Comments on: Build the ultimate 5-TB Home Theater gaming PC that rips or burns 6 DVDs simultaneously http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/ Because technology isn't just for geeks Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:05:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: George Ou http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-2560 George Ou Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:47:34 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-2560 <a href="#comment-2559" rel="nofollow">@Nathan </a> For this type of set up, low energy consumption is a key metric. If I were to change the hardware setup, I'd go for a cheap "Pentium" branded 45nm dual-core processor and a P45 chipset. This recommendation will not change until Intel's Clarkdale CPU+GPU is out early next year. Other than that, you can probably use 1.5 TB drives and maybe even get one Blu-ray reader for $60 on one of the optical drives. @Nathan
For this type of set up, low energy consumption is a key metric. If I were to change the hardware setup, I’d go for a cheap “Pentium” branded 45nm dual-core processor and a P45 chipset. This recommendation will not change until Intel’s Clarkdale CPU+GPU is out early next year.

Other than that, you can probably use 1.5 TB drives and maybe even get one Blu-ray reader for $60 on one of the optical drives.

]]> By: Nathan http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-2559 Nathan Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:11:57 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-2559 <a href="#comment-1645" rel="nofollow">@George Ou </a> I am looking at doing a setup similar to this, but a lot of time has past since you originally wrote this article, any ideas on specific hardware upgrades you would do now that dual quad cores are out? Or are you still recommending the same setup. @George Ou
I am looking at doing a setup similar to this, but a lot of time has past since you originally wrote this article, any ideas on specific hardware upgrades you would do now that dual quad cores are out? Or are you still recommending the same setup.

]]> By: Building the high-end 30″ LCD game system for $3340 | Technology for Mortals http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-1654 Building the high-end 30″ LCD game system for $3340 | Technology for Mortals Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:50:34 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-1654 [...] [...] [...] [...]

]]> By: George Ou http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-1646 George Ou Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:44:01 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-1646 <a href="#comment-1192" rel="nofollow">@Graham Blandford </a> Sure, you don't need 6 burners (or readers) after the initial burn unless you want to do fast replication of your DVDs. DVD burners are $30 a piece so it doesn't cost much to have at least 3 or 4 burners in there. Regarding storage capacity, this article is now more than a year old and capacities have doubled for only slightly more money. 7.5 TB using 1.5 TB drives is certainly a good option and it costs even less now than the original blog posting. @Graham Blandford

Sure, you don’t need 6 burners (or readers) after the initial burn unless you want to do fast replication of your DVDs. DVD burners are $30 a piece so it doesn’t cost much to have at least 3 or 4 burners in there.

Regarding storage capacity, this article is now more than a year old and capacities have doubled for only slightly more money. 7.5 TB using 1.5 TB drives is certainly a good option and it costs even less now than the original blog posting.

]]> By: George Ou http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-1645 George Ou Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:39:35 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-1645 <a href="#comment-684" rel="nofollow">@terry </a> Many disadvantages with your setup Terry. 1. What happens if a drive fails? 2. My system here can deliver data over the network at over 100 MB/sec, your system is lucky to hit 10 MB/sec. 3. Internally, my system can hit 300 MB/sec while your's is stuck at 30 MB/sec. 4. How long does it take you to rip 1000 DVDs with your setup? 5. Your system ain't much cheaper than my system. @terry
Many disadvantages with your setup Terry.

1. What happens if a drive fails?
2. My system here can deliver data over the network at over 100 MB/sec, your system is lucky to hit 10 MB/sec.
3. Internally, my system can hit 300 MB/sec while your’s is stuck at 30 MB/sec.
4. How long does it take you to rip 1000 DVDs with your setup?
5. Your system ain’t much cheaper than my system.

]]> By: Graham Blandford http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-1192 Graham Blandford Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:12:29 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-1192 Hi George,<br><br>I'm not a "hardware guy", so I must apologize in advance for my ignorance.<br><br>It is a great article - and has given me a perfect starting point for archiving my DVD collection. I do have one - or two - questions though:<br><br>My collection of DVD's currently stands at around 1200, and looking at the numbers, 5TB is not going to cut it. After initial burning, I don't see a great need for the 6 DVD burners, so my question is; Could I acquire more TB's by substituting additional drives, using the same SATA interfaces that were being used by the burners? If so, does that need any additional cooling/power requirements? If that's not an option, could you recommend an alternate configuration?<br><br>Quite honestly, I'd rather spend the $$ on a nice HTPC than on more shelving....<br><br>Many thanks,<br>Graham<br><br><br><br><br> Hi George,

I’m not a "hardware guy", so I must apologize in advance for my ignorance.

It is a great article – and has given me a perfect starting point for archiving my DVD collection. I do have one – or two – questions though:

My collection of DVD’s currently stands at around 1200, and looking at the numbers, 5TB is not going to cut it. After initial burning, I don’t see a great need for the 6 DVD burners, so my question is; Could I acquire more TB’s by substituting additional drives, using the same SATA interfaces that were being used by the burners? If so, does that need any additional cooling/power requirements? If that’s not an option, could you recommend an alternate configuration?

Quite honestly, I’d rather spend the $$ on a nice HTPC than on more shelving….

Many thanks,
Graham

]]> By: terry http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-684 terry Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:07:35 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-684 Here's my 5tb of doom.<br>http://terry.rudys.net/?p=500<br>Using Mac OS X. Only uses like 30 watts of power, since its not RAID, the drives sleep all the time and use almost no power. The drive with the particular movie I am watching is the only one that spins up. Quiet, and low power, no heat, conserves drive. I only have one dvd ripper on there (no big waste of DVD recorders). I used all my systems and then ripped locally and copied over afterwards. Took longer of course, but after the initial push of copying, you don't have wasted hardware. This is all in a closet and feeds a couple of AppleTVs in the house. Mac lets you turn on/off automatically so it turns on @ 6pm when we come home, turns off at 6am when we leave the house, and stays on (spinning down when not needed) during the weekend. Simple, basic. Here’s my 5tb of doom.
http://terry.rudys.net/?p=500
Using Mac OS X. Only uses like 30 watts of power, since its not RAID, the drives sleep all the time and use almost no power. The drive with the particular movie I am watching is the only one that spins up. Quiet, and low power, no heat, conserves drive. I only have one dvd ripper on there (no big waste of DVD recorders). I used all my systems and then ripped locally and copied over afterwards. Took longer of course, but after the initial push of copying, you don’t have wasted hardware. This is all in a closet and feeds a couple of AppleTVs in the house. Mac lets you turn on/off automatically so it turns on @ 6pm when we come home, turns off at 6am when we leave the house, and stays on (spinning down when not needed) during the weekend. Simple, basic.

]]> By: George Ou http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-459 George Ou Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:22:50 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-459 It doesn't matter if the power supply and motherboard shut down, the RAID controller will hold the data in its memory using the battery backup. When the power gets restored, it will complete whatever write job it was attempting before the power got cut. It doesn’t matter if the power supply and motherboard shut down, the RAID controller will hold the data in its memory using the battery backup. When the power gets restored, it will complete whatever write job it was attempting before the power got cut.

]]> By: clmenz http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-458 clmenz Sat, 31 May 2008 16:37:21 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-458 George are the battery backed up raid controllers that that much more reliable then the combo of a good ups into dual redundant hot swap power supplies into the motherboard then raid controller itself? Not to belabor the point/post but it seems to me that it is then a question of the reliabliity of the motherboard vs. the reliability of the battery backuped raid controlller--- as everythig else is duplicated and or can be shut down prior to corrupting a database on a write cycle. George are the battery backed up raid controllers that that much more reliable then the combo of a good ups into dual redundant hot swap power supplies into the motherboard then raid controller itself? Not to belabor the point/post but it seems to me that it is then a question of the reliabliity of the motherboard vs. the reliability of the battery backuped raid controlller— as everythig else is duplicated and or can be shut down prior to corrupting a database on a write cycle.

]]> By: George Ou http://www.formortals.com/build-the-ultimate-5-tb-home-theater-gaming-pc-that-rips-or-burns-6-dvds-simultaneously/comment-page-1/#comment-433 George Ou Mon, 26 May 2008 22:37:38 +0000 http://www.formortals.com/?p=49#comment-433 You can configure RAID using Windows 2003 drivers for the ICH9R so yes, you should be able to use it in Windows Home Server. You can configure any combination of RAID you like. And yes, it does not have battery backup so enabling write back cache can cause data corruption if the power goes out during the write job. This is probably not ideal for a production server so I would spend the money on a RAID controller with battery backup. You can configure RAID using Windows 2003 drivers for the ICH9R so yes, you should be able to use it in Windows Home Server. You can configure any combination of RAID you like. And yes, it does not have battery backup so enabling write back cache can cause data corruption if the power goes out during the write job. This is probably not ideal for a production server so I would spend the money on a RAID controller with battery backup.

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