HW requirements for TV-server

[hedlung]

Hi,
I'm in the process of building/buying a computer to act as a TV-server, including 3 tv-cards (and 2 HD MVP when they will be announced in Q2... )

As I understand it, the server software doesn't require that much of a computer, but still I wan't it to be up-to-date for at least 3 years with respect of HDTV and commercial detection...

I have decided to put it in my "office room" and not in the living room so therefor it doesn't have to be THAT quiet, but I also intend to use it as a temporary workstation for lighter office work so I would like it to be fairly quiet. I plan to have 3 Raid-5 HDDs for storage which will make some sound... Are there some quiet disks not TOO expensive?
The easiest way wold be to buy a rather big tower-sized model and put the disks in myself, or?
HELP...

[olyar15]

Well, I recently upgraded my Sage server for similar reasons (general freshening-up and possibly do some more CPU-intensive tasks such as re-encoding video), so here is a list of what I chose and why.

CPU and MB: Intel 6300 C2D with stock HSF, Intel DG965WH motherboard. The 6300 was the cheapest Core 2 Duo CPU available at the time, which should be fast enough for what I plan on doing. I chose the Intel motherboard because of Intel's reputation for stability, integrated video/audio, and fanless design. And it was fairly cheap and available locally. The downside was that Intel motherboards typically don't support overclocking (not an issue for me) and that it only had a pcie-16x and a bunch of pcie-1x slots - no x4 or x8 slots.

Using the integrated video and audio frees up basically all your slots.

RAID card: 3-ware 9590SE 8-port pci-e card. I chose this because it uses the pci-express bus. That way I didn't have to try to find a motherboard with a pci-x slot. This card is designed to use a x4 slot, so I had to put it in the x16 slot. The major downside of course is that I can't put in a separate graphics card in the future. So far, I am happy with the integrated graphics.

RAM: 2x512MB DDR2-533, Kingston Value-RAM, nothing fancy.

HDD: 4x500GB Maxtor drives in RAID 5, plus a 300GB SATA drive - 11GB for the OS and programs, the rest for SageTV recordings. For those who think 11GB is too small, WinXP and all the programs that I use only take up a little over 4GB, so I still have plenty of room for some more programs. I wanted to go with the Seagate 750GB drives, but the price of those were more than double the Maxtors, and it was just a bit too much for my budget.

Optical drive - LG DVD writer. Doesn't really matter, just something to use to install programs and maybe burn the occasional disc.

Case: Coolermaster stacker. Terrific case. Has 11 5.25" drive bays. Using 4-in-3 drive cages, you can fit quite a few hard drives in it. It is also big and roomy, which makes it easy to change parts, and it has room for 2 power supplies. It is reasonably quiet, and has good cooling capability. I would definitely recommend this case.

Power supply: Corsair 520W. Modular cables, quiet, and good reviews on line. Either this or a Seasonic power supply would be my first choice.

TV cards: Nvidia dualtv and a Motorola 6200 cable box hooked via firewire.

Monitor: Dell 20" LCD.

I think that is everything. Overall I am very happy with the selection of my components.

Hope this helps.

[flavius]

The most important decision you're going to make is likely that you will dedicate this TV-server to Sage 100%. Run it headless, manage via VNC (or something you like better). You will be rewarded with maximum uptime and stability.

Easily that was the best the decision I ever made about my server. Hardware? The sky is the limit.. Otherwise, see above - but you can have it cheaper.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by flavius

The most important decision you're going to make is likely that you will dedicate this TV-server to Sage 100%. Run it headless, manage via VNC (or something you like better). You will be rewarded with maximum uptime and stability.

Easily that was the best the decision I ever made about my server. Hardware? The sky is the limit.. Otherwise, see above - but you can have it cheaper.

I agree, having a computer solely dedicated to Sage and doing nothing but serving Sage will make a very very stable setup. I have no problems whatsover with crashed.

The above setup is really nice, but definately not necessary if you are just starting out. I do agree with the core 2 duo processors. If I were to build my server right now, I would probably go that route for the lower power requirements (which means lower cost over time) and the speed of the processors makes them great for a Sage Server. Otherwise, if you are just testing out Sage and what not. You can certainly use just about any old box (I wouldn't probably go below 1 Ghz though). There are some things you won't be able to do, such as on the fly transcoding (I don't use it with my XP2200+), but if you are like me, reusing old boxes is what got me into Sage to begin with. I would recommend at least 512mb of Ram, but you are much better off with 768 or 1 Gb (if building new do not go less than 1GB).
If I were to redo my Sage Server right now, I would probably go something like this:
Core 2 duo E4300
Intel Chipset 965P motherboard with integrated graphics w/ GB Lan (I think all 965P motherboards come with GB Lan but mentioned just to be safe)
1 GB of fairly cheap DDR2 Ram (no reason to buy high performance ram)
2 - 500 GB hard drives (maybe one small hard drive for OS/Sage only)
A good powersupply
cheap case (since I don't care what the case looks like)
DVDR drive (incase I wanted to permanently store something to DVD)
A Good UPS (to protect against missing recordings because your server went down when the power went out).

Tuner cards:
HD - I would recommend an HDHomerun (I am going to that next)
SD - Nvidia DualTV cards


Just my recommendations.

[flavius]

The price of the case does not matter much, but don't forget the additional case fan. This box is going to be running 24x7, right? Even if it isn't ..

And the power supply in your case should have at least 500w.

[GbrNole]

i just recently stck my server in an enermax chakra case - i really like the 250mm side fan - cools the hell out of my mobo and adds additional cooling to my HDD's which are already being cooled by a 120mm intake fan.

for exhaust i have another 120mm fan and the 140mm fan that's in my PS. the air always feels nice and cool coming from these under all loads and i have a 3.2ghz northwood so the chip isn't a cool one!

ps. while the server isn't silent with all those fans it's still quiet enough to use in a living room and can only be heard, barely, when everything else is off.

[flavius]

Did you do anything to address the noise?

[GbrNole]

i have all the fans running at 7 volts plus my server is actually located in my office where it's basically inaudible. the fans are all quiet models so the only thing you really hear is a quiet rush of air because it's moving plenty of it.

lets put it this way - the fan that's in my old hitachi 51s700 rptv is a damn site louder than the pc.

[hedlung]

What about commercial detection and such...? How "intensive" is that?
(I HATE commercials, and always FFW through them!)