G+_Chris Bachmann (KouKouK Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 So I'm thinking about a new project making a plex server. I'm thinking that considering that I have the budget, I would get a bunch of SSD drives for the media storage since the would not be a lot of writes to the drives (maybe using a WD black drive for the temp drive). Since 1tb ssd drives are available, and I can put a ton of them in my old Victrola cabinet , it would be a good long term solution to media storage since I won't be writing very often. Chances are a lot of sectors word only be written to once, maybe twice. What are your thoughts? Looking for second opinions... Join the enlightened. Resist the resistance. Chris http://grayburn.info/victrola/victrola.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Not a bad idea... I'd go with FreeNAS on a USB stick... and it would be a bit expensive... but could be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Scott Colby Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Plex is amazing, you don't need ssd for media storage, great as they are for operating system and program responsiveness, yes I am a speed freak, I have a couple of 3 tb hard drive for show storage and ssd boot drive for os and programs, make sure you CPU is strong enough for transcoding while streaming on fly. Have fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Travis Hershberger Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Just to clear things up a bit about SSD drives. The only ones that you had to worry about write longevity with were the first generation ones where the manufacturers were still getting the bugs worked out. Most SSD drives today have BETTER write endurance than a HDD. In actuality a HDD can not physically write fast enough in its lifetime to match what, good, modern SSD drives can do. You can find consumer class SSD drives that you can write the entire drive every day, and enterprise class drives that you can write up to 5x drive capacity every day. A HDD just isn't going to get data written to the platters fast enough to match a full write each day (unless you have unreasonable small drives, like 80GB). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 As cool as it would be, it would also be a travesty to see a Victrola hacked up as a server case. If you're going to anyways, have fun! I run PMS on a WHS2011 box with a pentium g3240 and 8 gigs ddr3. It started out life on a pentium g860, which was actually adequate until I started adding more roles for the server. A moderate build would work very well and keep your 1080p streams moving right along. As Scott Colby mentioned, you don't need SSDs for your media at all. I'd go further and call them an utter waste for bulk storage. I have a couple of mirrored 3TB WD greens for bulk storage, and 250gb wd black for boot and OS backup. I never have any issues streaming 1080p from PMS. Transfer speeds for getting things to/from the server generally are above 650Mbs, which is going to fall well under the throughput rate of any of these drives anyways, so the only way to get a speed boost out of SSDs is to use a 10GigE or faster network, and that's just crazy pants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Chris Bachmann (KouKouK Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 Good feedback. My main concern was how hot black or nas drives would get. It's easy enough to vent this case, but if I can minimize the heat profile, then all the better. The inside of the case where the 78s would be is about the right size for a cage with 2 columns of 5 1/4" bays and I can put in either 3 1/2 or 2 1/2 hot swap containers into there. I also have a USB turntable that I can fit into the current turntable area, so it would still function as a record player. Then it's a matter of fooling with the acoustics when I convert the horn with some speakers. I stick a small monitor into the lid, but I'm not sure yet. I may just hook it into the TV and use it to hide the cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Whether it's used as a headless server in a usually unoccupied area or as a htpc in the family room makes a difference as well. HDDs do make some noise, and each night I can hear the HDDs slogging away in the next room while Stablebit DrivePool is rebalancing. That has a lot to do with the fact that my server is in a cheap desktop case, and is tucked away in a cubby for the same in a wooden desk. The Victrola cabinet may also amplify vibrations from HDDs. Oh, the perils of modding... Since your project is to be built in an awesome cabinet you may favor silence over bulk storage capacity. What's the point of a neat build like yours if you can't enjoy it's beauty, right? That would push me toward putting bulk storage elsewhere. A quiet, tidy setup in the Vic running Ubuntu and PHT, with PMS running on your bulk storage server in the basement/copper closet/storage room. You may now have TWO projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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