NAS - Plex - DVR TV Tuner -

[76Dragoncuk]

Right after some further research I have taken a full change on the system I want now.

So the idea here is to go with a All in One Unit Server (NAS, Plex, DVR, torrent, sickbeard, coutchpotato, Freeness, Unbuntu) to server out moves, tv shows (a few of which I now have at 4k ultra HD)
The server will provide the content and the HTPC (units detail below) will stream the content in 4K and HD (1080) SD etc as well as do 4k gaming (online etc)

So the Main Server:

NAS - Freeness (vm etc) to store all our content, home videos, photos, music, movies, tv shows, personal and work documents

Plex - to provide the HTPC the content

Torrent, Sickbeard, couchpotato,

Stream music etc

TV tuner and DVR to provide live TV and record on demand (looking to record as many channels as possible (is it possible to go up to 8 channels) I have Sky +HD in the living room and the previous owner had the same in the bedroom, so looking to reroute this cable to the workshed- would it be possible to connect this to a TV tuner and provide the rest of the house HTPC units the live TV content - the idea here is each bedroom, livingroom etc can view the live tv feed, and record the programs they wish (the server should then advise if the max number of recordings have been reached)

Home Server - to provide the storage for work and personal files (word etc as well as photo and video editing) locations etc

Server specs, looking at Xeon (8 core) safice (but please advise what type) as well as motherboard to meet my needs, as I am also looking at 32GB min I think ECC Ram, SSD to hold the OS etc. The case will be Fractal Design Define R4 Silent Black Pearl Case (to hold 10 drives) 8x WD RED 6TB Sata drives, and 2x SSD drives (one to hold and run the OS for this systems needs)

HTPC will be setup as follows: will need advise on the best builds for these system units

LivingRoom- to stream 4k ultra HD, 3D, 1080 HD, SD, 4k and other gaming (on line etc) and connect to our Onkyo (Dolby Atmos DTS X at current 5.2.1 and eventually looking to go higher to 11.4.2)

The server and the living room HTPC will be the first builds, with the bedrooms (3) and games room being the others over time. The LivingRoom, games room HTPC units will be the high end spec units to provide the the sound needed to my living room Onkyo AV reliever with Dolby Atmos, DTS X (currently 5.2.1 but will be aiming to upgrade over time to something better (maybe 11.6.4 if it is ever possible)) and the same unit will also need to be able to handle 4k gaming etc (xbox etc) - The remaining HTPC need to be able to handle the same 4k video content but also allow for desktop type work for my daughter etc (word excel etc) - to think of it one HTPC unit will also need to handle photo and video editing.

Will be honest, I am thinking of using a SSD to hold the OS etc and a data for other internal storage...

I also have Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, Wii, MacBook Pro, 2 mobiles a iPad that will need to stream from the server too

The server to note will also do a back up for each of the HTPC and the server storage- i have read review on the E5 2670 v3...

Need idea on best build, CPU, Motherboard, RAM (EEC) etc....to handle above and 10 storage (8 data & 2 SSD)

 

[Fuganater]

You want to game on a server?

 

[76Dragoncuk]

sorry. No the server needs to handle a stream of 4k ultra hd and her content to my htpc units. 2 htpc units will be capable to play 4k ultra hd and her content as well as 4k gaming. The games of which will be installed local to the unit. The server will just act ad a nas plex media home server as well as a dvd location for each htpc to record the programs they want so I need a good cpu xeon and motherboard to suit The server to will need a few card slots for this as well as provide upto 10 data (8x wd red drives and 2x sad drives)

 

[Fuganater]

X10SRL-F with 64GB Samsung RAM and a E5-1650 V3 should do the trick.

 

[76Dragoncuk]

cheers will a dual cpu be advantaged for this setup

 

[Fuganater]

cheers will a dual cpu be advantaged for this setup

I don't think FreeNAS can utilize dual CPU like that but I am not sure.

 

[danb35]

Well, on your poll, the i7 can be eliminated immediately, as it doesn't support ECC. You'll need a Xeon at the high end, or a Pentium G or i3 at the lower end, for ECC support.

If I'm reading your post correctly, the main things you want to do with the FreeNAS box are stream media to a number of client machines, and store recorded media from a number of client machines. Since the clients include i-devices and XBoxes (XBoxen?), the streaming will include transcoding. You also want to automate downloads using sickbeard/couchpotato and Transmission, with those running on the FreeNAS box as well. Is this correct so far? You've also mentioned gaming, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the FreeNAS box. You won't be running your games on there, so video from the games wouldn't be streaming from the FreeNAS box. The FreeNAS box isn't your router, so it shouldn't have anything to do with your games.

If that's right, I don't know why you're asking about dual CPUs. Sure, FreeNAS supports them, but I don't see anything in your stated use case that would call for them, and the price goes up dramatically with them (the E5-26xx chips are awfully expensive).

The real questions here are: (1) how many streams do you expect to run at once, and (2) how much RAM are you going to need? Assuming a sensible value for (1) and not more than 32 GB for (2), my recommendation would be an X10SL7-F motherboard with the E3 Xeon of your choice (the 1231v3 is pretty popular). The board will support up to 14 drives (far more than that if used with a SAS expander board/backplane) and up to 32 GB of RAM. Buy RAM that's on SuperMicro's QVL, or certified compatible by crucial.com, and you're good to go.

If you anticipate needing more than 32 GB of RAM, you'll need an E5 Xeon, and @Fugunater's suggestion of the 1650 is the most common one here.

 

[76Dragoncuk]

Sorry to both. The server will just be that, a server which will be my NAS (to hold 8x WD Red Sata drives, and 2x SSD drives) this will hold and store my home videos pictures, personal and work files (word excel etc) I also want to stream live tv from this to the house and also hold the DVR solution so a drive will act as a DVR storage.. the house will eventually in my process have HTPC units. They will be capable to play back 4k ultra HD HDR, 3D etc videos from this server. The HTPC units will be setup with SSD drives and a separate drive to store the games on to...but I do have Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, macbook pro, iphones, lumia 950xl, etc that I also want to be able to gain access to the server to. Such as to record gaming sessions to such as that on twitch etc or youtube...
The query really is for the best for the server for this purpose, as I dont want to ask the question and buy the CPU and MB only to find out I need something with my power to handle the 4k HDR etc content...oh incase I forgot, the main HTPC's in the livingroom and games room will also be connected to the TV via Onkyo surround sound 5.2.1 for Dolby Atmos and DTS X (I do intend to up this to 7.4.2 and higher over time (hope one day to go in the games room to a 11.6.4 if ever possible) will the server specs be of importance in this part, or will I just need to look at the HTPC units.

On the Freenas, Im glad I can look at dual CPU....its just knowing which to go with. I like the idea that I could beef up to 14 drives sometime, if I ever need to is a different story. So to clear, the server will be a server, just want to make sure I have it spec enough (future proof if ever possible, I know it can not be fully), to handle streaming transcoding etc (with Plex etc to the HTPC) for 4k ultra HD HDR etc videos..live tv streams to each HTPC unit (3x bedrooms, living room, and eventually the games room when setup) It would also be of interest to support family externally (say 5x family homes but there content will not be to the live tv streams, just the plex stored content)...sorry to go on...I want to make sure I have this correct, my last post was from a phone and noticed it was a bit of a scramble...

Cheers again to both for you info and advise

 

[Robert Riedel]

I use plex, mythtv (for the DVR), and a few other services. I am also using the X10SL7-F with an Xeon 1241v3 and 32GB or ECC Ram. I have 6 drives and a spare and 2 SSDs. I use the SSDs for the jails and any VMs. I also have a HDhomerun for recording TV using mythtv. This works great for me and the FreeNas idles most of the time. Here is the requirement from plex on the CPU from their webpage:

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:

• 1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark
• 720p/4Mbps: 1500 PassMark

The CPU Benchmark website is a good resource to see what sort of PassMark score a particular processor received.

I stream most of my stuff to Rokus and android devices which need transcoding and the rest to a PC (which they do not require transcoding).

 

[76Dragoncuk]

thank you for the info so would the xeon stated be ok for 4k ultra hd hdr video to say 3 simultaneous streams. I am heading towards this cpu now and may even look at dual cpu board to go with again thank you all for the input. I hope to read more

 

[mattbbpl]

thank you for the info so would the xeon stated be ok for 4k ultra hd hdr video to say 3 simultaneous streams. I am heading towards this cpu now and may even look at dual cpu board to go with again thank you all for the input. I hope to read more

I don't think anyone around here is transcoding 4k video yet, but people who are educated on the matter are making ballpark estimates of a 5000 PassMark requirement per stream. 4K transcoding is simply brutal in terms of requirements.

My Xeon e3 is benched at ~9000 Passmark. So it should be able to handle a single 4K stream based on that estimate (although that isn't guaranteed, as no one to my knowledge has really tested that).

 

[76Dragoncuk]

so a double cpu motherboard with 2x xeon e5 8 core would be great enough to meet the above requirements

 

[76Dragoncuk]

So updated to this now.

The NAS Plex DVR Home Media Server (which will also stream live tv via the tv tuner from the sky satellite) will be run with a Xeon CPU 8 Core. It will have a SSD to run Plex Media Server on, I am just stuck on which CPU to go for, and which OS to go with for the server as well as to cover the DVR and tv tuner (software etc)
To note the server will only hold the media, as I will have HTPC unit build to do the work of transcoding the media from the server - 4k ultra HD HDR (h.265, HDCP 2.2, HEVEC, HDMI 2.0a) as well as capable to play the sound via the Onkyo surround sound av reciever with Dolby Atmos and DTS-X THX. This HTPC system will also play 4k gaming, using xbox wireless control etc. I have looked at a i7 8 core CPU (would this be over kill) it will hold between 32-64GB RAM) a d GTX960 or GTX970 or GTX980 (recommendations please on these boards and CPU etc) I will hold the OS on the SSD and storage for the games and local stuff on a 2-4TB WD RED 4TB drive (is this drive over kill for this)

Again please provide me with advise on the above....my first build will be the HTPC unit and the Server not long after. I current have a DLINK 2 drive NAS to do some storage for the time being....

 

[pirateghost]

An Intel NUC can do 4k. There is no reason to go overboard with a htpc build unless you're doing a gaming rig.

Even the new pine64 boards are going to have 4k capabilities.

What kind of gaming are you planning on with the htpc? SteamOS? Windows will be required on the htpc if you need AAA titles (fallout 4, call of duty, battlefield/battlefront)

 

[76Dragoncuk]

video will be 4k ultra hd hdr (so a need for hevex hdcp 2.2 hdmi 2.0a h.265 etc)

gaming such as mentioned call of duty battle front fall out 4. Skyrim the divisi

 

[pirateghost]

So you are looking for a gaming rig parts recommendation. Not an HTPC.

 

[76Dragoncuk]

for gaming but also capable of htpc streaming from my server for 4k content. Cheers

 

[pirateghost]

for gaming but also capable of htpc streaming from my server for 4k content. Cheers

Lol. It's a gaming rig. You can output Plex/Kodi/whatever out of it as well.

I don't know how well you will be gaming with an Xbox controller on games that are intended for use with a keyboard, but if you are already aware of those limitations, then have fun.

I have tried this. It sucked, and wasn't the gaming experience I thought it would be. Turns out a pi2 is all I needed. Leave the gaming to a mouse and keyboard on a desktop.

If you haven't actually tried this before, I can tell you while it is an awesome notion, reality sets in pretty quick. I think you will find the money spent will go to waste.

Advice:
Get a console and a small HTPC (NUC or pi/pine64/odroid/nvidia shield/etc)

 

[76Dragoncuk]

im old school gaming using a mouse n keyboard The controller will just be for other use. I do own xbox 360 xbox one. Ps3 wii pi2. And a old pc that will be given to a family member to use (over 5 years old) n not using any parts from this

 

[pirateghost]

im old school gaming using a mouse n keyboard The controller will just be for other use

good luck to you then.

This site is probably the last place I would look for gaming machine hardware recommendations, so you might want to have a look at places like ocforums(?). I don't know, I have been out of the gaming scene for over a year and a half, and couldn't even tell you what new desktop hardware there is any more. I have turned to using my spare time to learning code instead.