Dan's NAS/media server stuff

[Ekona]

I've double sockets throughout the house, so I can connect anything to any port now and I know it'll be able to talk to everything else. Not too much connected right now, but the plan is to have media players connected to every room for music streaming purposes.

[RB]

I've double sockets throughout the house

Me too plus 6 for the TV room for Smart TV, consoles, bluray, FireTV etc. WiFi is for pussies and phones

[Ekona]

Yeah, I've got multiple sockets in the lounge and man cave as well, just in case

Wifi works fine for most things, but it can't stream full bitrate BDs without buffering. Now whilst I don't have a need for that in the garage or dining room just yet, I didn't want to leave myself cut off should that ever change.

[Mr.Clark]

Ok, so I've got an old-ish Atom powered nettop running Plex server. I've pointed that at my NAS and I'm streaming it (using the free app on my phone as a remote control) to my shiny new Amazon FireTV stick.

What's the catch? Why would I pay for this? It's simple, HD, and anything I don't have on my NAS, I should be able to pick up with Prime Instant Video and Netflix...

Of course, the downside is, I now want a better TV, with optical-out and possibly a couple more HDMI ports, but that's for the future...

[Ekona]

You don't have to pay for it, if that's all you want it to do. I have to pay as I want access via the console apps, as well as access to my files via Plex on any browser, but for your usage Plex as it stands is perfect.

[Mr.Clark]

I may have spoken too soon... the Atom-powered nettop doesn't quite seem to have enough grunt to do Plex streaming if it's doing anything else in the background...

[Ekona]

Surprising though, it should be okay. What bitrate file are you asking it to stream, with what audio?

[Mr.Clark]

Whatever the file comes with. I just download 'em!

Most of the stuff is 720p (half the films and TV shows), then the rest of the TV shows are in SD and the films are split between 1080p and SD. I don't download new stuff in SD but there's a lot of legacy kicking around.

No idea on the audio. My TV is pretty crap, so it can't output to a decent set of speakers anyway (and my speakers aren't really decent any more either), so it's just the two on the front.

[Tinlad]

The Atom should be fine for anything the Fire TV stick can play natively, but it'll have no chance at transcoding (regardless of bitrate). So you might find that recent H.264 stuff is fine, but older Xvid stuff (or whatever format) might not work. This was certainly the case when I was using an AMD C-60 to stream to my iOS devices.

As Dan said, the audio will made a difference too - if it's having to down-mix/convert multi-channel audio to stereo then it's going to struggle.

[Tinlad]

Yesterday I fixed a couple of issues with my server:
1) That awful tin-snip bodge I did to get the new mobo in
and
2) The fact that it sucks in all dust within a half-mile radius. Switched it from a negative pressure setup (more exhaust than intake), to positive pressure (more intake than exhaust) with the intake going through a filter. Also removed a very restrictive fan grill.

Also it may have been an excuse to play with my new Dremel.

Lots of images below! (56K hell?)

Before: note all the dust and shite built up around the exhaust fan. The drive bays are also filthy.

First, the removal of the fan grill. It looks as though it probably blocks about 50% of the air, so it's going. Tin-snips to the rescue again!


Dremel time! The tin-snips leave some pretty lethal edges, so I smoothed them off with a grinding tool. I also decided that it was probably wise to remove the motherboard at this point...

Smooth as the proverbial infant's posterior. Well maybe not, but good enough.

Now to get rid of the bottom rail that I previously butchered.

All done and smoothed. Note the cereal box spark catcher.

Picking up all the metal dust with a magnet wrapped in kitchen towel. Science, bitches!

Completed.

Reassembled, with the fan filter installed. The motherboard now slides in much more easily, and the side panel of the case still holds without the bottom rail.


Drive temperatures a a little higher now - probably because the air they're now getting has passed over the CPU and is thus a bit warmer - but they're not worryingly high. I might look at installing a second fan somewhere if they get much hotter in summer.

All in all, a success. And I got to cut things and make sparks and loud noises, which is the main thing.

[Ekona]

Proper good job sir, that looks ace How long did it all take?

What temps are you getting?

[Tinlad]

Cheers! It took a couple of hours - mainly down to how much of a pain it is to move the mobo in/out of the case and reconnect all the power/data cables. Plus it was the maiden use of the Dremel, so there was a bit of a learning curve with that.

I performed a parity check yesterday (enforced due to a power cut ) and a couple of the drives reached 40˚C, which is a couple of degrees higher than I've seen previously. I don't think that's too high though, and a parity check is almost the worst-case scenario, but I'll keep an eye on it.

[Ekona]

Seems okay to me, I'd be happy with 40 under load.

I'm tempted to add a UPS to the setup soon, to protect in case of power cuts. They're not exactly cheap though.

[Tinlad]

A UPS will definitely be on my shopping list in the future. I don't think it'll be too pricey - even with everything running at 100% my server should draw <150 W, so I shouldn't need a particularly beefy one. Something like this should do the job: APC BE700G-UK.

As it stands I don't really have the space in the corner where the server lives, and since the power's only gone out twice in 2 years then I'm going to live with the risk for now...

(famous last words)

[Savara]

Dremels.