Media Server

[tinkerboy]

Hi,

I'm looking for motherboard recommendations for a media server I want to build. I'm hoping to store my entire DVD collection, music collection, home videos, and photo collection on this server. I'm thinking I want about 2-3TB of raid 5 storage. This server would also be used extensively for ripping CD's and DVD's as well as encoding audio and video to different formats. I may use this PC for some video editting and photoshop work as well.

I am currently looking at the MSI P965 Platnium because it sounds like a good performer and the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 because of it's I/O performance. But honestly, I have no clue how to pick a motherboard for this application.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[mkaibear]

You have two completely different applications there.

A media server requires stability over everything else.

A video editing workstation requires performance over everything else.

Optimising one will probably mean compromising the other.

If I were to do it, I would pick any random 965P chipset motherboard (they're all much of a muchness), and instead of using on-board RAID I would buy a decent RAID controller - that'll run you a couple of hundred $ (8-port SATA) - you want one that will allow you to dynamically expand the array as and when necessary. That should hopefully allow you the headroom and CPU room to use it as a video workstation as well.

 

[tinkerboy]

Thanks for the response.

I think the video editting and photoshop work is really secondary for this machine. First and foremost it needs to be a server, but, I was really hoping I could use it for ripping, encoding and format conversion as well. Do these tasks conflict too much with the server application?

 

[mkaibear]

Ripping, encoding and format conversion won't really impinge upon using it as a server. It's the throwing of data around that video / photo editing does that would cause the problem.

 

[tinkerboy]

So taking the video editting and photoshop tasks off the table, would you still recommend buying a separate RAID controller, or would the on-board RAID controller on a motherboard like the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 which has 8 SATA ports work well?

 

[mkaibear]

If you're doing RAID 5 I'd generally always recommend a hardware RAID controller. For a media server it's not *quite* so important, but you need to be aware that if you use the onboard RAID you won't be able to expand the array, you will be stuck at the size you started with.

 

[tinkerboy]

Being able to dynamically expand the arrray sounds like a great feature. I can save some money on drives initially. Any recommendations on a good RAID controller?

 

[mkaibear]

There are people here with a lot more RAID experience than I have. I've only ever used hardware RAID 1, RAID 0 and RAID 10.

I don't have any recommendations, I'm afraid!

 

[yakyb]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=535322

Just out of interest will this be on all the time you might be better off going with this combined with a 3600 x2ee for silent Low power usage server the board comes with 6 HDD slots (although no raid 5 as im aware)
onboard GPU (all you'll need)
gigabit Lan
2 x PCI (32 bit)
1 x PCI-Express (x1)
1 x PCI-Express (x16 Graphics
im going to get this i just hope that Ubuntu runs it without issue

 

[tinkerboy]

Thanks for the recommendation.

I just looked at the manual online and it does support RAID5.

 

[mkaibear]

It doesn't have RAID 5, it has "crappy onboard RAID 5", which will cane the processor. A RAID 5 add-in card is the way to go.

 

[TeraMedia]

A second benefit to using a separate controller is that if your Mobo fails, you can get any mobo as a replacement, plug your drives into the card, and you're good to go.

If you use Windows Server editions, or are willing to hack a couple of DLLs and registry entries, you can do software RAID 5 - which should be fine for a media server use profile (write once, read many). If you want hardware-based, be aware of the SPOF from your Mobo, but also know that RAID 5 read performance can be much better than adequate from the Intel 965/ICH8R chipset. See recent Toms article for more info.

I actually built and am using something very close to what you're trying to build. Mine is both a media server and a media center, so some items may not apply to you. Some lessons learned:
- if you're building an HTPC to be based in the living room, noise and cooling requirements may need to supercede some other design considerations, such as number of drives or performance of components. You have a choice of CPUs and GPUs I didn't have, but still something to be aware of. Adding high-performance gaming to the list of requirements is all but impossible. The HTPC form-factor is different enough from standard that you can run into issues with air flow as you begin to fill up the case with drives and cards, or use large, high-performance heat-emitting video cards
- Be aware of drive head thrashing. If you use intel matrix array, e.g. to make a RAID 0 and RAID 5 on the same array, the performance of your RAID 0 will get crushed if you need to simultaneously read files from RAID 5, because the R/W heads will need to seek all over the place.
- RAID 5 rebuilds will take really long (e.g. 5-10 hrs), no matter what technology you're using because you will have to re-write several hundred gigs. Get yourself an adequate UPS to avoid rebuilds after power outages, and be prepared for downtime / reduced performance when reboots happen.
- Be wary of any "automatic update" software running on your machine. This includes Windows, anti-virus, Adobe, Java, and whatever else you might install. More than once, an automatic update either rebooted or froze my HTPC, causing an abnormal shutdown and subsequent RAID 5 rebuild.
- If you're building a media center based on MCE 2K5, you should consider the hack to allow a simultaneous remote desktop session so that you can administer your machine without disturbing its media-serving behavior. I don't know what Vista offers in this regard.
- Get at least 2 GB of RAM. I routinely use well over 1 GB w/ just Win MCE 2K5.
- Not all defragging software can handle logical drives over 1 TB in size. You might need to get one of the premium offerings from Diskeeper.

 

[lance525]

I second all the recommendations above and would like to add that, from the standpoint of a relative RAID5 noob, having a separate controller card made the whole set up process almost TOO easy. I have the FastTrak SX4300 (PCI-x) from Promise and it has been working for two months now without a hitch. I wish I had got the 8 SATA port version, in hindsight.

I would also strongly recommend the 2 gig Ram. I have only 1 gig and while it works fine, if I try to burn a DVD or CD or the server gets multiple requests, it will slow down somewhat.

The motherboard I have is an older Intel server board with PCI-x, running a Celeron and with a gigabit lan card. Raid5 is set up on 4 320g seagate drives, the OS is on a separate drive (just in case). OS is Windows Server 2003.

 

[tinkerboy]

Thanks of all the great feedback. It's really made me rethink the server I want to build.

Going back to mkaibear's first comments, I think stability and data security needs to be the first priority for my media server. My digital media library represents a huge investment of time and money. To loose this data would be a disaster, and to have this data unavailable for a significant period of time would be a big inconvenience to my entire family.

Based on the feedback, I am steering away from on-board RAID5 because I fear that if something goes wrong with the motherboard 3-4 years down the road I may not be able to find a compatible motherboard to recover the data. If using a separate RAID controller card allows me to move the RAID5 to any other PC, I think that kind of portability is important to have. Question is what if the RAID controller card goes down? What are the chances I'll be able to find a new and compatible RAID controller card 3 or more years down the road?

Does the FastTrack SX4300 allow you to dynamically expand the RAID5 as you need more in the future? Also, can you expand to 8 ports by adding a second SX4300 to the server?

I assume a software RAID5 would provide the same portability as long as I stick with the same version of Windows Server. Is that a correct assumption?

I will not be making this server a Home Theater PC. The server will not be sitting in the living room. I'm currently using AppleTV to stream the files off my server until I find a better solution.

 

[yakyb]

If using a separate RAID controller card allows me to move the RAID5 to any other PC, I think that kind of portability is important to have. Question is what if the RAID controller card goes down? What are the chances I'll be able to find a new and compatible RAID controller card 3 or more years down the road?

general practice is to buy two of the same card when you first order and keep one locked away for safekeeping should disaster occur.

on a side note you may want to read this i use it and its very very useful

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1547

you can schedule it to make sure that your server has the latest data at all times

 

[rammedstein]

get a X975 board if you are going to be using it as a media server because the 975X memory controller is much better and since you won't be overclocking it much because you want reliability and stability it shouldn't matter, plus, with this you'll have 2x 8x pci-e slots, one for raid controller and one for low end graphics (so integrated won't impede memory performance)

 

[TeraMedia]

The OP may not need anything more than integrated graphics, if this is only a server. Therefore, graphics PCIe-8 times 2 may not be required. And how is 975 memory controller better than 965 (if you're not doing crossfire)?

Toms did a test a while back and confirmed that you can in fact move your Win Srvr software-based RAID 5 array of disks from one computer to another, and it will work (as a boot array, provided that the chipset software is not completely incompatible?). Please don't take my word for it as there may be gotchas; find and read the article. It was circa 3Q2005 I think. The software-based approach won't have as many expansion options as hardware-based, though.

If the data is really important, you might consider a separate system for backups. I don't bother backing up any of my CDs because I still have all of the originals, but I do backup all pictures and personal files to a different computer. That way I have some protection against lightning, fire, etc. That data qty is much smaller, so it fits on a laptop easily. Just something to think about. Good luck. Let us know how it goes!