Need to re-spec my Media Server

fireisdangerous · 19 Apr 2012 at 12:30

I currentley have one of the Hp micro server and its great. The only issue i have is that when it is unpacking large movie files the cpu is always at 100% and if i am streaming a movie or tv show at the same time i get a lot of stuttering.

I am considering selling the micro server and building a new server from scratch. What processor would you recomend? i needs to be able to encode and transcode files on the fly whilst i am streaming from it but also needs to be enery efficiant as i leave the server running most of the time.

I have a spare socket 1155 motherboard lying around that i could use for the server.

Tony

Essexraptor · 19 Apr 2012 at 23:09

have a look at this thread Tony

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18391966

post #22 has a decent spec listed if you want to move up a notch

several others....... if you just have a gander back a page or 2 as well

fireisdangerous · 20 Apr 2012 at 11:46

Essexraptor said:
have a look at this thread Tony

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18391966

post #22 has a decent spec listed if you want to move up a notch

several others....... if you just have a gander back a page or 2 as well

Thanks for the link.

I have a simliar spec that i use as my htpc at the mo.

Original i3 and a zotac h55 mini itx board
Have a 450w silvertsone sff psu also
4gb ram.
55oti gpu

All water cooled in a Lian li Q08. I know total overkill for a htpc

I could take out the water cooling and repurpose this box as my server, as i was thinking about getting a apple tv 2 (jailbroken) and run plex of that.

I also have a spare p67 board laying around that i could just get the i3 processor listed in the spec in that forum thread.

My other issue is that my drives are very loud 2 x1tb (hitachi) and 2x 2tb(samsung) and the hp microserver doesnt have any sound dampening!

Its all water co

Essexraptor · 20 Apr 2012 at 12:00

On the noisy drives issue.... I've found that it's simply resonation and it's down to what you sit the HP on. Again buried in the HP Server thread is a article on a sound damping feet/block that you can sit it on. Another alternative and cheaper/easier is to just try repositioning the server on different surfaces/locations. Sometimes I just put my hand on top for a few moments and the drive sound just stops!!!

fireisdangerous · 20 Apr 2012 at 12:02

Essexraptor said:
On the noisy drives issue.... I've found that it's simply resonation and it's down to what you sit the HP on. Again buried in the HP Server thread is a article on a sound damping feet/block that you can sit it on. Another alternative and cheaper/easier is to just try repositioning the server on different surfaces/locations. Sometimes I just put my hand on top for a few moments and the drive sound just stops!!!

Ive noticed the hand on top also, might try and find some rubber feet to attach.

Little_Crow · 20 Apr 2012 at 12:25

fireisdangerous said:
My other issue is that my drives are very loud 2 x1tb (hitachi) and 2x 2tb(samsung) and the hp microserver doesnt have any sound dampening!

I've just moved 4x500Gb seagate 6 year old drives from my old ReadyNAS into my microserver and found the same thing. While they were never that quiet in my ReadyNAS they are very loud in the Microserver.

I desperately want to get some newer bigger drives, but with the prices still not dropping I may be putting up with disk clatter for a while longer.

fireisdangerous · 20 Apr 2012 at 12:49

Little_Crow said:
I've just moved 4x500Gb seagate 6 year old drives from my old ReadyNAS into my microserver and found the same thing. While they were never that quiet in my ReadyNAS they are very loud in the Microserver.

I desperately want to get some newer bigger drives, but with the prices still not dropping I may be putting up with disk clatter for a while longer.

Same boat as you mate, would like to get some new drives, hopefully they will go back down in price. Going to get some rubber feet and attach them to my microserver and see if that makes it quieter.

jamesfreddie · 21 Apr 2012 at 15:36

I've attached bigger rubber feet to my microserver and it really makes a diffrence.

leezer3 · 22 Apr 2012 at 01:18

What OS and download/ encode software are you using?
It should be pretty easy to setup some CPU priorities so that nothing stutters

Not really clear if you're streaming & transcoding at the same time, or whether it's standard filesharing that's stuttering.

In general though, shunting the process priority to low for any download applications (Most of these should have this available in options, if not it requires some Windows/ kernel level tweaks) should be more than sufficient.
I manage perfectly with a S939 4400+ x2 & 768mb RAM, so a microserver is absolute overkill!

-Leezer-