Home streaming from Sempron to i3 ? ?

[bigwhy]

Hello,
Any suggestion or experience, I am currently running a "home Server" with windows 7, I am just streaming movies (HD 720 and 1080) across the house (8 x 2TB with a Supermicro SAS2LP-MV8 controller).
I am thinking of some improvement.
I have an AMD Sempron 145 with an old MSI 790gx mobo (no sata3, onboard video card).
I am tempting by a new i3 3225 with an ASRock Z77 Pro3 1155 for around 180$. And I just bought a new ssd.
is it worth the investment? Any other suggestion? Would it improve my streaming?
Thanks.

 

[diellur]

My first question would be is your streaming bad right now? If it's working well, then perhaps don't mess with it. Also, what end of the pipe are you wanting the new equipment? If your server is just streaming, it doesn't need much in the way of power or performance...I'd say if it's not broken, don't fix it and keep the same components in there. Same for the HTPC end. An i3 will give you some performance increase...I upgraded my HTPC from a G620 to a i3-2120, and the boost was worthwhile. I also put in an SSD so it would boot quickly, and I had noticed that sometimes the stream would stutter if the HDD was particularly active, so yes I'd say that's worthwhile.

The more important thing I've found with streaming media is how the drives are pooled and what NIC you use. Intel NICs have never given me any bother, and I now use my server as JBOD - no RAID for me - as I found I got stutter and lag.

 

[bigwhy]

thx for your response.
I have "Storage pc": Sempron 145, MSI 790GX-G65 mobo, I use the MSI modo NIC (Realtek 8111DL <-- to0 old?)... 2x2gb of ram, and I just got a new pny ssd (mobo doesnt support sata3 :-(
For the actual HTPC I have Athlon x4 645 with GA-890GPA-UD3H mobo, 2x4gb of ram, with an old vertex 2 (3.5" form factor), and ati 5770 gpu.

Some movies are lagging/buffering. I was reading that some users suggested a "bigger" cpu for the storage/streaming ?...?

 

[diellur]

The stuttering is more likely to be a network issue than anything with your server hardware. What format do you store your media in...are you transcoding on the fly or as .iso etc? Transcoding will cause issues as it's a CPU-intensive task. Storage size won't affect streaming perfomance, although how your HDDs are set up will...are you using RAID? I found that using JBOD was best (which is where I just pile disks into my server and manually manage storage).

Also, what speed is your router? You really want 1Gb LAN ports...your two motherboard are fine, but your router may only be fast ethernet (100Mb/s), which presents a bottleneck between your server and HTPC, especially for HD.

The Realtek NIC isn't the best, but it can be used...as it happens, I'm using the same one on my HTPC right now (although my server uses an Intel one) and I've got flawless playback. Some people have issues with Realtek, and I have had in the past, but I think it's just one contributing factor in a whole series of them. Once you iron out the majority of obvious issues, one or two become tolerable.

 

[logainofhades]

My sempron struggled with video until I unlocked the second core. I would just get this. Your motherboard supports it. You will need a bios update at most.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871

http://us.msi.com/product/mb/790GX-G65.html#/?div=CPUSupport

 

[popatim]

As Diellur said, its probably your network. If you were transcoding on the fly you would have horrible stuttering/buffering with a sempron.
SSD is practically useless in a home server and will not help your streaming at all.

Just a thought, what raid card are you using? If its an old pci card that could be it too.

 

[diellur]

Depends on how you use your server...I mainly use mine for media, so it's actually off the majority of the time. An SSD gives it rapid boot times...worth it for some people, probably not for others.

 

[popatim]

Off? That kinda defeats the purpose of a server don't it? I let mine go to sleep and it uses about 5w then and I dont have to walk down to the basement to turn it on. LoL. SSD will not help with waking from sleep mode (in case someone was wondering.)

 

[adamv1]

I use a zotac ion for a media server. I leave it on all the time and it uses about 20w maybe. So less than a light bulb. It streams HD movies through my network like a champ. I have it attached it to a tv so I use it to play movies as well, works pretty darn good. But, and here is what I think my problem is, the network card is awful. Realtech laptop wireless card. I get 40mbps on my desktop and can stream multiple hd movies at the same time there, but this little booger wont handle it. As long as I am watching a blue ray or an ISO video I am fine, but stream something in HD and plop, the thing just stutters and shakes like it has turrets or something. When it is attached to the Ethernet it is fine. So, if your having problems at all use the Ethernet and not the WIFI.

Sorry for the tangent, just wanted to throw in my 2cents.

 

[diellur]

Only is you assume your server has to be on 24-7. That doesn't suit me and I have a script which, when the HTPC boots up, wakes up the mediaserver with a magic packet. Takes less time than it would for me to go and physically put the server on. We only use it for movies and some file storage, so the percentage of time we access it is actually quite small.

And yes, HD over wifi won't work very well...you want a gigabit ethernet connection for that. Normal def will be fine on wifi, however, or compressed HD.

 

[bigwhy]

Hi all, thx for your comments, I decided to upgrade my home server, i got i3 3225 + Asrock pro 4 for 160$, pretty good deal i think + 79$ Samsung 840 120gb (not the pro). I need to do the change with this new parts.
Also, I am currently using an add-on card:
AOC-SAS2LP-MV8. So far so good. if you have any experience with it or comment, please post.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/aoc-sas2lp-mv8.cfm

Thanks !