Build for storage / ripping blu rays / media server

xs2man

xs2man

xs2man

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2008
Posts
5,070
Gents,

Before I start, this may not even be the correct part of the forum, been a while since I was last here. If it is, can the mods please move it? And preferably tell me where it has been moved.

I am about to embark on a build, and I am looking for advice. The last PC I built was over 8 years ago, so it's been a while (actually, probably closer to 10 years).

So, I don't do gaming, at all. Well, not on the PC, so that doesn't matter at all. I am at the moment ripping / backing up my Blu Ray collection (200+ discs), and storing them in mostly 1080p but some 720p depending on what kind of movie it is. Once I finish my BR's, I will likely move onto my DVD, of which I have no idea how many.

I am also a music fan, and will be backing up my record collection (3,000+ records). That will be the most time consuming part I think.

So, I have a need for LOADS of storage. However, I have already a 2TB and a 3TB HDD in my, now defunct, microserver. It died a few days ago. So while I need the ability to house multiple HDD's, I don't necessarily need anymore HDD's just now. I can buy them as I need them.

So beyond that, I stream my media throughout the house over my home network, to various devices. Tablets, other PC's, TV's etc... And general interwebs surfing.

So, I have monitors (would like to use at least 2, at least one with HDMI), keyboards, mice and all that. I really just need the tower, a decent enough processor for the transcoding and streaming ops, while hopefully retaining enough power for surfing the net, listening to music etc...

I would also like things to be relatively quick. So I would like the OS to run on SSD. I don't need another OS, already have a few spare kicking about. Will be Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

So, at least I won't be needing an expensive GPU, but I am unsure about the rest of it. I currently have a couple i5 laptops, and they are quite good. But it's taking around 18 hours to rip & transcode my BR's, so it's taking a while. Would like i5 minimum on this desktop build. And will need a BR player for ripping the BR's. Although, in theory at least, I could always rip them with my laptop, and transfer to the PC for transcoding purposes. I don't burn BR's, so can keep costs down there.

Ideally I would like to keep the build under £500, so I have coin left for a new TV for the bedroom, but can push it a little. But that'll eat into the TV budget, so would like to keep the costs here down as much as possible. I can build the PC myself too, so that'll hopefully keep the costs down too. The PC will be an always on affair though. Maybe restarted once a week, or so, but it's main duties will be a server / ripper machine. And general office stuff.

Any ideas? Or am I dreaming with this lowly budget?
 
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18 hours to rip and code a blu-ray, seriously? I have an i5 haswell and it's about 3/4 hour to rip, and maybe 2 hours to encode to mp4. Dvdfab to rip, Handbrake to encode. 18 hours seems really long.

Better educated folks could correct me here, but I think i7 is the only CPU to improve video encoding beyond what I'm achieving with my i5.
 
Well, it's a first gen i5 I think I'm using, a laptop from around 2011 or something? Couldn't tell you the processor name. But a Samsung RV511. 18 hours is maybe an exaggeration.

Anyway, I am around an hour, often less, sometimes more, to rip the disc with makeMKV, then AGES in handbrake. I did Robocop last night, 1080p, and it took a good 12 hours minimum. Was easily over-night, then a few hours when I woke up. After that, I started on Robocop 2, HB is looking at around 8 hours total (7.5 down, 0.5 to go) at 720p.

I am happy to push the budget for i7 though, assuming not too much mind you.
 
xs2man said:
Well, it's a first gen i5 I think I'm using, a laptop from around 2011 or something? Couldn't tell you the processor name. But a Samsung RV511. 18 hours is maybe an exaggeration.

Anyway, I am around an hour, often less, sometimes more, to rip the disc with makeMKV, then AGES in handbrake. I did Robocop last night, 1080p, and it took a good 12 hours minimum. Was easily over-night, then a few hours when I woke up. After that, I started on Robocop 2, HB is looking at around 8 hours total (7.5 down, 0.5 to go) at 720p.

I am happy to push the budget for i7 though, assuming not too much mind you.
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Maybe slightly off topic, but what is your output file size for an average Blu-Ray to MP4?
 
I don't convert to mp4. I convert to mkv.

But, file sizes were, since I started ripping again :

Robocop (1080p) : 14.8 GB
Robocop 2 (720p) : 7.9 GB
Filth (1080p) : 11.2 GB

I have a LOAD more for comparison, but they are all on my currently hooped microserver, so can't get file sizes just now. Perhaps I don't need 1080p Robocop at nearly 15 GB though. Can't really be bothered to reduce it to 720p just now though, not with the time it takes. Pretty sure they are all at a RF value of 18 (might have went to 20 for Robocop 2).
 
xs2man said:
I don't convert to mp4. I convert to mkv.

But, file sizes were, since I started ripping again :

Robocop (1080p) : 14.8 GB
Robocop 2 (720p) : 7.9 GB
Filth (1080p) : 11.2 GB

I have a LOAD more for comparison, but they are all on my currently hooped microserver, so can't get file sizes just now. Perhaps I don't need 1080p Robocop at nearly 15 GB though. Can't really be bothered to reduce it to 720p just now though, not with the time it takes.
Click to expand...

My outputs are usually around 4gb and the quality with sound and video is excellent. All I change from default is select high profile file, and set video slider to 22.

Maybe I'm less fussy with the quality, but for 4gb size in roughly 2 hours I think it's a good trade off.

Of course, maybe your chip is the issue and not the settings. I do have mine overclocked to 4.4ghz but even at stock it wouldn't be 12 hours to encode.

Anyway, sorry to go off topic. Good luck with your build. Oh, and to get back on topic, I don't think you'll get what you want for £500. Maybe a wee bit too low.
 
I thought as much. My total budget is around £800, and I could go all in on the PC with that, and postpone the TV buying I guess. Although I'd rather not, it is an option.

As for file size vs quality. I decided that, as I will be playing it back on several systems, the biggest of which being a 1080p Projector with a screen size of approx 110", with sound upto 7.1, I'm probably best off going for quality over size. That is obviously the bigger of my systems, but the other main system is still full 5.1 on a 50" 1080p (both PJ and TV are 3d Panasonic numbers, so right up there with the best, and the sounds are all with B&W 600 series speakers with mid-range Onkyo amps, so pretty decent too). Because of the quality of the systems they will mostly be viewed on, I don't mind sacrificing some storage space to keep the quality levels up.

Of course, that could all fall apart when it comes to streaming these larger files, lol.
 
xs2man said:
I thought as much. My total budget is around £800, and I could go all in on the PC with that, and postpone the TV buying I guess. Although I'd rather not, it is an option.

As for file size vs quality. I decided that, as I will be playing it back on several systems, the biggest of which being a 1080p Projector with a screen size of approx 110", with sound upto 7.1, I'm probably best off going for quality over size. That is obviously the bigger of my systems, but the other main system is still full 5.1 on a 50" 1080p (both PJ and TV are 3d Panasonic numbers, so right up there with the best, and the sounds are all with B&W 600 series speakers with mid-range Onkyo amps, so pretty decent too). Because of the quality of the systems they will mostly be viewed on, I don't mind sacrificing some storage space to keep the quality levels up.

Of course, that could all fall apart when it comes to streaming these larger files, lol.
Click to expand...

File quality for system makes sense. I'm sure if you went for i7 Haswell your 12 hour encodes would be no more. However, hold off for someone with more knowledge to pitch in.

Again, good luck.
 
 
I would buy a twin pack of corsair SP120 quiet edition fans to replace the stock H100i fans. If you're encoding, the fans will likely be running close to 100%, especially if you overclock that CPU, which you should do given that it's a K chip and the motherboard choice you have made.
 
Ha ha ha. And here was me hoping someone would turn round and say "you don't need that, this is much cheaper & better ...".

Oh well
 
xs2man said:
Ha ha ha. And here was me hoping someone would turn round and say "you don't need that, this is much cheaper & better ...".

Oh well
Click to expand...

Well, it really depends. You could get a less expensive motherboard or settle for an i5. It really depends on how much you want to spend.

From personal experience, I have that Mobo and it's been great so far. Plus, if I did my gaming build again I would probably go for the i7, mainly because I've started doing quite a bit of video encoding.

It's a bit of a headache trying to decide, really. I'm sure you'll settle on a spec. :)
 
Electricity cost or component wear & tear cost?

Electricity costs I aint worried about at all. I burn through electricity faster than Speedy Gonzales on the speediest speed.

Wear & tear cost, well, that'll just have to be dealt with. My last big build, albeit a decade ago, was basically on 24/7 for around 6-7 years before the PSU eventually went pop. At that point, the rig was ageing so much, I couldn't even be bothered to replace the PSU to get it going again. So just bought my current laptop instead.

I have my laptop on 24/7 and my micro-sever was also on 24/7. I probably am quite hard on my PC's / Laptops.
 
xs2man said:
rips
Click to expand...

If you're ripping to MKV, why don't you just use MakeMKV?
It's a straight rip of the film with no loss of quality.

File sizes range from around 15-30GB (very few hit 30GB).

It takes around an hour to rip 1 Blu Ray, and would save you a load of time
 
I use MakeMKV to rip the Blueray, and Handbrake to reduce the size a little. Handbrake does a pretty good job, so I can get a 1080p rip down from near 30 GB to around 15GB. And if I make it 720p, it can come down to 5-8 GB.

While file quality is important, not at any space cost.
 
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