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Post by LuisV on Jul 9, 2017 7:19:38 GMT -5
I've seen HTPCs and Media Servers throughout the lounge and figured we should have a dedicated thread to discuss system details, apps they are using, configuration, lessons learned, etc. etc. Hopefully members find this thread useful and contribute often.
If mods feel this thread should be moved to a different section of the lounge, please feel free to move it.
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Post by LuisV on Jul 9, 2017 7:19:55 GMT -5
Reserved for future use
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Post by Priapulus on Jul 9, 2017 7:59:48 GMT -5
Keep it quiet...
When I built my HTPC, I spent extra money on a quality case that had a reputation of being extra silent & noise suppressant (double walled, rubber mounted drives, etc). I replaced the fans (including in the power supply) with "silent" fans. Bought a cpu cooler with a quiet fan. Video cards seem to have especially noisy fans, so I chose a model that was fanless. The result is a HTPC that is inaudible.
I used a solid state drive for the "C" systems drive for fast startups. The case has lots of room for other drives (movies and music). Oversized power supply to spin all those drives, etc.
That said, my next HTPC may be a Mac Mini, if I can figure out what to do with all my drives.
Sincerely
/b
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Post by LuisV on Jul 9, 2017 9:09:43 GMT -5
My goals for a media server were pretty simple, help me cut that cord, provide content to multiple rooms and possibly replace my older Synology NAS that we are starting to outgrow, more on that portion later. Our personal content is on an older Synology NAS with 12TB of storage and we use the following streaming services: - Amazon Prime
- Vudu - for redeemed Blu-ray digital copies
- HBO, Starz, Cinemax, Showtime - month to month when new content, like Game of Thrones, is available
- Netflix
Streaming Clients: - Nvidia Shield - HT / Living Room
- Amazon Fire TV - Master bedroom and spare bedroom
- Xbox One and PS4 - Kid's room
Running Plex Media Server from my NAS or Nvidia shield couldn't provide enough streams without buffering, so I decided to build a headless small form factor computer that I can place, well, basically anywhere in the house I had an Ethernet connection and power. I thought of building a mid-tower or rack mounted system running FreeNAS or Un-RAID to replace the Synology and run Plex, but I figured to keep things simple for now... if I go down that path, I'll post an update. So here's what I ended up with... it's basically an 11" cube, runs dead quiet and is currently sitting in the corner of my office. - Intel i7 7700K
- 16GB DDR4 Ram
- WD Black 512GB M2 NVMe SSD
- Asus ITX Motherboard
- Noctua CPU Cooler and Fans
- Thermaltake Core v1 Case
- EVGA 550 Fully Modular Power Supply
- Nvidia GTX 1080
I installed PlexPy to monitor Plex and PlexEmail to send notifications when new media content is available. I'm a casual gamer, maybe once or twice a month, so I recently purchased the Nvidia video card; however, it's not needed otherwise.      To round out our content requirements and "cut that cord", I purchased an HDHomeRun Connect with a pretty decent antenna to pull in and therefore stream local channels via Plex. So far, this 11" cube has been able to serve 4 concurrent streams without an issue. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, but the wheels are turning in regards to building a system with FreeNAS or Un-Raid, so if anyone has any experience with those two please let me know. |
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Post by LuisV on Jul 9, 2017 9:22:58 GMT -5
Keep it quiet... When I built my HTPC, I spent extra money on a quality case that had a reputation of being extra silent & noise suppressant (double walled, rubber mounted drives, etc). I replaced the fans (including in the power supply) with "silent" fans. Bought a cpu cooler with a quiet fan. Video cards seem to have especially noisy fans, so I chose a model that was fanless. The result is a HTPC that is inaudible. I used a solid state drive for the "C" systems drive for fast startups. The case has lots of room for other drives (movies and music). Oversized power supply to spin all those drives, etc. That said, my next HTPC may be a Mac Mini, if I can figure out what to do with all my drives. Sincerely /b How many drives do you have? Even if they aren't the same size, you can buy a system from Drobo and use it as a NAS. You can also go down the FreeNAS or Un-RAID path, but at the moment, other than some preliminary testing via a Virtual Box VM, I don't have much experience with those solutions. And yes... silence or close to it is key for a HTPC. |
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Post by gld3gld3 on Jul 9, 2017 11:24:53 GMT -5
I built a pc/media server about two years ago that has worked great for streaming Tidal and running Roon. My goals were for it to be small, draw less power than a typical PC, be silent, be aesthetically pleasing (look sleek and integrate well with other components) and be relatively low cost. Right when I was thinking about the build AMD came out with a new socket (AM1) and processors. These were low power processors and looked like they would work well in the server I envisioned. I picked up a 5150 processor (not the highest specked, but cheap and lower power draw). For the motherboard I picked up an Asrock AM1H-ITX. The cool thing about this processor/motherboard combo is I could power it via a DC input, rather than the 24-pin connector that is typical of most PCs. This kept the footprint of the server much smaller. Some RAM and a 250gb SSD and that was it for the internals. I didn't need tons of internal storage, as most of the music I would be listening to would be through Tidal. Pretty simple. I initially purchased a quieter heatsink/fan for the CPU, but it wasn't really as a quiet as I wanted it to be. It looked like Noctua was developing a heatsink/fan for the AM1 platform, so I waited for its release. Well, after months of waiting it never came to production, so I looked some more. Finally I found a company making a fanless heatsink for this AM1 processor! I installed it and it worked beautifully! It's barely warm to the touch even when streaming HD music. I picked up a black aluminum Streacom case and that was pretty much it. I installed a low latency version of Linux (Lubuntu) and Roon Core. It's worked flawlessly delivering those 1s and 0s to my DC-1!
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Post by Boomzilla on Jul 9, 2017 11:29:46 GMT -5
...That said, my next HTPC may be a Mac Mini, if I can figure out what to do with all my drives. Buy some external drive cases for them & use them all via USB. Also keep in mind that you can dual-boot your Mini (and with no extra software) by using the Boot Camp app. On the boot camp dive, you can run Windows for those (few) things that require it. Although I'm currently using a MacBook Pro as my server (with jRiver Media Center 22), my next server will also be a Mini. Boom |
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Post by novisnick on Jul 9, 2017 11:38:43 GMT -5
...That said, my next HTPC may be a Mac Mini, if I can figure out what to do with all my drives. Buy some external drive cases for them & use them all via USB. Also keep in mind that you can dual-boot your Mini (and with no extra software) by using the Boot Camp app. On the boot camp dive, you can run Windows for those (few) things that require it. Although I'm currently using a MacBook Pro as my server (with jRiver Media Center 22), my next server will also be a Mini. Boom Love my Mini, works like a charm and requires very little space. Just wish I knew more about its operating system. ie; keystrokes for special operations, shortcuts etc. |
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Post by vneal on Jul 9, 2017 12:23:37 GMT -5
Sony HAP Z1ES TB1 Media player system
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Post by Boomzilla on Jul 9, 2017 12:26:57 GMT -5
...Love my Mini, works like a charm and requires very little space. Just wish I knew more about its operating system. ie; keystrokes for special operations, shortcuts etc. Does Alec have a Mac user group? We have the Baton Rouge Mac Users Group (BRMUG) that meets on a monthly basis. I've learned a lot there. |
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Post by RichGuy on Jul 9, 2017 12:48:33 GMT -5
Here's my HTPC I built, I use it mostly for watching OTA TV with 4 TV tuners and as my favorite music source with J River, no gaming. It is very silent with excellent music and picture quality. I absolutely love it! Front  Back  Inside  I made this 3.5mm IR to go in the slot that has 2 3.0 USB ports in the photo of the back above (modified since that photo was taken) to add IR control with no need to point the remote.  HTPC Specs Case - Origen AE H7 Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Motherboard - intel H55TC (Micro ATX) * 2.93GHz processor speed CPU - intel core i3 530 processor * 2.93GHz processor speed CPU Cooler - SilverStone NT06-PRO Power Supply - Ultra X3 ULT40073 * 600-Watt, ATX Hard Drives - System drive - SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 128GB SSD * Storage Drive for Music - Western Digital WD5001AALS Caviar Black Hard Drive 500GB, 7200 rpm, 32 MB, SATA-3Gb/s * Storage Drive for DVR TV and Movies - Seagate ST4000DM000 Barracuda Hard Drive 4TB, 64 MB, SATA-6Gb/s Memory - Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2GB x 4) Model BL2KIT25664BN1337 Sound Card - ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz TV Tuner Boards - Two Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 cards (four tuners) Blu-ray Drive - Lite-On Blu-ray drive model IHOS104 DVD Drive - Asus 24x DVD-RW model DRW-24B1ST Keyboard - Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard Mouse - Kensington Slimblade Media Mouse External DAC - MHDT Stockholm balanced NOS tube DAC |
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Post by novisnick on Jul 9, 2017 12:57:24 GMT -5
Here's my HTPC I built, I use it mostly for watching OTA TV with 4 TV tuners and as my favorite music source with J River, no gaming. It is very silent with excellent music and picture quality. I absolutely love it! Front Back Inside I made this 3.5mm IR to go in the slot that has 2 3.0 USB ports in the photo of the back above (modified since that photo was taken) to add IR control with no need to point the remote. HTPC Specs Case - Origen AE H7 Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Motherboard - intel H55TC (Micro ATX) * 2.93GHz processor speed CPU - intel core i3 530 processor * 2.93GHz processor speed CPU Cooler - SilverStone NT06-PRO Power Supply - Ultra X3 ULT40073 * 600-Watt, ATX Hard Drives - System drive - SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 128GB SSD * Storage Drive for Music - Western Digital WD5001AALS Caviar Black Hard Drive 500GB, 7200 rpm, 32 MB, SATA-3Gb/s * Storage Drive for DVR TV and Movies - Seagate ST4000DM000 Barracuda Hard Drive 4TB, 64 MB, SATA-6Gb/s Memory - Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2GB x 4) Model BL2KIT25664BN1337 Sound Card - ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz TV Tuner Boards - Two Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 cards (four tuners) Blu-ray Drive - Lite-On Blu-ray drive model IHOS104 DVD Drive - Asus 24x DVD-RW model DRW-24B1ST Keyboard - Logitech diNovo Edge Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard Mouse - Kensington Slimblade Media Mouse External DAC - MHDT Stockholm balanced NOS tube DAC On occasion I like to take mine outside, take the cover off and blow it out with forced air, making sure not to be too aggressive. Keeps it cooler and running longer as well as having all the contaminants outside. Looks very nice. |
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Post by novisnick on Jul 9, 2017 12:59:48 GMT -5
...Love my Mini, works like a charm and requires very little space. Just wish I knew more about its operating system. ie; keystrokes for special operations, shortcuts etc. Does Alec have a Mac user group? We have the Baton Rouge Mac Users Group (BRMUG) that meets on a monthly basis. I've learned a lot there. Not that im aware of, I haven't looked though. Too many interests and NOT enough TIME. Where would I look? Facebook? Collagecampus? Suggestions please |
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Post by brubacca on Jul 9, 2017 13:58:26 GMT -5
I don't do the HTPC anymore. I have settled on a client server setup. I use a vortexbox that I built. I installed it as a 2 disk install ( OS on SSD and 2TB drive for storage). I use the minimserver for audio and Plex for movies. My TV has a FireStick, hopefully soon a regular FireTV so i can have a wired connection and stream high def Blue Rays.
My server is in the basement so noise is not an issue. It is a Skylake i5 with 8GB of Ram.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2017 16:42:14 GMT -5
I really liked my 2 D&M Escient music server/players until D&M rendered them useless by shutting down the needed proxy servers.
I'm thinking about taking one of the Escient units, gutting it and xn Pi with DAC, usb HDD, IDE to USB adapter for CDrom. This would be an open source server, player, recorder.
Now have a Dell Optiplex 330 Vortexbox server and Zotac Zbox AD04 Plus w AMD E450 APU mounted on the rear of LCD monitor for music running Kodi. It will stream 720 ok, needs more ram & ssd to really get it humming. It is very easy to move around if needed.
Looking to build a DVR next.
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Post by garbulky on Jul 10, 2017 1:41:32 GMT -5
My living room PC is serving dual purpose as the primary music source as well as work
The interesting thing I did was go with a watercool solution.
I also got a beefy graphics card with dual fans which only turn on during gaming.
The power supply was also one of the quiet ones. Result is that the system is very quiet. I also got a dedicated digital output card called the Musiland Digital Times.
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Post by Boomzilla on Jul 10, 2017 5:07:42 GMT -5
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Post by LuisV on Jul 11, 2017 21:18:58 GMT -5
My living room PC is serving dual purpose as the primary music source as well as work The interesting thing I did was go with a watercool solution. I also got a beefy graphics card with dual fans which only turn on during gaming. The power supply was also one of the quiet ones. Result is that the system is very quiet. I also got a dedicated digital output card called the Musiland Digital Times. Sounds like an interesting setup, any pictures? |
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Post by LuisV on Jul 11, 2017 21:31:59 GMT -5
I built a pc/media server about two years ago that has worked great for streaming Tidal and running Roon. My goals were for it to be small, draw less power than a typical PC, be silent, be aesthetically pleasing (look sleek and integrate well with other components) and be relatively low cost. Right when I was thinking about the build AMD came out with a new socket (AM1) and processors. These were low power processors and looked like they would work well in the server I envisioned. I picked up a 5150 processor (not the highest specked, but cheap and lower power draw). For the motherboard I picked up an Asrock AM1H-ITX. The cool thing about this processor/motherboard combo is I could power it via a DC input, rather than the 24-pin connector that is typical of most PCs. This kept the footprint of the server much smaller. Some RAM and a 250gb SSD and that was it for the internals. I didn't need tons of internal storage, as most of the music I would be listening to would be through Tidal. Pretty simple. I initially purchased a quieter heatsink/fan for the CPU, but it wasn't really as a quiet as I wanted it to be. It looked like Noctua was developing a heatsink/fan for the AM1 platform, so I waited for its release. Well, after months of waiting it never came to production, so I looked some more. Finally I found a company making a fanless heatsink for this AM1 processor! I installed it and it worked beautifully! It's barely warm to the touch even when streaming HD music. I picked up a black aluminum Streacom case and that was pretty much it. I installed a low latency version of Linux (Lubuntu) and Roon Core. It's worked flawlessly delivering those 1s and 0s to my DC-1! Which Streacom case did you go with? Those are very nice... any pictures? |
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Post by LuisV on Jul 11, 2017 21:35:53 GMT -5
Zotac Zbox? That Origen case looks very nice RichGuy Can to elaborate on that vortexbox brubacca ? Interesting systems for sure... |
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