Anyone build a HTPC/NAS/Gaming rig yet?

Discussion in 'The HTPC, HDTV & Ultra High Definition section' started by VolkNasty, Mar 19, 2014.

  1. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Fellow Gurus,

    I am in the market for a NAS system, however I am not impressed with the hardware\software specs of my two choices; Synology and QNAP. Synology has the software covered with their DSM 5.0 but is quite weak on the hardware side with a cute little dual core Intel Atom. Where as QNAP has the hardware; strait up i3 but has serious software issues (their forums say it all). I also looked up if I could buy a QNAP and hack synology's DSM on there to get best of both worlds. But then I realized if I had to hack it, then that defeats the purpose of buying a system that is suppose to be a fire and forget type deal. So, screw it, I am just going to build my own! With that said, it will not be your average NAS, I want a hybrid HTPC / NAS / Game system.

    This will be my first HTPC, but not my first build by a long shot.
    Without further ado,
    Requirements:

    My wife needs to be able to use it!

    Quiet - I don't want a lot of noise both in the room or in the wire.

    Transcode - Plex server is priority. I NEED to stream all Media 1080p

    Bluray Playback

    Recode Bluray collection - It would be nice to backup and recode bluray to MKV

    Raid Storage - Looking for around 20tb usable storage (WD Red 4tb drives)

    Ethernet Bonding - would be nice

    HDMI IN/Out - Rig will be hooked to an Onkyo Receiver

    Games - It would be nice to stream from my gaming rig or even play locally at above recommended settings.

    TV / Direct TV - Would be nice

    Remote

    Software - This is where buying a Synology makes sense. Plex media server will be my multimedia hub. Plex media center still needs work but it works. I would like VPN, FTP, DLNA, and DNS services. I would like to use a linux distro like Ubuntu, but Bluray play back is spotty.


    Not including the HDD, I would like to keep components around $750 - $850. Intel all the way and a nice looking case. I was looking at a SilverStone case that looks the part.

    Any advice would be very helpful ! If you have done this before, if you wouldn't mind sharing your build and/or pitfalls that would be stupendous.
     
  2. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Bought my first component this morning. I decided on the Silverstone Tek GD08B case, it will be here on Saturday. I also started buying my WD Red 4tb drives (one at a time).

    I am looking into 8x PCIe raid controllers if anyone has any suggestions. I was looking at Intel only because they are sub $500 range.
    http://www.amazon.com/Intel-RT3WB080-Raid-Controller/dp/B004HIN94U/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_1

    Also picked out a motherboard, the ASUS Z87-WS IntelĀ® LGA1150. I am looking at the i7 4770k but I may step down to an i5 not sure if Ill need all that. As long as I can use the quick sync features for transcode/recoding I'll be happy.
     
  3. rflair

    rflair Don Coleus Staff Member

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    Ya my HTPC also is the home server and very capable gaming machine.
     
  4. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Trying to figure out which will suit me better, hardware or software raid. I know hardware is faster and more stable, but software is very convenient and available. It also depends on OS. It will either be MS Server 2012 or Ubuntu. I can always setup a VM or two as well.
     

  5. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    I received some goodies in the mail today!

    Silverstone Tek GD08B case
    Corsair 760i PSU
    Asus z87 - pro Mobo
    WD Red 4tb hdd
    Arctic Silver 5 - Thermal Compound

    My next round of purchases will take place on Friday; here's what I have lined up.

    Intel i7 4770k
    Noctua Low-Profile NH-L9i
    Samsung 840 pro 250gb ssd
    2x WD Red 4tb

    This build is getting expensive. The HDDs add around $800 to the build.
    As for OS, I am going to give Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 a shot. I want to try out Storage Spaces for my RAID / Storage solution.

    Does anyone have any thoughts on Silverstone's choice in case fans and if they are quiet while still doing their job? If they suck I might just put in some Noctura NF-S12A PWM.

    If Storage Spaces works out, that will free up cash for a video card. Since I have an Asus Mobo, I will go with an Asus video card, to bad the 750ti isn't sli capable =(
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2014
  6. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Picture below
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2014
  7. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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  8. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Here is my latest round of purchases:

    256gb Samsung 840 PRO SSD
    3x WD RED 4Tb HDD (@4 total)
    i7 4770k
    3x 120mm Noctura NF-S12A PWM case fans
    Noctua Low-Profile Quiet CPU Cooler NH-L9I
    Blu Ray burner
    IR sensor xbox 360 controller

    Everything should be here tomorrow!
    Does anyone know if I can use Asus's Wifi Go receiver for WiFi direct? I will be buying a GPU for this build, but not quite sure which one.
     
  9. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Quick update; I got everything in, but I drank to much scotch, so I'll have to build it in the morning. =)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  10. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    OKAY its BUILT! Drivers and firmware are up to date, and RAID built.

    As for the RAID:
    I plugged in all hdd to the Intel controller and left the ASMedia controller alone for now. Once I add more drives i will move my SSD and Blu Ray player to ASmedia controller. Reason being I've read a lot of people are disappointed with the hardware so for the sake of sanity I went full Intel.
    I tried raid through storage spaces, but windows 8.1 repeatedly hijacked one of my drives with a system partition. So I just went with the Intel bios utility. I'll do some benchmarking later.
    Originally I installed Win server 2012, but the Asus board kept throwing errors about incompatibility issues so I just went with Win 8.1 pro. With 4 x 4Tb WD RED hdd in RAID 5 I have a total of 10.9Tb of useable space.

    Video Card:
    I definitely need a video card, the on chip Intel just won't do. However, I was able to stream Steam games from my gaming rig which was great and unexpected. So instead of doing the 780 in the HTPC, I will just buy a 750ti and upgrade my gaming rig with a 780ti.

    Plex:

    Is working, but Plex Home Theater is very rough. I can use my phone to push media which is what I want.

    Control
    This will be my main focus for the weekend.
    I set up remote desktop so I can work on it from my other rig, instead of couriering a keyboard back and forth.
    I will be checking out the Asus remote features, and the windows 8 stuff. I also have the 360 controller already running and it works well in steam and plex. My goal here is to make it friendly enough so that my wife and nanny can use it without asking or bitching.
    Hopefully I can get the tablet and phones to play nice. It would be nice just to be able to control through a tablet and call it a day.

    Final specs:

    Silverstone Tek GD08B case
    Corsair 760i PSU
    Asus z87 - pro Mobo
    4x WD Red 4tb hdd
    Intel i7 4770k
    Noctua Low-Profile NH-L9i
    Samsung 840 pro 250gb ssd
    Noctua 120mm case fans
    8Gb Fa1ality 1600 4 x 2 (this is old banged up ram which will be replaced)
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2014

  11. Rachel S

    Rachel S Guest

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    Getting a very similar spec rig next week, but 500gb 840 evo and Rampage 4 black mobo.
    Maybe over doing it but hey.
    Looked at steam OS yet?
    Pondering if worth portioning SSD and duelOSing...

    Can you use the 360 controller wireless without the MS branded usb dongle?
    I have one but notoriously unreliable. Would keep swapping buttons as i played!
     
  12. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Hey Rachel S,

    If you have a gaming rig with a steam account, the Steam streaming works great. I was very surprised at how well it works. My HTPC doesn't even have a gpu yet and games stream perfect.
    I thought about Steam OS and want to do it. However, its still in development and for the sake of ease of use, I just stuck with windows 8.1 pro.
    My main focus was to make sure my wife and nanny can use the system which has been a big yes so far. I still have to dial in a few things such as some bit steaming codecs, remote software, and I still have to setup the Asus WIFI GO tools.

    Steam and Plex use the 360 controller great. I am trying to figure out how to use it for my main navigation over the mouse. What I REALLY want to do is get my old Kinect hooked up and use motion and voice commands for basic navigation, how cool would that be! As for the usb dongle, I have the off brand one and it seams to be working great.

    As of right now, I think the only thing overkill on my system was the power supply. I was considering a 780, but with how well the steam streaming works I might just get a cute little 750ti, or just wait for full fledged Maxwell.
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2014
  13. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Things are getting better. I installed LAV filters, which has improved sound quality, I definitely recommend it. I was able to adjust all speaker levels and enable Bitstreaming for all audio types (DD TrueHD / DTS-HD). My receiver (Onkyo TX-NR906) still doesn't "switch" over to whatever audio stream is playing as it does when I play from a bluray player. Any thoughts on this people?

    https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters/releases

    I am using Plex Home Theater, the sound is quiet, so I edited the xml file to amplify the sound by +8, now I don't have to crank my receiver up to hear center channel.

    Open "/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Plex Home Theater/userdata/guisettings.xml" in a text editor

    Find the line "<volumeamplification>0.000000</volumeamplification>" and change the "0.000000" to e.g. "5.000000"

    Source: https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/93674-universal-volume-amplification/

    Bluray playback I am using PowerDVD 14 Ultra, still need to test.

    For Bluray / DVD backup I am using MakeMKV beta. It works so well that I ponied up the 50 bucks and registered.

    I am using HandBreak for recoding my Blurays. If anyone wants my settings I will be happy to share them. I finally dialed them in, and it does take a while, but I can't find any degradation of the video or audio what so ever.
    Full (uncompressed) backups of the LOTR extended Edition blurays were 160 GB. After the recode all three movies weighed in at a total of 60GB.

    I still need to install the ASUS WIFI GO.

    The NAS is running great. For small files under a 1 gig I can get around 65 - 75 Mb/Sec transfer. Anything over and beyond that is get between 28 - 36 Mb/Sec. I am happy with that.
     
  14. signex

    signex Ancient Guru

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    That's a super HTPC you got there hehe. :D
     
  15. dcx_badass

    dcx_badass Guest

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    Transcoding is a second rate solution for if you're lacking native support. As in transcode to a PS3/360 as it has limited support, as you are using a proper HTPC why are you transcoding with plex, I'd be running XBMC with native file support and no transcoding involved, should be faster, better quality, much nicer interface (imo), and the XBMC android/ios remote is pretty good as well, or a 360 controller/Logitech harmony/boxee remote etc.
     

  16. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    Made some huge strides with getting Plex Home Theater working! The results are terrific, I may have to adjust a few of my speaker settings at the receiver level.

    I couldn't get PHT to play movies with sound. It was more of a slide show / crackle fest. Here is what I did to correct the issues. It was also still transcoding the audio streams even though the content is local.

    I read this first. I had most of it right, my driver was a few months out of date.
    http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Windows_audio

    I also disabled my RealTek audio devices to avoid some confusion, I do not know if this actually helped, because I make two adjustments at once (I know bad troubleshooting). Either way I left it off. I might put it back on to see any differences.

    With Plex Home Theater, in the audio settings; Output souces is HDMI, I have both audio controllers pointing to my Intel WASAPI Sound device (my Onkyo tx-nr 906), all the audio profiles checked except for ACC (I doubt this matters so much).
    Next I went to Network settings and local content was set at 20Mb/s, so I switched it to Directplay. That was it. Now my receiver sees the Dolby True HD / DTS MA streams; no more transcoding. Since it was producing the sound properly, I went back to the XML file I edited last week and brought the ampvolume back down to zero.

    I also made some good moves with controlling everything.
    We have an original Surface RT that I wasn't using. So I made it into our Media controller. I was surprised that there were apps on the MS store. Here is what I am using.
    ($4.99)Plex app for controlling Plex Home Theater
    (free)Onkyo app for my receiver. Basic functionality (ON/Off/souce/volume)
    ($2.00 with free trial) Directv App. Full remote functionality
    (free) Samsung remote. It works...
    (free) Asus WIFI GO. WIP

    If anyone has any app suggestions please let me know!
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2014
  17. CybrSage

    CybrSage Member Guru

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    Very impressive. Personally, I just stuck with Windows Media Center and added Media Browser to view and launch my collection of DVD folders and BluRay ISOs. I found this to be the simplest thing to do, since everyone already understand WMC. I also have a Ceton Cablecard tuner and watch Live TV with it, so I really have no choice but to use WMC.

    As for the "backup" protection, I went with SnapRAID (free) as my parity protection. I just bought a second 4TB HDD to use as a second Parity drive, that way I can lose two discs at the same time and not lose any of my data.
     
  18. Hootmon

    Hootmon Guest

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    Interesting project. Ill probably be trying something similar a few months down the road.
     
  19. VolkNasty

    VolkNasty Guest

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    @Hootman & CybrSage, Good stuff. I am still spit shining my config. RAID 5 with 4tb drives is expensive. Essentially I loose 5tb for redundancy, but its worth it. Next week I will purchase two more 4tb WD reds because I only have 3.5Tb left out of the 10.9 I started with. Also, I am rethinking the Bluray drive and might take it out in order to fit more HDDs. You see my gaming\work rig is a hex-core 3930k, so it does great with recoding/transcoding/ripping my bluray collection. Then I transfer the files over the wire. My Handbreak settings are stringent and it takes double the length of the film to recode, but worth it. I view my content on a 60'' and sit about ten feet away and can't tell the difference. Audio on the other hand, I am still dialing in. I feel that it doesn't sound as good as direct from my stand alone bluray player, even though its a "lossy" track.

    @CybrSage, I am loving the Plex system. I think you should check it out. I am able to stream everything anywhere. I can watch movies or look at pictures on my phone, laptop, direct play through Plex media center(HTPC), or stream to my chromcast upstairs. I also gave access to my Mother so she can stay up to date on baby pictures(its easier than emailing every other day). I also gave her access to all the movie/tv show content because I love my mom. My buddy also has Plex so we share libraries, which is pretty sweet.
     
  20. mjw

    mjw Guest

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    Why are you compressing blu-ray rips?
     

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