advice needed on a home server/bluray ripper

trachr

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Nov 13, 2015
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So I'll be honest here, while I have a lot of experience fixing, upgrading and tweaking systems I never have outright built one... and that is my goal today.

Up to this point I've always bought a good computer and upgraded it to keep up with gaming and whatnot, however I have decided I want the experience of building one, well 2 when all is said and done, I plan on building my next gaming rig but that isn't today's project.

My project at the moment is to build a computer that has a few functions...

1.) It needs to be able to rip my blu ray collection and have the storage to house it
2.) it needs to function as my home central server for something along the lines of plex, I may choose another option but for now lets figure plex... I also may store music, photos, as well as function in any other roles a central server would do.


So things I know ... I wont need a pricy graphics card, any motherboard with onboard graphics will do, since after I get it up and running I only will turn on the monitor when I burn a bluray the rest of the time I wont need to mess with it.

I know i'll need a case with a lot of room for hard drives, as well as space for the bluray drive.. I figured on a 250 or 500gb ssd for the OS and any programs I need then so regular 4TB or so HDs as storage.

Now for my first question... NAS. Lets assume for a moment that I go all sorts of crazy and end up storing more data then can fit in my computer... how would I plan ahead so that my server can also utilize network storage... would that mean I should have 2 network jacks in the motherboard, 1 for the router and 1 for the nas? Ive tried to do some research in it but seems like some people want 2 jacks some 1

my next question... I was looking at min itxs with 6+ sata and cases that could house that many drives but honestly I dont know if that would be practical or not... so heres the biggest reason I decided to ask you guys...

what are your recommendations on cases and motherboards, overall size is not a factor really, but I dont want a HUGE case if it can be helped, just one that is practical for my needs. I'll make the computer over time as well so cost while not critical Id perfer it stay under 1000, thats 1000 for the case, motherboard, graphics(if needed) basically everything except the main storage drives... I want to add those later as I need them

So my initial rig I want:

motherboard, chip, case, modular power, the SSD for the OS, and probably 1 HD for storage initially. well I guess cooling as well, cant forget that :)



Do you guys have any recommendations on components, or see anything Im missing or even just some advice?


Edit: I forgot to throw in the ram, I figure 8gb will be plenty but not sure I guess... also if I can swing it I want to throw a card that I can hook the cable up to so I can try to do something similar to tivo


Thank you :)


 

trachr

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Nov 13, 2015
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I was looking at a ASRock ATX DDR3 1333 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97 EXTREME6

from what I can see it holds 5 PCI slots and 11 sata or possibly the ASRock ATX DDR3 1333 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97 PROFESSIONAL


with the first one I could then have 1 bluray and still have space for 10 HDs... figure 1 for OS and programs, so I could potentially upgrade to 9 4tb hard drives... so 36 TB before I need to think about NAS

with the 5 PCI I could then add a few cable PCI cards so I could capture live tv when needed... I think it has onboard graphics, least I thought I saw that but even if it didnt that would give me 4 PCI slots to do what I needed

it has 2 etehrnet jacks 1 intel and 1 realtek... not sure the difference yet but I'll figure it out

not sure on the chip I would want yet, probably 4 or better yet 6 cores of intel for power? anyway again, any advice would be appreciated.
 

trachr

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Nov 13, 2015
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another option may be something like:
ASUS MAXIMUS VI GENE LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
with a Fractal Design Node 804 Black Aluminum / Steel Micro ATX Cube Case ?

would have 8 sata ports so 6 HDs and plenty of room in the case...
 

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