Anyone build a HTPC/NAS/Gaming rig yet?

@mjw

Size mainly. The audio tracks are untouched(lossy). The studios generally overcompensate on bitrate, so I just try and knock it down. I can get a 35gb rip down to 9 - 14gb (older movies usually get down lower) with minimal loss of fidelity. I have a 60'' and I can hardly tell the difference if at all. And lets be honest here, bluray picture is great and all, but the sound is where its at.

 

I watch Cable TV (via a CableCard) on my HTPC, so I am locked into WMC.

 

Why not use XBMC?

 

Because I watch Cable TV (via a CableCard) on my HTPC. XBMC (and every other system other than WMC) can only show Copy Freely or Not Flagged content. Once the content is flagged with Copy Once, only WMC can play it. WMC is the only system to have been certified and authorized by CableLabs, the creator and owner of CableCard.

I also live in the US where this matters. AFAIK, only the US uses the CableCard system.

 

Ah, I wasn't aware of that.
That's a shame!

 

It cost WAYYYY to much money to be CableLabs certified - so only the big boys can afford to play.

 

Welp, that was quick; I've used up my 11Tb. Since I have to add more storage I was thinking about maybe adding some SSD caching. The reason I want to do this is to speed up my write speeds to my storage volume. I have experience in this but only for enterprise storage solutions. I haven't looked into whether windows 8.1 or my Asus \ Intel raid solution is capable of such things. I am also kind of worried about the ASmedia controller working happily with the Intel (which is where my raid 5 is).

Since I have 2 open ports on my Intel controller I will just add 2 more REDS and move my SSD and Bluray to ASmedia. While I'm at it I may bump up my ram to 16gb. I've been getting a lot of low memory notifications.

Any thoughts on SSD caching w/ RAID 5?

 

I did quarterly preventive maintenance on my HTPC. Cleaned up the fans, radiators, and rerouted some cables. I also took out that old ram, and installed two new sticks of G-Skill RipJaw X 8gb 17000. About three times a week windows was throwing a "low memory" error and screwing with access to my server. So hopefully 16 gigs of nice fast ram should fix that. The following day however, I woke up to another error. It was at the Asus boot screen saying that there was a power supply problem and it shut down to prevent damage. I only saw it once, but I will be monitoring it closely. My next paycheck I will get the additional HDD space.

P.S I also need to give this thing a name, any suggestions?

 

Space gets eaten up quickly, doesn't it. I have:

(2) 4TB HDDs used for dual parity
(4) 4TB HDDs used for storage
(2) 3TB HDDs used for storage
(1) 1.5TB HDD used for Recorded TV
(1) 60GB SSD used for OS

I have roughly 17TB of my 22TB filled.

 

Over the past few weeks i've been getting that Asus power error quite a bit. After some forum lurking I found that the power surge settings on the Mobo are very sensitive, so I disabled the feature. Problem solved. My system is plugged into a very expensive power conditioner so I wasn't to worried about external surges. I also added 2 4tb WD Red drives (16.5tb now). I moved the SSD and bluray over to ASmedia ports with no issue! I was worried and backed up all my content via a friend with enough capacity. Plex developers have been doing a great job, patching and adding new features. Plex is amazing.

 

Anyone have any suggestions on a PCI-e SATA expansion card (not hardware raid)? Need 4+ ports and doesn't break the bank.

 

I have had great luck with the Syba HyperDuo 4 Port PCI-e 2.0 x2 SATA III Card SD-PEX40054. You can get it on Amazon for about $40. You can either use two internal and two external OR four internal, based on jumper setting. Default setting is four internal ports.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009LIPHNC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thank you CybrSage, I ordered it along with 2 more hdd. I am going to do another 4 disk raid 5 with 4tb WD reds. It will put my capacity at 22tb.

 

@ Cybrsage; Thank you for the recommendation, the card is working as it should. One of my HDD was no good, so I had to return it. Full raid should be up by Monday.

We upgraded our TV set to a Sony XBR65x850b (4k LED). So now I run into a problem. Me being me, now that I have this great shiny 4k, I need to get everything in my system 4k compliant. I was looking at a new receiver (Onkyo Tx-Nr1030) which has quite the price tag $1600 (Integra a bit more). It has the 4k up-conversion and HDMI 2.0, ISF rated and 135 WPC @ 8 ohms. It's mostly an upgrade from my TX-NR906 which has 145 WPC. Then I was thinking, "wait a minute!" This TV and my receiver support ARC (Audio Return Channel) why not use it?
Here are my thoughts...

Currently all signal goes into my AVR and video out to the TV. Since the receiver only has HDMI 1.3a I am unable to enjoy 4k / 3d. What if instead I bought a GTX980 (HDMI 2.0) and outed the signal directly to the TV and then OUT to the receiver that way it can process the sound. I would be circumventing the 1.3a shortcomings over video, while still being able to rock the HD sound. This will also circumvent some additional video processing (ISF) done by the receiver, but I bet I can get it close with some additional tweaking on my HTPC. The thing is I am not sure on how well 4k up-conversion works on a PC. My goal is to get a native 2160p signal to the TV while being able to enjoy 7.1 HD sound.

Since I already have a 980 gaming in my gaming rig, I think this weekend I will take it out and install it in my HTPC and give it a whirl.

I also need to check out how well these AVR's up convert 4k. need some good side by side comparisons.

any thoughts?

 

It should work without any issues. You might have a lipsync issue, but you can change that in the AVR.