Hello all sorry for this post but I've found that asking questions in forums is the best place to get assistance lately. I know in my photography and woodworking forums I always like to help others out.
I would like to build my first computer and need some assistance. The decision is based on trying something new as well as possible cost and ventilation considerations. I currently have an old Dell Pentium 4 that I kind of use as a home server. It sits in my basement next to my a/v rack and runs windows XP Pro and Plex Media Server. I have two large drives on it (one for my photographs and one for my music) and three external hard drives. One external drive has my movie collection and the other two backup my two internal drives nightly. This is wired directly to my switch (which is connected to my router) and seems to work pretty well. This issue I have right now is two fold:
1) moving files from my laptop to the computer is pretty slow (only getting like 12 megs per second) connected directly to a gigabit switch over Cat 6. I figure this has to do with HD speed more than CPU issues.
2) Streaming movies from Plex Media Server to Chromecast is making CPU work at 100% and getting gaps in playback with only one stream.
So that is my current setup (I tried to provide as much information as possible) and here are my options as I see it. I'm a hobbyist photographer and have thousands of pictures and family videos that I'm afraid of losing so hence my nightly backup (I also do a monthly backup to a separate drive that I keep at my parents house) in addition I am now getting into ripping all my DVDs so that I can stream anywhere around the house, outside to my parents house or handheld devices. With three young children this makes it much easier to ensure my parents have my movie collection when the kids are there. So first thing I need is storage, the second thing I need is to be able to trans code movies for streaming to Chromecast and the last is for using handbrake to encode my DVD collection faster (some movies take over 8 hours).
Option 1) I could build a cheap NAS type system for all my files (photos, video, movies, etc). Then build a mid level computer for running Plex Media Server as well as doing my video encoding with Handbrake.
Benefits include lower power consumption with a NAS and I could also setup FTP backup of my families computers to my house as redundant backup. The computer can sleep when not streaming and wake on lan when we want to watch movies.
Option 2) Build a mid level computer in a huge case and fill it with hard drives to do everything including the FTP backup of my families computers.
I would think this option would waste more electricity since I would probably need a better processor and larger power supply.
Option 3) Find a used computer on craigslist, reformat and install new OS then load with internal HDs.
The only thing is most retail cases don't have all the venting that the cases I've been seeing have and if it will be running so much I fear it would cause heat issues.
I don't plan on doing any video or photography editing with these machines. When I get around to finding a place for a desk I will build a desktop specifically for those needs. Right now I use my laptop for editing new pictures on that hard drive and move them to the home server when I don't need to manipulate them anymore. This computer won't be used for any other programs but Plex Media Server and some sort of backup software, it will sit in my basement.
My budget is tight and I don't think I'm doing any major CPU tasks besides the encoding and transcoding (no gaming, etc), so I'm not sure if I need a really expensive i7 processor or if I can get away with something like an i3, i5 or AMD solution. I hear of folks only using like 20% of their CPU transcoding movies streaming with Plex.
What do you think the best solution is? Am I even thinking about this correctly?
I would like to build my first computer and need some assistance. The decision is based on trying something new as well as possible cost and ventilation considerations. I currently have an old Dell Pentium 4 that I kind of use as a home server. It sits in my basement next to my a/v rack and runs windows XP Pro and Plex Media Server. I have two large drives on it (one for my photographs and one for my music) and three external hard drives. One external drive has my movie collection and the other two backup my two internal drives nightly. This is wired directly to my switch (which is connected to my router) and seems to work pretty well. This issue I have right now is two fold:
1) moving files from my laptop to the computer is pretty slow (only getting like 12 megs per second) connected directly to a gigabit switch over Cat 6. I figure this has to do with HD speed more than CPU issues.
2) Streaming movies from Plex Media Server to Chromecast is making CPU work at 100% and getting gaps in playback with only one stream.
So that is my current setup (I tried to provide as much information as possible) and here are my options as I see it. I'm a hobbyist photographer and have thousands of pictures and family videos that I'm afraid of losing so hence my nightly backup (I also do a monthly backup to a separate drive that I keep at my parents house) in addition I am now getting into ripping all my DVDs so that I can stream anywhere around the house, outside to my parents house or handheld devices. With three young children this makes it much easier to ensure my parents have my movie collection when the kids are there. So first thing I need is storage, the second thing I need is to be able to trans code movies for streaming to Chromecast and the last is for using handbrake to encode my DVD collection faster (some movies take over 8 hours).
Option 1) I could build a cheap NAS type system for all my files (photos, video, movies, etc). Then build a mid level computer for running Plex Media Server as well as doing my video encoding with Handbrake.
Benefits include lower power consumption with a NAS and I could also setup FTP backup of my families computers to my house as redundant backup. The computer can sleep when not streaming and wake on lan when we want to watch movies.
Option 2) Build a mid level computer in a huge case and fill it with hard drives to do everything including the FTP backup of my families computers.
I would think this option would waste more electricity since I would probably need a better processor and larger power supply.
Option 3) Find a used computer on craigslist, reformat and install new OS then load with internal HDs.
The only thing is most retail cases don't have all the venting that the cases I've been seeing have and if it will be running so much I fear it would cause heat issues.
I don't plan on doing any video or photography editing with these machines. When I get around to finding a place for a desk I will build a desktop specifically for those needs. Right now I use my laptop for editing new pictures on that hard drive and move them to the home server when I don't need to manipulate them anymore. This computer won't be used for any other programs but Plex Media Server and some sort of backup software, it will sit in my basement.
My budget is tight and I don't think I'm doing any major CPU tasks besides the encoding and transcoding (no gaming, etc), so I'm not sure if I need a really expensive i7 processor or if I can get away with something like an i3, i5 or AMD solution. I hear of folks only using like 20% of their CPU transcoding movies streaming with Plex.
What do you think the best solution is? Am I even thinking about this correctly?
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