How to map out my house

[Aruffell]

Moving into our new place soon *fingers crossed* and am wondering on the best way of doing things.

Got two AMD Fusion boards (Asus and Gigabyte) and also a H67 ITX WiFi (Zotac)

I have many different options but i'm thinking of building a main server with around 6Tb of storage to start with all in a Lian Li PC-C50 case.

What board would you use for the server out of the two fusion boards or the sandy bridge board?

Then the two HTPC's (one in the living room and one in the bedroom)

Either way, one will be enclosed in a Thermaltake DH202 but once again, what board would you use?

Then i need to get another HTPC style chassis for the third HTPC OR use a media box.

I have a Patriot Core Media player, a AC Ryan PlayON HD or a D-Link Boxee Box.

I think i've decided on using XBMC as it will download all the artwork and synopsis information etc... unless anyone can recommend anything else?

Now the other question is more geared towards networking. It looks as if i'm going to be with either Orange or Virgin on a 3Mb service until the area gets upgraded (new build) so what would be the best way to stream from the server?

Thanks in advance,

Andy

 

[paradigm]

For the server? None of the above, if it is only to file serve (and possibly download), you want it as low power (and heat) as possible, no point in wasting high-end hardware on something that will be doing very little processing.

Virgin 3Mb service? If that's ADSL then avoid like the butt-raping plague it is. Virgin's ADSL services are utterly terrible. Not sure what your internet connection has to do with streaming from your server to your HTPCs or Workstations, though?

Unless you plan to stream externally across the internet, then your WAN connection means nothing. Just run yourself CAT5e or CAT6 cabling throughout the house and have everything connected up with a decent consumer gigabit switch (HP Procurve or similar).

 

[Aruffell]

For the server? None of the above, if it is only to file serve (and possibly download), you want it as low power (and heat) as possible, no point in wasting high-end hardware on something that will be doing very little processing.

Virgin 3Mb service? If that's ADSL then avoid like the butt-raping plague it is. Virgin's ADSL services are utterly terrible. Not sure what your internet connection has to do with streaming from your server to your HTPCs or Workstations, though?

Unless you plan to stream externally across the internet, then your WAN connection means nothing. Just run yourself CAT5e or CAT6 cabling throughout the house and have everything connected up with a decent consumer gigabit switch (HP Procurve or similar).

I was thinking Fusion due to its low energy/power/heat. What would you consider instead? An Intel Atom based system? Was ideally wanting something passive.

What would you use in the HTPC's or would you use the media boxes? Though we want to be able to surf in the living room via wireless keyboard so a HTPC seems the better option.

Was saying about my net connection so people could possibly see the router details that come supplied with the connections to see if they are Gigabit friendly.

Never done any of this HTPC or server malarkey before. I'm guessing as the media will be streamed, there is no need for SSD's or anything similar barring the quietness?

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Anyone else got an ideas as to the best way of doing this?

Andy

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Moving into our new place soon *fingers crossed* and am wondering on the best way of doing things.

GL witht he move dude

Got two AMD Fusion boards (Asus and Gigabyte) and also a H67 ITX WiFi (Zotac) I have many different options but i'm thinking of building a main server with around 6Tb of storage to start with all in a Lian Li PC-C50 case.

What board would you use for the server out of the two fusion boards or the sandy bridge board?

Aint they a bit high end for a server?
Have a look at the PSUs on offer atm, I got one last time they were on offer.
Deadly silent couldn't be happier with it.

Then the two HTPC's (one in the living room and one in the bedroom)
Either way, one will be enclosed in a Thermaltake DH202 but once again, what board would you use?

Then i need to get another HTPC style chassis for the third HTPC OR use a media box. I have a Patriot Core Media player, a AC Ryan PlayON HD or a D-Link Boxee Box.

Not looked into the box approach

I think i've decided on using XBMC as it will download all the artwork and synopsis information etc... unless anyone can recommend anything else?

XMBC does seem fairly popular, can't say I've used it before tho

Now the other question is more geared towards networking. It looks as if i'm going to be with either Orange or Virgin on a 3Mb service until the area gets upgraded (new build) so what would be the best way to stream from the server?

nonononono

You take the VM ADSL service and I bet you end up out of pocket, buying out your contract and leaving them. Orange I wouldn't both with tbh from your other posts, dont they have a fairly low FUP?

Sky available in the area?

 

[Aruffell]

GL witht he move dude

Aint they a bit high end for a server?
Have a look at the PSUs on offer atm, I got one last time they were on offer.
Deadly silent couldn't be happier with it.

Not looked into the box approach

XMBC does seem fairly popular, can't say I've used it before tho

nonononono

You take the VM ADSL service and I bet you end up out of pocket, buying out your contract and leaving them. Orange I wouldn't both with tbh from your other posts, dont they have a fairly low FUP?

Sky available in the area?

Cheers matey not seen you on MSN lately?

What am i going to use the Fusion boards for then? They sitting there at the moment lol

Based off my other thread, seems im going to plump for BT and get upgraded to their FTTC service when its rolled out at the end of the month.

Andy

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Nah just moved house so not on much atm.

Make sure they confirm with you that Infinity will 150% be going live, just in case you sign up and then its delayed or summit.

IIRC theres a line rental discount if you pay for the 12months up front, might be worth considering if yer flush atm. Either that or look over on MSE as I think theres companies who do line rental even cheaper.

Maybe a daft Q but what socket are the Fusion boards? been a while since I looked into them much lol

 

[Aruffell]

Nah just moved house so not on much atm.

Make sure they confirm with you that Infinity will 150% be going live, just in case you sign up and then its delayed or summit.

IIRC theres a line rental discount if you pay for the 12months up front, might be worth considering if yer flush atm. Either that or look over on MSE as I think theres companies who do line rental even cheaper.

Maybe a daft Q but what socket are the Fusion boards? been a while since I looked into them much lol

Yeah im going to pay the £120 up front.

Fusion boards have integrated processors (Zacate 18watt) with a M1 Hudson chipset.

Andy

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Erf thats with the discount?

What are the board like power (cpu) wise?
My Current HTPC is a P5QPro with an e5600 and 4Gb RAM, plays everything I chuck at it fine, Blurays seems to take a little while to load using the powerDVD software, about 15secs each time a disc is inserted but this is the only BR player I've used so dont know if thats normal lol. It's also used to dabble in games a bit which was why I went a little higher spec than I initially planned.

How many HDDs can you hook up to them boards?
Altho I suppose you could use a PCIe > SATA card

If the boards are a lower power (leccy wise) than normal boards then despite them being a bit higher spec than needed I would reconsider em tbh. Whats the temps like on them when runnin non stop?

 

[Someone]

Personally I would use the H67 ITX WiFi (Zotac) for the file server as the board has 6 sata ports while the fusion boards only have 4 & use the fusion boards as the HTPCs with SSDs (with XBMC installed) so that they are silent.

If you can, then run CAT5e or CAT6 cabling or if not use wireless (make sure it is wireless N if you are going to stream HD videos as wireless g may struggle).

For the 3rd HTPC you could use the Boxee box (you cant install XBMC on it & they are not looking to port it to the boxee box any time soon if at all the last time I checked) or get another fusion board if you want all HTPCs to be the same / use the same software.

 

[Aruffell]

Erf thats with the discount?

What are the board like power (cpu) wise?
My Current HTPC is a P5QPro with an e5600 and 4Gb RAM, plays everything I chuck at it fine, Blurays seems to take a little while to load using the powerDVD software, about 15secs each time a disc is inserted but this is the only BR player I've used so dont know if thats normal lol. It's also used to dabble in games a bit which was why I went a little higher spec than I initially planned.

How many HDDs can you hook up to them boards?
Altho I suppose you could use a PCIe > SATA card

If the boards are a lower power (leccy wise) than normal boards then despite them being a bit higher spec than needed I would reconsider em tbh. Whats the temps like on them when runnin non stop?

They are very low power and low temperature as they are passive and have the option.

32watts idle
43watts load

That's the whole system for the Asus Fusion board.

48 and 57 degrees for the temps in passive mode. Load was measured after running Prime95 for 15 minutes.

Personally I would use the H67 ITX WiFi (Zotac) for the file server as the board has 6 sata ports while the fusion boards only have 4 & use the fusion boards as the HTPCs with SSDs (with XBMC installed) so that they are silent.

If you can, then run CAT5e or CAT6 cabling or if not use wireless (make sure it is wireless N if you are going to stream HD videos as wireless g may struggle).

For the 3rd HTPC you could use the Boxee box (you cant install XBMC on it & they are not looking to port it to the boxee box any time soon if at all the last time I checked) or get another fusion board if you want all HTPCs to be the same / use the same software.

Will only be two HTPC's (one in living room and one in the bedroom) and then server in my office next to my main PC.

Wanting to keep the electricity bill down to be honest

Server will be the one on 24/7 so need that to be low power.

Andy