causing me grief when I only had a 60GB hard drive in my main PC.

For non-gamers PCs can now be pretty simple, quiet and have low power consumption, especially if you have a centralized server or NAS for storage. The onboard GPU for an IVB is more than sufficient as is 1x120GB hard drive. You don't need a big case to hold that, nor do you need a 500W PS.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

OK, that is true for gamers, but for the rest of us MS Office, iTunes, VLC, MPC-HC, etc don't take up 100GB. In fact the biggest hog on my hard drive, which are hard to move from a local drive, are backups for iPhone/iPads. That was causing me grief when I only had a 60GB hard drive in my main PC.

For non-gamers PCs can now be pretty simple, quiet and have low power consumption, especially if you have a centralized server or NAS for storage. The onboard GPU for an IVB is more than sufficient as is 1x120GB hard drive. You don't need a big case to hold that, nor do you need a 500W PS.

I firmly agree - I've never bought more than a 60GB SSD, as that is always enough for my system drives (I do move my document storage to another drive though).

[KryptoNyte]

Pantera, I too have installed a couple of the Vertex 2 120's on laptops, I had zero trouble with them and they are still operating flawlessly to this day (as far as I know). It is worth noting that I waited to purchase the Vertex 2's until the firmware calmed down in the OCZ forum (there were serious problems with it when initially released), and I just don't believe it's worth saving 50 or 60 bucks to go backwards and use the 1st gen Sandforce controller, not to mention that you are going to hold back data speed with a SATAII SSD on a SATAIII motherboard. On the other hand, should one decide to go with the Vertex 2, you would still get some of the advantage of an SSD, which is in the tiny latency.

Things one might consider when purchasing an SSD with regard to storage size:

1) Gaming, as fuzzy mentioned, the latest stuff takes space.
2) You operate your computer like I do, where I have full office and design/development packages installed that I use on a monthly basis and it simply won't fit on a 120GB drive, but would fit on a 180 or a 240GB drive. How many times have you maxed out your good ol' Android devices internal memory, but you didn't realize it until some app tried to push an update at some point in the future?
3) Generally speaking, the larger the SSD, the faster it goes.
4) Thinking beyond this one computer, I have personally moved SSD's into newer systems, the whole time wishing I had purchased a larger drive.
5) I use a simple rule with SSD's - you never fill them more than 75%, because when you leave more free space on a nand flash based SSD, you allow the wear leveling to operate more efficiently and essentially prolong the life of the SSD. 75% of 120GB is 90GB, and I personally need more than that.
6) Pricing - apples to apples comparisons, you will typically spend less per gigabyte of storage with a larger SSD. As of TODAY, 240 to 512GB is the sweet spot, anything larger, and the volume pricing rule doesn't apply.

Regarding power supplies, I use similar logic - I have personally moved PSU's from their original computer into a secondary machine (upgrade), and even into a third machine. I like to have the additional overhead in power, even though I understand that a closer matched drive for the system I might be building today could be more efficient (today).

Some of the information mentioned above is simply fact, some of it is my personal opinion, so take from it what you will, and buy whatever suits you.

[Brent94Z]

I just placed the order

Thanks guys for all your help!

My current system was state of the art about 8 years ago so this will be quite the improvement!

I went with the Samsung 840 Series 250gb SATA III SSD. I like having room to where I don't have to move stuff off the drive plus it was on sale for $149.99 so it seemed like a no brainer

I also went with the SeaSonic power supply I linked to. I realize it might be a little overkill and much for what I need but I'm not overly concerned about having my system at 5 or 10 more watts than it could be. This will be a huge improvement still over what I have now. Right now my system just sitting there is 240watts 24 hours a day 7 days a week and that doesn't include all my external hard drives! So, going down a little on the power supply to save a few watts I won't even notice. Plus, this SeaSonic looks to be a quiet highly rated power supply that has a good sale so what the heck.

You guys mentioned a little faster memory because of the faster processor so I went withthe G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series PC3 12800 memory for $75.

Now, to hopefully be able to salvage my SageTV folder on my bad hard drive over the next couple days and I'll be ready to build this sucker over the weekend.

Got a little more expensive than I thought (~$680 for what I wanted) but I'll end up with an additional pretty damn bad ass computer (throw a hard drive in my current HTPC and I have an extra computer) and a new HTPC case with LCD readout to boot. If I'm going to go to this much trouble to rebuild the darn thing (thanks to my lack of a current backup!) then I'm going to treat myself so I get something out of my "wasted" day. LOL

Thanks much again!!!