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Media server

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cuafpr

Member
so looking into building a media server to go with my HTPC to go in a new house... just doing some preliminary gathering right now, but was looking at this MB/CPU combo and wanted to get some thoughts/opinions:

AMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core Processor Black Edition
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YO...TF8&colid=11VF0APCVXOVK&coliid=I1SGN3SXBRYEEA

ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B008V995...TF8&colid=34RPTPEQVKDT9&coliid=I1K5TY7O15415O


It seems like a good buy, and co-workers are pretty sure it would serve my needs but like as many opinions as possible, I'd like to stay in the 500-700 range on the server build, i have a full tower case and a WD Raptor drive i'll move into it for storage to save cost. I figure CPU/MB will be the largest cost factors.

goal is to run server 2012 and maybe use hyper-V to stand up a VM that will be the media server, or just run the media server on physical box itself.

thanks!
 
cuafpr said:
so looking into building a media server to go with my HTPC to go in a new house... just doing some preliminary gathering right now, but was looking at this MB/CPU combo and wanted to get some thoughts/opinions:

AMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core Processor Black Edition
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YO...TF8&colid=11VF0APCVXOVK&coliid=I1SGN3SXBRYEEA

ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B008V995...TF8&colid=34RPTPEQVKDT9&coliid=I1K5TY7O15415O


It seems like a good buy, and co-workers are pretty sure it would serve my needs but like as many opinions as possible, I'd like to stay in the 500-700 range on the server build, i have a full tower case and a WD Raptor drive i'll move into it for storage to save cost. I figure CPU/MB will be the largest cost factors.

goal is to run server 2012 and maybe use hyper-V to stand up a VM that will be the media server, or just run the media server on physical box itself.

thanks!
Click to expand...

2 questions come to mind:

#1 - Are you going to need transcoding on the fly? If yes then this CPU is perfect. If no, then it is overkill.
#2 - Why don't you get something with video on the motherboard? A discrete GPU just adds heat and power consumption for literally no benefit in a server.

Also, if you are going AMD AM3+ for the server, make sure you stick with Asus MB and spend the little extra for ECC Memory.
 
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#3 why do you want to do VM on a media server? are you planning to use it for something else too? if so what?

I too have the same #1 and #2 question as smitbret, I am sure you would like to have a monitor with the server or no?
 
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I'd always recommend a nicer processor (like the one you chose, or better) for a home server build. You never know what you're going to expand to in the future or what else you might want to add onto it. My file server started out with just a WHS/FlexRAID box hosting files, but then I soon added MediaBrowser Server for transcoding to mobile devices, MyMovies server, UniFi security video server, Ceton InfiniTV host, among other things. So, I'd say go with the processor that can handle more tasks since you'll probably be keeping it for a while. A new software may come out that you want to use on your server that has high requirements and you don't want to have to upgrade again for quite some time.

Also, if you live near a Microcenter, you can get that processor for $10 less, and $50 off that motherboard. I just bought those 2 weeks ago for my test box.
 
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wiretap said:
I'd always recommend a nicer processor (like the one you chose, or better) for a home server build. You never know what you're going to expand to in the future or what else you might want to add onto it.
Click to expand...

This. My microserver is starting to really show it's age and is the limiting factor. When I build my next NAS, I'll be looking at an i3 or better.
 
Only thing that I see as an issue is the 6 sata ports, optical and o/s will only leave 4 for storage?...Oh, and iGPU...wouldnt use dGPU...
 
To expand SATA ports, a HBA controller can be used, or add a tower-raid external solution. SansDigital has some nice 8-bay eSATA enclosures which work very well.
 
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