Microserver advice...

[xs2man]

Hello guys,

I am looking for some help regarding a microserver purchase. I am looking at either the HP Proliant G8 or the Dell T20.

Now, the use will be for torrenting, using RSS feeds, and private trackers (so compatible clients is quite important here, as well as the ability to sen the RSS DL's to specific folder that I chose).

But more importantly than that, I wish to run serviio and / or Plex also of it. Here, I suspect the T20 would win out, due to it's faster processor. Transcoding is something I would wish the device to be good at. Currently I run these DLNA "servers" on my i7 machine, so there is plenty processing power there, but I may wish to transcode at least 1080p, if not 4k in the near future.

Also, I'll be looking at populating whatever I buy with 6TB drives. I have 2 WD Reds currently, and would be looking at adding another one almost immediately.

This is where I see a problem. Looking at the specs on these, they all seem to suggest that they only take 16TB total. Where I'd be looking for 4x6TB drives, so would be looking at 24TB total. Will this likely be a problem? Or do these specs come from the past, where 4TB drives were as big as you were getting? So the on board 1TB drive in the T20 (it looks like you get) won't really be of much use to me, and in fact, will take one slot away from a 6TB I'd like to use.

It is worth noting that I have just returned a QNAP TS453-A due mostly to the terrible torrenting capabilities of the machine (mainly not being able to find a client that would do RSS feeds, plus let me DL to individual folders, plus be on the whitelist for certain trackers). But also because the latest FW update basically broke everything that was kind of working anyway.

I would be looking at perhaps trying xpenology OS first off, but realistically, I can see me reverting to windows server R2 eventually, once I get fed up of the inevitable same issues I found with the QNAP OS.

 

[xs2man]

Looks like it could be worth a look.

However, the question was mostly hardware based rather than OS. Despite my long OS inspired rant.

I suppose the basic question is, will the G8 Microserver be man enough to transcode 1080p / 4k media on-the-fly, or will the T20 even be capable of that? Apparently my 453-A was 4k capable, and it's processor was "slower" than either the G8 or T20 (as far as I can tell).

I fully intend to upgrade any system to at least 8GB RAM though.

 

[xs2man]

I was doing some more research last night. Well, I say research, I was just browsing youtube really...

Anyway, I came across a video where the guy was building his "server" to semi-automate his movie ripping process. I like that idea. Lose a bit of quality on the encoding no doubt, but for the time saved, could be worthwhile for me as I have a large collection that I was getting through, but losing the HDD last month lost me most of my personal rips.

Anyway, that got me to a little rethinking. My current rig was put together without enough research. Specifically, without enough motherboard research. So I have this rig:

1 x Pioneer 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail
1 x NZXT Phantom 530 Black Full Tower Case
1 x Intel Core i7 4770K 3.50GHz Socket 1150 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
1 x Kingston 8GB 2400MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Predator Series
2 x Corsair AF120 LED White Quiet Edition High Airflow 120mm Fan Twin Pack
1 x Gigabyte GA-H87-HD3 Socket 1150 VGA DVI HDMI ATX Motherboard
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO - SSD
1 x Corsair Hydro Series H60 2013 model High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
1 x Corsair RM 650W Fully Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply

Now, the SSD has been upgraded to 512 GB and there are extra fans in the case. But the Mobo is the reason (I think) why I just couldn't get an OC on the chip. That and the cooler not being good at all really.

So it got me thinking, I could re-house the components into a smaller box, install a better cooler, and reduce the PSU size. I wouldn't need my daily rig to have that sort of power, as this rig was built mostly for encoding video, but my day to day stuff is quite mundane really. Mostly ripping music and the like. So the H60 would be fine for that, and I could take the PSU over to the new rig, as well as the optical drive, and the case.

I could then build a "little" i5. So came up with a buy list like this:

1. Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
2. Corsair CC-9011075-WW Carbide Series 100R Windowed Mid-Tower ATX Computer Case - Black
3. HyperX FURY 8 GB DDR4 2400 MHz Memory Kit (2 x 4 GB) - Black (Skylake Ready)
4. Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX Series CX450M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 Plus Bronze 450 W Power Supply Unit
5. Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Motherboard
6. Intel Core Skylake Processor i5-6500/3.2 GHz Processor CPU

Would the old memory be good enough for a server? I keep reading about EEC RAM being preferred for server duties. I don't want to waste the 8GB or RAM I already have though, and as much as I'd like 16GB, I can't find a source to obtain more of the RAM I already have. Which, BTW, due to the lack of XMP or whatever it is on my mobo, doesn't go above 1600 MHz anyway.

It is worth noting though, that I bought the QNAP from the rainforrest as I had much gift cards. The money has been returned to my account in the form of credit, so I would probably prefer to get at least the first £380 of parts from there, lol.

Anyway, so while I realise that the i7 may well be overkill for a server, if I can have it doing the encoding overnight or whatever while my main "desktop" is asleep, this could prove a better option overall. Looks to be only around £100 more than that stupid QNAP thing cost me, but I get a new "proper" computer out of it, and a much beefier server.