# My new NAS and Media Server



## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I finally got tired of hearing my Quad Core AMD HTPC make so much noise, so I decided to build a NAS out of the old Zalman HD160.

This is what I am doing for a NAS:

ASRock LGA1155/Intel B75/DDR3/Quad CrossFireX/SATA3&USB3.0/A&V&GbE/MicroATX Motherboard B75 PRO3-M

Seasonic SSR-450RM ATX 12V/EPS 12V 450-Watt 80 Plus Gold certified PFC Power Supply

Intel Core i3-3220T Dual-Core Processor 2.8 Ghz 3MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637i33220T (does anyone know if a aftermarket fan will be required?)

Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TD120BW (for a boot drive)

I will use my current 16GB RAM, and (2) 1TB, and (1) 4TB HDDs. I will be using Unraid for the software.



Here is what I am using for the Media server:

Intel Next Unit of Computing Kit with Dual HDMI, Gigabit LAN, Core i3-3217U DC3217IYE

Crucial m4 64GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT064M4SSD3

Kingston Value RAM 4GB 1600MHz PC3-12800 DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM SR x8 Notebook Memory (KVR16S11S8/4)

I also have a CQC Server that is identical to the Media Server that will be controlling my AV equipment and Home Automation.

I hope to get everything up and running this weekend... All depends on how much time I have after working on our Sunroom.

Any comments are welcome. This will be my first time running a setup like this... In the past I just ran everything off of the HTPC. Since we have been going on a energy conservation goal, I decided to improve the Computers too. Our old HTPC was drawing 120watts just surfing the net and hopefully the other 3 computers together will use less than half of that. I am hoping that the HD video will be at least as good as my NVidia GeForce GT-430.


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## DaPhault (May 1, 2012)

Fun stuff.

You won't need an after market fan/cooler for the i3-3220T. It sips power and is a good choice for your NAS; in well ventilated cases I've even seen them passively cooled.

Good luck with the builds.


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

I agree. With the proper case ventilation, that setup sounds like you may not need a fan. But you should check the temps anyway under stress, just in case.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Thanks for the comments. 

Question: What determines where the video rendering is done? Is it done in the NAS or the Media Center?


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## DaPhault (May 1, 2012)

As you are planning on using UnRAID, that machine will simple act as a storage appliance, so all the video work will be done by the media server. I'm not all that familiar with UnRAID, but I do know that you won't need that Samsung 840: UnRAID will boot from a USB flash drive.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

DaPhault said:


> As you are planning on using UnRAID, that machine will simple act as a storage appliance, so all the video work will be done by the media server. I'm not all that familiar with UnRAID, but I do know that you won't need that Samsung 840: UnRAID will boot from a USB flash drive.


Will the i3 NUC be enough power for rendering HDTV and 2 HDHomerun dual tuners?


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## DaPhault (May 1, 2012)

That proc is 3rd generation with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 and will have no problem playing 1080p; Even previous generations can do it. It can't do the more advanced madVR profiles, but neither can the latest 4600.

I _don't_ have personal experience, but from what I've seen in passing, you should have no serious issues with the HDHomeRun.

BTW if you are unaware, there are Plex Server and mySQL plugins for UnRAID. You edited out mySQL from your questions, but I thought you still might like to know.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

DaPhault said:


> That proc is 3rd generation with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 and will have no problem playing 1080p; Even previous generations cando it. It can't do the more advanced madVR profiles, but neither can the latest 4600.
> 
> I have personal experience, but from what I've seen in passing, you should have no serious issues with the HDHomeRun.
> 
> BTW if you are unaware, there are Plex Server and mySQL plugins for UnRAID. You edited out mySQL from your questions, but I thought you still might like to know.


Thanks for the info... Hopefully I will get the parts early today so I can get at least the NAS up and running. I edited out the mySQL because I was told I don't need it on another Forum. I will find out if it is needed when I start putting all this together.:T


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Well I got the parts in today... The NAS is DOA. I am going to return all the NAS parts and order up a dif combo.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

This is what I am using for the new NAS...

Seasonic SSR-450RM ATX 12V/EPS 12V 450-Watt 80 Plus Gold certified PFC Power Supply

Lian Li PE-01 Power Supply Extension Bracket

Lian Li PC-Q25B Black Aluminum Mini Tower Mini-ITX Computer Case

Supermicro MBD-X7SPA-H-D525-O - Atom D525 Intel ICH9R Chipset Mini-ITX Motherboard DDR3 SATA PCIE Gigabit LAN VGA

I will use my existing 16 GB of ram and will use the SSD for a cache drive. I now have 3 Hitatchi 4TB drives, A 2TB Seagate, a 1TB HDD, and 2 500GB HDD. I will use what I can fit in the new case and hopefully I will have better luck this time.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Well last night I decided since the NAS was DOA I would get the second i3 NUC up and running for my Media Server. 

All I can say is it smokes my HTPC! I had to install the RAM and SSD plus format a USB stick for booting into OPENELEC/XBMC... I had it up and running in less than 15 minutes! When I browse XBMC it works flawlessly with my mouse or keyboard. When I was using my HTPC with Win 7 it only wanted to be stable with the keyboard and was def slower than with the i3 NUC. I was worried about getting smooth response when watching a 1080p movie and it did not let me down it worked flawlessly!

I would def rec it to anyone that wanted a Media Server (just make sure you do the OPENELEC/XBMC version)!


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Hey, cool idea. I haven't played around with the NUC, will have to see what it is capable of.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Received my PSU, Case, PSU extender, and 2 UPSs today... Waiting on the MB for assembly.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

DaPhault said:


> As you are planning on using UnRAID, that machine will simple act as a storage appliance, so all the video work will be done by the media server. I'm not all that familiar with UnRAID, but I do know that you won't need that Samsung 840: UnRAID will boot from a USB flash drive.


oh yes,,, one of the best parts about unraid. I have a nice patriot USB mem stick for unraid and it has been rock solid. waiting for the new Unraid version to come out.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

ellisr63 said:


> Well last night I decided since the NAS was DOA I would get the second i3 NUC up and running for my Media Server.
> 
> All I can say is it smokes my HTPC! I had to install the RAM and SSD plus format a USB stick for booting into OPENELEC/XBMC... I had it up and running in less than 15 minutes! When I browse XBMC it works flawlessly with my mouse or keyboard. When I was using my HTPC with Win 7 it only wanted to be stable with the keyboard and was def slower than with the i3 NUC. I was worried about getting smooth response when watching a 1080p movie and it did not let me down it worked flawlessly!
> 
> I would def rec it to anyone that wanted a Media Server (just make sure you do the OPENELEC/XBMC version)!


My questions is how does XBMC handle 23.976 and 24 playback and does it bit stream ?


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I have everything together now and I am waiting on the preclear before I finish the UNRAID setup. Currently I am watching movies via the XBMC setup with a external USB drive and everything is fine. Hopefully the preclear will be done by Friday and I can start transferring all my data to the NAS.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I am now moving all my media to the NAS. Once this is completed I will get the parity HDD going. Can't wait to get this all going!


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Just reading a little about the UNRAID OS. Interesting choice. Have you worked with it before?


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

AudiocRaver said:


> Just reading a little about the UNRAID OS. Interesting choice. Have you worked with it before?


Nope... I use CQC Software for my Home Automation and several of the users suggested it to me, so I decided to try it out. So far I like what I see. It is def cheaper than buying a ready made NAS.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I would like to add a USB Bluray player for ripping blurays ultimately to the NAS but I am not sure which machine should get it... Should I put it on:
1: the i3 NUC that is my CQC Home Automation Server
2: the i3 NUC Openelec/XBMC Media Server
3: the Atom Unraid NAS?

tia,
Ron


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I just ordered this... Samsung SE-506BB/TSBD 6X USB2.0 External Slim Blu-ray Writer Drive. I will be hooking it up to my CQC Server for ripping. I know I could have just gotten a player but I figure you never know when you will need a writer. So far everything is working nicely... The only problem I had was my Netgear switch died so I got a 24 port Cisco business class switch. The switch took a little time to get up and running but Cisco Tech Support was AWESOME!


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Looks like I will be switching from AnyDVD to DVDFab for my ripping of Blurays... When I rip with anyDVD it is taking around 2 hours and then since I want mkv files it takes me about 20 minutes more to convert and I end up with a bunch of files. When I rip with DVDFab it takes about 30 minutes... converts to mkv, strips the subs to a separate file, plus reduces the size of the file to almost half. I am selecting mkv passthrough which I assume is not effecting the video quality or audio quality.

Question: When I rip a movie I see a lot of files listed and it only rips one of them... I have noticed that sometimes there are HDA (I think I got that right) files and ac3 files that it is not selecting. Does this mean I am not getting the HDA feed? If not then how do I know which one to select to get the HDA audio?

tia,
Ron


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

With your screenshot example above click on "EN, EN" on the same line as the green check mark and there will be a slide down menu with which you can select the audio streams you want. You will always see multiple "tracks" listed in that area for a disc (DVD or BR), the Pathfinder feature of DVDFab will automatically select the track (via the green check mark) that has the whole complete movie.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Infrasonic said:


> With your screenshot example above click on "EN, EN" on the same line as the green check mark and there will be a slide down menu with which you can select the audio streams you want. You will always see multiple "tracks" listed in that area for a disc (DVD or BR), the Pathfinder feature of DVDFab will automatically select the track (via the green check mark) that has the whole complete movie.


Thanks for the tip! I will have to start checking that every rip now... Does it default to the best audio (I had not been checking it in the past)?

tia,
Ron


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

Yes, from what I've seen it will auto select the uncompressed audio stream but sometimes it will also select DD 5.1 which will only take up space. If you do want to select multiple audio streams you can give it an extra click which will make it bold and will be the default track.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Infrasonic said:


> Yes, from what I've seen it will auto select the uncompressed audio stream but sometimes it will also select DD 5.1 which will only take up space. If you do want to select multiple audio streams you can give it an extra click which will make it bold and will be the default track.


Thanks again. I love the way DVDFab works... I end up with a movie that is 10-20gb smaller without any changes to the audio or video other than changing to a mkv file. Plus the longest it has taken to do its magic is 1hr with a i3 NUC, where AnyDVD would take a minimum of 1 1/2 hours to rip and it was larger and not a mkv file! Def worth the $$.


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

I think the reason why the file is so much smaller is because DVDFab is removing the menus and extras from the file (I haven't used that MKV function so I can't say for sure). That would also explain why it's faster because AnyDVD is ripping the whole disc vs. just the main movie.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Infrasonic said:


> I think the reason why the file is so much smaller is because DVDFab is removing the menus and extras from the file (I haven't used that MKV function so I can't say for sure). That would also explain why it's faster because AnyDVD is ripping the whole disc vs. just the main movie.


I believe you are right... If I could have done what I wanted with AnyDVD I would have stayed with it and just used MakeMKV to change the format.


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## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

Hey where are the pictures of the build?:foottap: J/K

I will slowly be building my setup soon and using an older server. Happy to see another build here. This is all new to me for the most part. I know enough to get in trouble and buy parts. BUT still have a long way to go. PLUS with all my DIY speaker ventures it wont be done any time soon.(maybe)

But thanks for the thread.:bigsmile: Look forward to your progress.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

chrapladm said:


> Hey where are the pictures of the build?:foottap: J/K
> 
> I will slowly be building my setup soon and using an older server. Happy to see another build here. This is all new to me for the most part. I know enough to get in trouble and buy parts. BUT still have a long way to go. PLUS with all my DIY speaker ventures it wont be done any time soon.(maybe)
> 
> But thanks for the thread.:bigsmile: Look forward to your progress.


Not much to post... The NUCS went together in about 10 minutes. The NAS took a little longer to assemble but not much. The longest part was waiting for the UnRaid to get the drives ready to go online... I think it was 2 days per 4TB HDD.

It was the easiest setup I have ever done.


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## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

Well that is great. I was going to probably stick with Unraid depending on my server I get. Just something that I have been putting off for far to long.

Will also have to have a look at DVDFab. I know the PS3's we have all can read MKV so that helps.


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