So I finally got around to buying stuff. Check out the goods!

HTPC:

ASRock ION 330

[URL]http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2792/asrock_ion_330_bd_nettop_affordable_overclockable_and_1080p_hd/index.html[/URL]

[IMG]http://images.tweaktown.com/imagebank/asrockion330bd-front.png[/IMG]

Specs:

HDMI Out Atom 330 Intel Dual core CPU Nvidia ION GPU 2GB DDR 800 mhz RAM 10/100/1000 Ethernet 330GB HD

Got it for about 380$

This thing is silent and boots ubuntu in about 20 seconds. It sits underneath my TV connected to my home network. This thing can fully decode any 1080p movie i have thrown at it w/o any stuttering or issues whatsoever due to the nvidia gpu doing all of the hidef vid decoding. so this little thing is a fully functional bluray player w/ an hdmi out. so i get full DTS/DD/5.1 sound and true 1080p playback from this little thing.

HTPC OS / Interface:

Running XBMC on ubuntu:

[URL]http://xbmc.org/[/URL]

Let me tell you, this is one very gorgeous piece of free software, it looks extremly well put together and professional. I am using this skin on top of the software and this is the interface I see on my 1080p 50" TV:

The skin is called Aeon Project:

[URL]http://aeonproject.com/[/URL]

[IMG]http://www.aeonproject.com/dropbin/aeon2_showcase3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://aeonproject.com/images/gallery/aeon_multiplextv.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://aeonproject.com/images/gallery/aeon_lowmenu.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://aeonproject.com/images/gallery/aeon_submenu.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://aeonproject.com/images/gallery/aeon_musicflow.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://aeonproject.com/images/gallery/aeon_info.jpg[/IMG]

90% of all of this content is pulled down from the web, like imdb / thetvdb.com automatically.

you put a new movie in your movies dir and tell it to scan, it will id the file by the dir/filename/nfo file and pull down the movie poster / summary / backdrop info from imdb without you having to do anything.

VERY SWEET :RockOn:

Plus I have this Logitech diNovo Mini Bluetooth remote, so no keyboard/mouse needed at all:

[url]http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848&cl=US,EN[/url]

[IMG]http://www.gearcrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/logitech-dinovo-mini-palm-sized-bluetooth-keyboard.jpg[/IMG]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

NAS Array:

I bought a 15 bay NAS array from lime-technology:

[URL]http://www.lime-technology.com/joomla/[/URL]

This thing is the bomb! It can pontentially hold 21TB of storage (or even more when larger drives are available for a decent price). It runs linux off of an internally mounted 1GB USB key.

[IMG]http://www.lime-technology.com/joomla/images/stories/gallery/md-1510-lc/dsc_0005.jpg[/IMG]

I currently only have 4x1TB drives in it (3 for data, 1 for parity), and this is my current space:

[code] root@nas:# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 956M 41M 916M 5% /boot /dev/md2 932G 931G 676M 100% /mnt/disk2 /dev/md1 932G 881G 51G 95% /mnt/disk1 /dev/md3 932G 47G 885G 6% /mnt/disk3 shfs 2.8T 1.9T 937G 67% /mnt/user root@nas:# [/code]

Each of the 3 data disks are 1TB each, and the ~3TB filesystem is just an aggregation of all of the disks. So I have one big movie dir I point the xbmc program to, and it indexes all of my movies across all of the data disks transparently as if it was one big movie dir. I am currently ripping all of my dvds to isos and keeping them on this. I have now at my fingertips about 250 movies thru the menu above, without swapping any dvd media out at all since it is on the network. And I have only 4 of the 15 slots used in this thing.

I bought this because it doesnt do standard raid, basically all of the disks stand alone, and there is one parity disk for the whole array. therefore if one disk dies, you can repair it. If you lose two or more disks at once, then you only lose data on those disks only, unlike raid 5. this is basically doing raid 4, so no striping. and the best part is this can grow on the fly, so if i want to add 2TB drives in the future when they become cheap I can w/o having to move all of my data off and recreate the array which you would have to do with raid5. i am happy.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

I'm jealous of all of it, but what the hell do you need a home NAS for :lol:

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

i want to keep all of my movies and mp3s on the network so that i can stream any/all of that crap from one central spot. i have about 250 movies right now i can access in my living room with a click of the remote in and they are all HD. they will all just stream to my tv. when i get done coverting all of my old dvds into isos i will have like 700 movies available immediately. plus i can get tv shows in hd and stuff like this and just store it all on a central storage spot available from my desktop/laptop/living room/bedroom tv etc. so with all of this storage i will have access to a lot of media anywhere. like streaming music to wherever in the house, etc. also since this is doing raid i wont have to worry about a HD failing and me losing 300GB of dj sets ive been gathering over the years, so it adds some extra security so i dont worry about losing my music :)

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

yeah, I'm pretty jealous

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

So your NAS is connected to the HTPC? You don't actually need 330GB in your HTPC do you?

Does the NAS or HTPC have a built in bittorrent client so you can remote control and add downloads while you're away from home?

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=picklemonkey;787669]I'm jealous of all of it, but what the hell do you need a home NAS for :lol:[/QUOTE]

believe me, once you go hi-def, you go nas

/story ends.

unbelievable stuff there res, jealous for sure but why get an "Atom" processor (even if it is dual core), do they even come with MMX? (dont remember off the top of my head, thought they were made primarily for netbooks enough for web surfing etc.)

I'm not sure how handy this would be for me since I also use my media server to record a bucket load of TV programs and with Microsoft officially announcing that CableCard compatible TV Tuners will run DRM free, that just changes the whole game in the media center business with Windows 7.

[url]http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/09/media-center-cablecards-freed-from-oem-requirement/[/url]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

How loud is it?

[IMG]http://www.lime-technology.com/joomla/images/stories/gallery/md-1510-lc/dsc_0005.jpg[/IMG]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=Kamal;787725]believe me, once you go hi-def, you go nas

/story ends.

unbelievable stuff there res, jealous for sure but why get an "Atom" processor (even if it is dual core), do they even come with MMX? (dont remember off the top of my head, thought they were made primarily for netbooks enough for web surfing etc.)

I'm not sure how handy this would be for me since I also use my media server to record a bucket load of TV programs and with Microsoft officially announcing that CableCard compatible TV Tuners will run DRM free, that just changes the whole game in the media center business with Windows 7.

[URL]http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/09/media-center-cablecards-freed-from-oem-requirement/[/URL][/QUOTE]

the atom processor handles all of my hd decoding perfectly, and that is all i am looking for this box to do. it is a mini itx form factor, so it is nice and small and very quiet and low power. it does not have a tv tuner card so i unfortunately cant do a dvr type thing. i got rid of my cable tv last month and dont miss it at all. i still get abc/nbc/cbs/fox/pbs in HD over the digital coax connection to my apartment for free and the channels look great. so i have no problems w/o cable. plus any tv shows i miss i can download off the net the next day in hd from someone who has capped them. plus the nvidia gpu does all of the hd h.264 decoding just fine. i can watch the 'top' output and see the thing is only about 4% busy while its decoding a pretty high bps 1080p x264 encoded mkv.

model name : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz

[QUOTE=Kamal;787726]How loud is it?

[/QUOTE]

i asked the guy who makes this the exact same question before i bought it b/c i was worried about this too. it is very quiet. it is based off of a lian li case, so it is nice and quiet. actually the computer i still have that works that is 7 years old that i built myself is much larger than this. i keep that in my living room in the corner as i still live in a pretty small place, and was worried about noise, but it is no problem at all.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=feather;787684]So your NAS is connected to the HTPC? You don't actually need 330GB in your HTPC do you?

Does the NAS or HTPC have a built in bittorrent client so you can remote control and add downloads while you're away from home?[/QUOTE]

i have not yet configured the usb based linux os on the nas device to run hellanzb / sabnzbd yet but i am going to. i have hellanzb running on my htpc which i have it automatically download and decode new hd tv shows as they get put out already.

it does have a builtin 330gb hd that came w/ the unit as a standard option, so this was just included by default.

the big server is just connected to my home network via 1GB network, and so is the HTPC. the HTPC sits below my tv in place of a dvd player, and is connected to my receiver and tv via HDMI.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=res0nat0r;787961]i have not yet configured the usb based linux os on the nas device to run hellanzb / sabnzbd yet but i am going to. i have hellanzb running on my htpc which i have it automatically download and decode new hd tv shows as they get put out already.

it does have a builtin 330gb hd that came w/ the unit as a standard option, so this was just included by default.

the big server is just connected to my home network via 1GB network, and so is the HTPC. the HTPC sits below my tv in place of a dvd player, and is connected to my receiver and tv via HDMI.[/QUOTE]

Very nice set up!

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

wow cool, glad to know it's decoding well. Is it a bitch to get codecs installed on Ubuntu? I know you said you got MKV working.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

nope, not at all. normally with the standard ubuntu setup you need to install a separate package to install all of the codecs for the propriatary windows crap. i just installed the xbmc packages and was done with it. it uses ffmpeg, and that program decodes about EVERYTHING.

check out the supported codec list:

[url]http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs[/url]

i really liked the WD device that tom mentioned a while back, but this is why i bought a full blown computer.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

damn brotha thats sick, wish i had money to make one of those arrays. Hope the FBI doesnt get to your house lol

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Great post!!!

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=res0nat0r;788061] i really liked the WD device that tom mentioned a while back, but this is why i bought a full blown computer.[/QUOTE]

Is that the WDTV device that connects a hdd to a TV?

I think your solution is much neater and it's something I would consider for myself in future, just for the HTPC's ability to be connected to a network and download torrents.

I was thinking of getting an NAS with built-in bittorrent feature but your HTPC has a nicer interface and the functionatliy. Except for having any RAID I suppose.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

.....

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=feather;788233]Is that the WDTV device that connects a hdd to a TV?

I think your solution is much neater and it's something I would consider for myself in future, just for the HTPC's ability to be connected to a network and download torrents.

I was thinking of getting an NAS with built-in bittorrent feature but your HTPC has a nicer interface and the functionatliy. Except for having any RAID I suppose.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was mentioning the Western Digital box they came out with.

The one thing I think that I couldnt stand with the WD box, is that it cannot remote mount filesystems, I dont think. The media has to be directly plugged into the box for it to be seen, which is not what I want to do. Plus yup having a full blown PC is better for me, as I can install a torrent program if I wanted (but I dont use torrents). I have a commandline podcast program running via cron every day that automatically downloads new podcasts and puts them in my mp3 dir on the NAS, etc, so this is more my style as it is linux based. :)

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

btw will that htpc run even Windows 7? I mean if its running Ubuntu, don't see why it won't

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Excellent post... you got me drooling.... I can't wait to get a similar setup up and running... right now I have the WD TV HD Media Player Box hooked up to my external hard drive but trust me if I had the moolah this would definitely be the way to go!

[URL="http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/categoryID.13830600/parid.13092400/catid.13742300"][/URL]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Hi Everyone..

Great work and Nice post I really like it.It's pleasure to be a part of your forum. I love to try also what you are discussing here. Thanks!

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=Kamal;790652]btw will that htpc run even Windows 7? I mean if its running Ubuntu, don't see why it won't[/QUOTE]

Hey Kamal...I don't know for sure about windows 7, I am sure it might. I dont know about the specs of the new windows releases though. 1TB of RAM and 800GB of HD space etc, but the minimal ubuntu release I put on here works like a charm.

[QUOTE=thydipptimon;791140]Hi Everyone..

Great work and Nice post I really like it.It's pleasure to be a part of your forum. I love to try also what you are discussing here. Thanks![/QUOTE]

Welcome!

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

also check out boxee, it is derived from xbmc. looks very slick, i have messed with it just a bit. it crashes a bit too much, but it is still in alpha.

[url]http://boxee.tv[/url]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

steph, do you have any other recommendations for a NAS? Perhaps one on a windows machine or one that won't need me to configure it (a Drobo type of hardware?)

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

This isn't Windows based, but I was going to use this before I found the hardware I have above. FreeNAS, its self booting and has a nice web interface and probably has easy/minimal configuration you can run on most hardware. Check it out.

[url]http://www.freenas.org/[/url]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

^^^ Thanks for the link mate, server is down atm, will try later.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

hum...that sucks, you are right.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

actually its coming through for me now....just sloooow

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

I think I'm gonna go with the Drobo Pro (when cash permits)

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

^^^ Was just checking out the DroboPro... my my it does have a hefty price tag!

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Couple questions here -

What do you guys think about the iomega Nas server?

[URL]http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/network-storage-desktop/storcenter-network-storage-solution/network-hard-drive-ix2-200/[/URL]

Do I need a N router for streaming HD content?

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=dusk;817147]Couple questions here -

What do you guys think about the iomega Nas server?

[URL]http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/network-storage-desktop/storcenter-network-storage-solution/network-hard-drive-ix2-200/[/URL]

Do I need a N router for streaming HD content?[/QUOTE]

N router will NOT stream HD content smoothly. Theoretically it should, realistically, good luck to us all who have purchased N routers.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=Kamal;817150]N router will NOT stream HD content smoothly. Theoretically it should, realistically, good luck to us all who have purchased N routers.[/QUOTE]

Oh what a let down! Thanks for the info. I'll hold off on picking up that brand spankin new router then. :shock:

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

I have a small 2 bedroom apartment and even though it will stream a 720p from my media server to my dma2200 over my N router, the picture is jagged and downsized in order to stream ok, but it still doesn't. For my new place, I will wire all the locations with Cat6E and get rid of this headache once and for all.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Btw Res, do you have any writeups that show how you would setup a RAID5? I'm pretty sure In wanna go NAS and debating on the cost options between buying and setting up a cheap PC to mount drives into RAID5 (on UBUNTU) vs. dive into the DROBO2 with firewire800. The DROBO PRO is just too much money that I would be willing to drop at this point.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

work was good and got a nifty bonus this year, DroboPro here I come :RockOn:

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=Kamal;819578]work was good and got a nifty bonus this year, DroboPro here I come :RockOn:[/QUOTE]

Massive :D

Let us know how you come along with the setup. I was tempted to get the Acer Aspire HTPC Revo and give that a whirl with XBMC live.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

nice. i havent looked much at this thing before but i guess its their high end product yea? how much $$ is it? also its using iSCSI, i havent used that directly, but i guess it just moves scsi commands over ip. make sure you can get your OS to support this for sure before plinking down the money is the only thing i'd double check first.

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Time for more hard drives...

[code] root@nas:# df -hlP Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 956M 46M 911M 5% /boot /dev/md4 932G 931G 909M 100% /mnt/disk4 /dev/md1 932G 931G 865M 100% /mnt/disk1 /dev/md3 932G 931G 655M 100% /mnt/disk3 /dev/md2 932G 932G 50M 100% /mnt/disk2 shfs 3.7T 3.7T 2.5G 100% /mnt/user root@nas:# uptime 12:24:51 up 94 days, 22:47, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 root@nas:~# [/code]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

[QUOTE=res0nat0r;819924]nice. i havent looked much at this thing before but i guess its their high end product yea? how much $$ is it? also its using iSCSI, i havent used that directly, but i guess it just moves scsi commands over ip. make sure you can get your OS to support this for sure before plinking down the money is the only thing i'd double check first.[/QUOTE]

I'm still debating if I need an 8 bay Drobo. The 5 Bay appears to offer a lot of the same stuff with an eSata port and getting the (even) cheaper 4 Bay Drobo means I can get a Logitech Harmony 900 remote as well.

Decisions decisions :lol::lol: