[shiftybugger]

Hi all,

I've been reading up on this for a week and my eyes are bleeding. Time for me to put some questions to people more experienced than I.

I am in the process of building a media storage server. The server would be running some flavour of Linux (probably Ubuntu), running software raid 6 (if it isn't too taxing on the CPU - raid 5 if it is). The intent is that the server will run 24/7, run various lightweight server apps like bittorrent, will have a TV tuner to record and play OTA HD and SD TV and run something like MythTV to serve a couple of TVs.

It is probably going to be sitting in the living room and would probably be quieter than the Xbox that I am using as a HTPC now so I figured that I may as well have the server double as a HD HTPC as the Xbox can't do h264 and other HD stuff.

If I did make the server double as a HTPC, I'd probably be running XBMC for Linux to handle things (wifey likes the familiar). That would be the extent of its duties. No 3d power required at all.

I have no preference for AMD or Intel. The decision would probably be made by motherboard features and cost... although the E8400 seems to get a good wrap for XBMC playing 1080 stuff.

I am practically Linux ignorant. I did a chunk of system programming on Unix at Uni, but that was nearly 10 years ago. No idea how quickly I'll pick it up.

My build would probably look something like (only existing parts are set in stone):
Case: NZXT Whisper
PSU: Corsair HX620 (existing)
RAM: 4gb Kingston DDR2 800 HyperX (existing)
HDDs: an IDE OS drive and a bunch of SATAII 750gb for raid (existing)
Mobo: Something like the GA-EP45-DS5 (10 SATA ports and multi PCIe are nice considering it's a server - but integrated graphics might be nice? Would prefer a board with optical SPDIF out)
CPU: E8400?
Graphics: ? XBMC can't harness hardware acceleration, should I bother? Are there integrated graphics worth looking at? HDMI output would be nice too. I have a 6600gt or 8800gt I could use. I'd like to have a single HDMI connection to TV that takes the sound as well (is that possible in Linux/XBMC?) so that's a consideration as well.
Sound card: Onboard would suffice unless the above precludes it. The DS5 has the Realtek ALC889A which supports Dolby Home Theatre (Does anyone know if this is supported by Linux/XBMC?)

So:
1. Is there any other hardware I would need to add to make it an XBMC HTPC?
2. What motherboard/CPU/Graphics cards would you suggest given my constraints? Particularly, would the CPU overhead of running Linux raid 6 impact playback of 1080 stuff on an E8400? Would an E8500 make enough difference to matter?
3. Does anyone know if the GA-EP45-DS5 has any known Linux/XBMC issues?
4. Any suggestions on a TV card that will work in Linux, work with MythTV/SageTV and doesn't cost a million dollars? Remember it only needs to grab OTA channels, no cable or anything.
5. I have a crappy IR receiver (sigmatel?) that I bought years ago, and we have a HP branded remoted that came with my wife's XP MCE laptop. Would those work in XBMC?

Large first post, I know. All opinions appreciated.

Kris

[BLKMGK]

Start with my responses here -> http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=39520 which include links to at least two other threads on this sort of subject.

As for this being quieter than an existing XBOX.... I'll be surprised! Many drives in a case require cooling and that makes noise - so do the drives. My servers sit in another room for this reason and yeah they make some noise! On the plus side I do not think heat in here will be an issue come Winter...

HDMI audio is problematic as you will see when you research. You are going to try RAID, XBMC, and Myth while professing limited Linux knowledge. You sure you want to do that all at once?

IMHO - build a server for another room, make it dirt simple and dumb as rocks with a slow CPU. I like unRAID YMMV. Build a Myth box, use hardware that is well supported for that and makes sense, build it as a backend. Put it next to the server in a corner somewhere. Build a decent XBMC box that is quiet - put it next to TV with CAT5 running to other boxes. If you do it this way you can focus on each box doing it's task and not worry about a screwup in XBMC screwing up Myth or something else. XBMC can function as a Myth front-end to some extent and can be the gateway to other media. KISS is the way I like to do things like this and trying to do all that in one box may not turn out to be "simple" <shrug>

P.S. TV card? Might be best to ask in those forums but maybe consider an HDHomerun?

[xgrep]

imo I wouldn't go RAID6. The losing 2 drives may be enticing, but you'll probably notice fairly poor write performance while it needs to calculate parity twice on every write. (Esp in a software raid) In my experience RAID5 + spare is a solid way to go (spare will jump in at the sound of trouble).

For drive size, imo it's better to go smaller and more drives than bigger and less. A simple reason is that smaller drives will repair faster in the event of a failure. I've found the 400g/500g mark is the best bang for buck right now.

HDDs: an IDE OS drive and a bunch of SATAII 750gb for raid (existing)

I've had issues in the past with linux and mixing ide/sata (may be fine now). Really depends on the mobo controller. Personally I'd just stick with sata drives.

Looks like that board has a Sil chip running the RAID. I've yet to have linux recognize a Sil RAID properly (could be fixed by now...), so you may have to use mdadm. Which isn't a bad thing, just a heads up.

I agree with BLKMGK in that this won't be quiet. 4+ drives spinning will create their share of noise alone, not to mention the fans to cool the system. So a separate (cheap) system in another room, then CAT5 + nfs to your actual media box.

xgrep