I'm writing this from my work-in-progress noiseless system, that I'm building for a PVR/DVD/Jukebox sort of project. Eventually I want to have some sort of mass storage for saving TV programs and archiving my (legal) CD collection, but I'm reluctant to add a hard drive because even a good one is still noisy. My current plan is to either build a little SAMBA server, or buy a USB or ethernet external hard drive, and lock it in a closet. Ideally, I'd like to use some of these IDE drives I have already bought on sale. My system currently runs Feather Linux, and linux compatibility is a must.
So, does anyone have experience with any of those 3 options? I'm worried about bandwidth, since ultimately I'd like to stream video from storage, but it can't put out a lot of heat either, because there will be very little airflow available. Suggestions?
Networked storage for silence
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frostedflakes
- Posts: 1608
- Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:02 pm
- Location: United States
Not sure how much money you want to dump into this project, but you may want to consider Gigabyte's iRAM card, which should be available in the next month. Load it up with as much RAM as you need (I'd assume 512MB to 1024MB would be more than enough for Linux and a few apps, but if not you could always add more). You'd probably be looking at $100-150 for the card and RAM, but this solution would be fast, silent, and should run fairly cool. This would free up all ethernet bandwidth for streaming.
Only potential problems I see with the Gigabyte card is its size. The iRAM is a very long card, and likely wouldn't fit in a mini-ITX case. It also requires an SATA slot, which I have yet to see on a VIA mini-ITX motherboard.
Another option would be a flash-based 2.5" or 3.5" disk. There were a couple 256MB industrial-grade (i.e. can handles many rewrites, unlike the flash memory found in most USB drives and CF cards) 2.5" flash drives on eBay a couple days ago. I don't think all of them sold, so if you'd be interested, let me know and I can get the seller's contact info for you. They were very cheap, like $25 shipped. You might even be able to talk the seller down lower. If 256MB isn't enough, buy two or three.
Just a few options I thought might be worth throwing out there.
Only potential problems I see with the Gigabyte card is its size. The iRAM is a very long card, and likely wouldn't fit in a mini-ITX case. It also requires an SATA slot, which I have yet to see on a VIA mini-ITX motherboard.
Another option would be a flash-based 2.5" or 3.5" disk. There were a couple 256MB industrial-grade (i.e. can handles many rewrites, unlike the flash memory found in most USB drives and CF cards) 2.5" flash drives on eBay a couple days ago. I don't think all of them sold, so if you'd be interested, let me know and I can get the seller's contact info for you. They were very cheap, like $25 shipped. You might even be able to talk the seller down lower. If 256MB isn't enough, buy two or three.
Just a few options I thought might be worth throwing out there.
What do you want to know about a file server? If you record as much TV as I do; then you will certainly need one (I have 2TB in a Coolermaster Stacker).
Bandwidth for MPEG2 is not a problem, I run 4 streams simultaneously over fast ehternet (haven't got enough client machines to try more), and these are all windows boxes. If you have Gigabit Ethernet, forget about problems; there won't be. Personally, I haven't found heat to be a problem; but I had to use a CM stacker to give enough room for the drives, and I think you'd probably have to try hard to make a system overheat in that, but I used fairly low power components so I can't really say. The Stacker is in an airing cupboard, (next to a very well insulated boiler -the clothes get a much better airing with the Stackers top blow hole, but I digress).
I reckon that as long as you don't put an overclocked P4 in your SAMBA server, you'll be fine doing that.
As a final note; runing Linux, I'd PXE boot the PVR (most linux kernels are quite happy doing this now I believe) and forget about the CF card.
Bandwidth for MPEG2 is not a problem, I run 4 streams simultaneously over fast ehternet (haven't got enough client machines to try more), and these are all windows boxes. If you have Gigabit Ethernet, forget about problems; there won't be. Personally, I haven't found heat to be a problem; but I had to use a CM stacker to give enough room for the drives, and I think you'd probably have to try hard to make a system overheat in that, but I used fairly low power components so I can't really say. The Stacker is in an airing cupboard, (next to a very well insulated boiler -the clothes get a much better airing with the Stackers top blow hole, but I digress).
I reckon that as long as you don't put an overclocked P4 in your SAMBA server, you'll be fine doing that.
As a final note; runing Linux, I'd PXE boot the PVR (most linux kernels are quite happy doing this now I believe) and forget about the CF card.
FYI I just finished building a raid5 box with the latest debian sarge build, using an old msi k8tneo w/an old amd64 3200+ clawhammer (zalman cnps 7000 al/cu). For boot I'm using a an old maxtor 40GB. Using 3xWD Cavier SE 250GB sata's in a hotswap enclosure (the fan on this enclosure - an icy dock - is an adda, but really loud so I will need to mod that).
Otherwise it was pretty easy, download and burn the 2xDVDs with jigdo-lite, then boot and install the 2.6 kernel. setup as a file server type system (you can always apt-get install gnome and apt-get install x-window-system if you want a gui later)
Once done, then modprobe cpufreq_userspace, modprobe powernow-k8, then run powernowd -m 2 (you may need to apt-get install powernowd) and oui la, cpufreq-info shows the cpu runnnig at 800Mhz. I then added the modules to /etc/modules, and changed the /etc/init.d/powernowd script's OPTIONS="-q" to OPTIONS="-q -m 2".
[edit ]
- you may also need to apt-get install mdadm
- also you need to remember to fdisk /dev/sd[abc] and create a new primary partition of type fd (linux auto raid)
[/edit]
To create the raid, I used:
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --auto=nd -v --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sd[abc]1
Then to create the filesystem:
mkfs.ext3 -j -v -c -c -E stride=64 /dev/md0
-c -c will do a lot of error checking (for me, > 10 hours) as it will write and read numerous test patterns (during which time the cpu freq bumped back up to 2Ghz).
To do:
- swap the 40GB w/a couple of raid1 80GBs
- buy another WD 250GB (the icy dock enclosure can take 4, so I have a spare slot)
- mod that darn adda fan!
- test if smartmontools (apt-get install smartmontools) utilities (smartctl, smartd) can work on the sata drives. According to the home page (http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net) it currently doesn't support sata, although there are some unofficial patches.
Notes: if you can fit 4-5 drives into your case, and you are not worried about hotswapping, you don't need the extra expense of buying an enclosure. As mentioned I used an old MB (although I am tempted to replace the hot clawhammer with a new cool sempron), but you could also buy a new sempron supported MB (as long as it can support 4xsata connections, or just buy a sata card) on the cheap.
Hope this helps
Otherwise it was pretty easy, download and burn the 2xDVDs with jigdo-lite, then boot and install the 2.6 kernel. setup as a file server type system (you can always apt-get install gnome and apt-get install x-window-system if you want a gui later)
Once done, then modprobe cpufreq_userspace, modprobe powernow-k8, then run powernowd -m 2 (you may need to apt-get install powernowd) and oui la, cpufreq-info shows the cpu runnnig at 800Mhz. I then added the modules to /etc/modules, and changed the /etc/init.d/powernowd script's OPTIONS="-q" to OPTIONS="-q -m 2".
[edit ]
- you may also need to apt-get install mdadm
- also you need to remember to fdisk /dev/sd[abc] and create a new primary partition of type fd (linux auto raid)
[/edit]
To create the raid, I used:
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --auto=nd -v --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sd[abc]1
Then to create the filesystem:
mkfs.ext3 -j -v -c -c -E stride=64 /dev/md0
-c -c will do a lot of error checking (for me, > 10 hours) as it will write and read numerous test patterns (during which time the cpu freq bumped back up to 2Ghz).
To do:
- swap the 40GB w/a couple of raid1 80GBs
- buy another WD 250GB (the icy dock enclosure can take 4, so I have a spare slot)
- mod that darn adda fan!
- test if smartmontools (apt-get install smartmontools) utilities (smartctl, smartd) can work on the sata drives. According to the home page (http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net) it currently doesn't support sata, although there are some unofficial patches.
Notes: if you can fit 4-5 drives into your case, and you are not worried about hotswapping, you don't need the extra expense of buying an enclosure. As mentioned I used an old MB (although I am tempted to replace the hot clawhammer with a new cool sempron), but you could also buy a new sempron supported MB (as long as it can support 4xsata connections, or just buy a sata card) on the cheap.
Hope this helps