[chuque]

I am building my first real htpc this week. Currently I have an old desktop running win 7 xbmc +sabmzb + sickbeard as a proof of concept and I am happy with the results.

now I want to move it to a small form factor dedicated system running linux, most likely a OpenELEC as that seems to have the packages I want installed already.

I think I have narrowed it down to one of these two systems to start; ASrock ION3D and the Zotatc ND22

I know the Zotac has a superior proc, but my question is will that make any difference? Especially if I am trying to play back while I am I downloading new content.

The cost is about the same I'd be trading off a small ssd for a optical drive with the ASrock.


Thanks for any advice.
For now I have a few 2Tb usb 2.0 drives I'll be using for main storage, at the point I have multiple htpcs in the house I'll most likely move to a nas option.

[HansP]

they both will do it but keep in mind the Zotac does not have a remote included nor a sensor in the casing so you need to buy an external MCE IR remote !
also the Asrock could have a BR-disk reader witch the zotac cant ...

[eskro]

First of all, the ASRock ION3D is a total lie!
it doesn't have the power to playback 1080P 3D content...

Only pre-built systems i recommend for LInux are:
(not listed in a particular order)

* ASROCK CORE 100HT-DVD
* ASROCK CORE 100HT-BD
* ASROCK VISION 3D
* ZOTAC ZBOX ND22

[HansP]

is it proven it cant play 3D ?

[eskro]

i trust what PoofyHairGuy saiid on that, he's a Hardware guru

[claypigeon]

You might consider, keeping sickbeard and sabnzbd on their own server, perhaps on the same box that is your file server. SABnzb2 invokes par2 when converting downloaded nzbs, par2 is a very disk, memory and CPU intensive process, so you may not want this running on the same host that is your display client. Additionally, unraring (another part of what happens in sabnzbd) can be rather I/O intensive too. Sickbeard (outside of the post processing) is not that big of a resource consumer but it needs to be running 7/24. The sickbeard post processing, which can be segmented on a different host, is moving multi gigabyte files around your volumes and filesystems. All of this is why I keep my file, sickbeard and sabnzbd. servers together on the same host with so the processes have direct SATA access to the PVs.

If you run all of these processes on your display client it can cause congestion to the point of stuttering and perhaps video playback stopping. you can likely manage this better with under linux when using ionice (afaik there is no windows equivocalness to manage IO) for IO intensive process, and the sabnzbd processes are already started through nice so they should stay out of the way it things start getting heavy. In a windows environment, this IO bounding and CPU bounding can get sketchy, you might have to manually go sent some of the parent process to lower priorities, but that only helps on CPU consumption, PAR2 and RAR can still saturate your IO paths.

All that being said, if it were me, I would keep your old pc running win7 and use it for a file, sab and sickbeard server if you are more comfortable with windows, if not rebuild the same hardware as a linux host with the samba file, sab and sickbeard servers then, put more disks in it when ever you need to add space. Then build xbmc display clients based on the minimum configuration you feel you need for your display client requirements. That could be anything from a small atom/ion nettop to a giant i7 based monster, it all depends on what you want to do.

[HansP]

i dont know if u live with ur parents or in ur own home paying the electrical bills ??

i rather let my 25Watt Zacate box do all the stuff then my 450Watts home PC running 24/7

i setup sabnzbd to run at night between 1-6 when nothing is done to do all the work ... but if it does all the work while watching a movie i see maybe 2times a mild stutter , nothing more !
annoying ?? not for me ...

[claypigeon]

i dont know if u live with ur parents or in ur own home paying the electrical bills ??

i rather let my 25Watt Zacate box do all the stuff then my 450Watts home PC running 24/7

i setup sabnzbd to run at night between 1-6 when nothing is done to do all the work ... but if it does all the work while watching a movie i see maybe 2times a mild stutter , nothing more !
annoying ?? not for me ...

That is sort of funny, makes me think that you are confusing capacity of the power supply vs the actual draw. Based on your statement, I am not sure you understand that just because the power supply is capable of providing 450 watts of power, it doesn't mean that is is drawing that. Power supply are not like incandescent light bulbs, where you put in a 120w bulb and you are using ~ 120 watts. It is more like a standard PC idol would be drawing something like 20 - 30% of the power supply capacity on average. So while that is more than the 25 watts you say the zacate box is drawing, it is not nearly as bad as you imply. To understand the actual wattage used, you would need to know the efficacious of the power supply (watts wasted as heat), and then add in the actual watts consumed by the components of the system, these is most easily done by using something like a killawatt meter.

If you do keep a server up 7/24 like I do, you probably want an efficient power supply, that means the conversion from AC to DC it is efficient e.g. not lost as heat see I think you can check energystar for guidelines, and I think it is a good idea to spin your drives down when not in use because it is the consumption that uses the power, spinning consumes.

Yes having a 7/24 server is a personal option. For me, that a computer that is my file, sab and sickbeard server, is also my home office general purpose PC and runs some other always on server functions.

Oh and yes,my parents, they live in different states, I haven't had my power bills paid by someone else for some 25 years. :-)

[HansP]

That is sort of funny, makes me think that you are confusing capacity of the power supply vs the actual draw. Based on your statement, I am not sure you understand that just because the power supply is capable of providing 450 watts of power, it doesn't mean that is is drawing that. Power supply are not like incandescent light bulbs, where you put in a 120w bulb and you are using ~ 120 watts. It is more like a standard PC idol would be drawing something like 20 - 30% of the power supply capacity on average. So while that is more than the 25 watts you say the zacate box is drawing, it is not nearly as bad as you imply. To understand the actual wattage used, you would need to know the efficacious of the power supply (watts wasted as heat), and then add in the actual watts consumed by the components of the system, these is most easily done by using something like a killawatt meter.

If you do keep a server up 7/24 like I do, you probably want an efficient power supply, that means the conversion from AC to DC it is efficient e.g. not lost as heat see I think you can check energystar for guidelines, and I think it is a good idea to spin your drives down when not in use because it is the consumption that uses the power, spinning consumes.

Yes having a 7/24 server is a personal option. For me, that a computer that is my file, sab and sickbeard server, is also my home office general purpose PC and runs some other always on server functions.

Oh and yes,my parents, they live in different states, I haven't had my power bills paid by someone else for some 25 years. :-)

hehe was just a question

i know a regular 450W pc psu will not use up all the 450W but shure has more losses to heath than the one the zacaté has ...

my plan in the future is build a NAS - fileserver - downloader in my attic and just leave the htpc downstairs to play movies ... untill then , the HTPC will do all that .

my regular pc has 4Hdd's , Q9300 , ... pretty heavy ( shure no I5 , I7 but for my use ( photoshop , lightroom enough ) ) so i think it uses 4-5x what my zacate will use

in my opinion i can save some money leaving the HTPC on to download and convert all and not use my regular pc so much anymore to do that for me !

but that's a personal choise ...