grumpy4869

Hello LTT gurus! I am moving into the planning stage for the second part of my home setup and need some help. Phase 2 consists of prepping my computer, network and digital storage systems to support phase 3 (a/v upgrades). Before I start, I completely understand that I most definitely have a 1st world problem. For an overview, my current setup is as follows (please don't take this as bragging, there are a lot of people out there who have much better setups than my own and I am always cognizant of how lucky I am to be in my particular position and I am only giving this information out to provide a full picture of what I have going on). 4300 sq/ft two story home with finished basement (three floors that my project touches) Basement setup: ALL CAT5e runs and all audio prewire for entire house terminate in basement utility closet that contains large Internet equipment wall box. From there (in the same utility closet), some of my router ports are fed to a strong series 27u A/V cabinet that contains a Blu Ray player, Control4 hub, directv box, 24 port poe ethernet switch, and a Denon AV receiver. The basement is pre-wired for 3 zones of audio and three tvs though nothing is currently plugged in down there. Zone 1=7.2 surround sound and theater area video prewire. Zone 2=2 channel audio for ceiling speakers over pool table. Zone 3=2 channel audio for ceiling speakers over poker table. 1 video and ethernet only area (not really a zone - no audio prewire) in the basement bedroom. On the main floor is set up as follows: zone 4=5.1 prewire in formal livingroom area with video (nothing plugged in this zone), zone 5=5.1 prewire with video run connected to Samsung TV in informal living room that everyone actually uses, office with dual ethernet ports with the following equipment in it: desktop computer- Asus Rampage V Extreme MB Intel 5930k Asus 3.1 USB Type A Card 16GB DDR4 Corsair Dominator Ram@2133 Intel 750 400GB PCIe SSD (OS/Programs drive) Samsung Evo 512GB SSD (Docs drive) 4-WD Red 2TB HHD~in RAID10 config (Photos/Videos and Music drive) Corsair H110GT AIO~in push/pull 2-Asus Strix 980 Corsair AX860 PSU ROG Front Base Asus BW-12B1ST Blu Ray Writer 3-Asus VN248 monitors 8-120mm Corsair SP fans Networked printer/scanner/fax WD cloud NAS (backup for all appropriate clients in the house) Top floor setup: loft Zone 6=5.1 and video prewire with old large protection style TV. Master bedroom zone 7=2 channel audio with video. Cat5e wired for WiFi repeater in attic. Outside setup: zone 8 (backyard) , zone 9 (side yard), zone 10 (front porch) each wired for 2 channel audio. In addition, we have multiple clients that use the Internet throughout the house. We have 2 laptops, 4 iPads, two cell phones, one TV, directv box & Blu Ray player in sons room, 1 TV, directv box & Blu Ray player in daughters room, 1 xbox1 in master bedroom, 1 Xbox 360 and 1 Playstation3 (xb1 and ps3 plugged into old projection TV in loft). I'm sure I missed some stuff, but that is the bulk of it. Currently the ONLY things that are integrated with the control 4 are the informal livingroom, the living room Nest thermostat, and the basement nest thermostat. This consists of the Samsung TV, directv box, Blu Ray, and receiver pushing out to 5.1 in the living room from the basement. Backstory: my wife managed to blow up the plasma in our bedroom and I am going to replace it. I am probably going to move the Samsung TV from the living to the master bedroom and get an OLED to put into the living room. Goals: ultimately, i think my goals fall into 4 buckets: network, audio, video, ancillary crap Network: I want to have all of my content available via any client that I chose. I would like to have a central repository of content that all clients can access on demand and simultaneously should the need arise. I would also like to have true backups of important data from my main pc, phones, iPads, and laptops. I currently save ISOs of my main PC, laptop, and phones to the WD cloud and then copy that drive to a backup drive that otherwise lives in a fireproof gun safe. Audio: the ability to play any audio file and use of audio apps (iheartradio, Pandora, etc) on demand, simultaneously and asynchronously (for example - I want to be able to play Pandora throughout all audio zones in the house AND have the ability to let the kids play Xbox with surround sound for their games while the wife and I enjoy a movie with the master bedroom audio). Video: I would like to have all video sources throughout the house have the capability to access any video content simultaneously and asynchronously. (for example I want my son to be able to watch a Blu Ray in his room, while my daughter watches a family video from a digital family album, while I watch the Super Bowl in the theater, while my wife watches cooking videos from YouTube in the master bedroom. AND I want the ability to embarrass my kids with baby pictures on every TV in the house at the same time - I couldn't think of another reason for wanting this capability). Ancillary crap: we have pre-wired the house for touchscreen controls throughout various strategic locations throughout the house (I think we pre-wired for 6 touchpads). In addition, I would like to integrate my garage door, blinds, and lights into one user friendly interface via the control4. Finally, I would like to be able to control all of this via my office pc, laptop, iPad, phones, touchscreens or remotely from work. Anyhow, my most immediate concerns are how to set up my network and PCs to accommodate phase 3 of this project which will be to set up a theater area in the loft (instead of the basement as was previously planned), set up audio throughout the house, and set up video in the master bedroom. So I am now looking into NAS storage, obviously beyond my current WD cloud. I think that a large central server that contains all of my audio/video/other data would be the way to go. I am currently thinking that this NAS needs to have at least 50Tb with room for expansion. Ideally, this will be a rack mounted server (I don't really care how loud it gets, the utility closet is sound and thermal insulated). Does this sound about right? Do I need to or should I build another PC dedicated to HTPC use to put in the utility closet? I am probably going to upgrade my monitors to 2k or 4k monitors with better refresh rates and will replace the 2 980s in the office pc with 2 1080s and build a custom waterloo. That would mean that I would then have 2 980s left over. I could use 1 of those gpus to run physx and one in a high end htpc that I could build. I could also use the AiO cooler from that same rig and throw it in the HTPC. I am a bit lost as to whether or not I need to build an HTPC and what specs are important for a NAS build to support all that I am trying to do with my system. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Assume a budget of $7500 for the networking/NAS portion of this project. Thanks much for all of your help. And sorry for the crazy long post!

Hello all, so I completed this build and now I am looking into upgrades. Specs for those who don't feel like reading the whole thread: Asus Rampage V Extreme MB Intel 5930k~rock solid overclock at 4.2Ghz Asus 3.1 USB Type A Card 16GB DDR4 Corsair Dominator Ram@2133 Intel 750 400GB PCIe SSD (OS/Programs drive) Samsung Evo 512GB SSD (Docs drive) 4-WD Red 2TB HHD~in RAID10 config (Photos/Videos and Music drive) Corsair H110GT AIO~in push/pull configuration 2-Asus Strix 980~slight overclock in SLI Corsair AX860 PSU ROG Front Base Asus BW-12B1ST Blu Ray Writer Cooler Master Wired Keyboard and Mouse Combo 3-Asus VN248 monitors 8-120mm Corsair SP fans (never seen a temp higher than 76C on any of the four probes monitoring PC) I am looking at changing out the Asus 980's for two Nvidia 1080's. But then I would have two 980's laying around. So I am thinking that I will get two 1080's and put those into SLI and then use one of the 980's to run PhysX and use the other 980 as the graphics card for my upcoming HTPC build. I know that the 980 in an HTPC is total overkill, but that beats a graphics card sitting around not being used. My question is more if it would be completely unnecessary to run two 1080's with a separate card for Physx support. Is this even possible with the 1080's cards? I know that they limit SLI to two cards on the 1080's because of both lanes of the SLI bridge being utilized. But I would think that given that the Physx support card does not utilize an SLI bridge, it should be possible. I know that this is WAAAYYYY overkill for my current monitors. But I may be upgrading my 3 current monitors to 3 4k monitors in the not so distant future. Thoughts? Sorry for the old thread resurrection. It has been a while since I referenced specifics of my build and wanted to be accurate.

So I have been doing some more research and I am a little confused on some basic points. To accomplish my goal of streaming my ripped blu rays, dvd's and music to any capable client in my home do I need both an HTPC AND a media server or just a media server with something like plex or Kodi installed on it? Is there any benefit to going with one rather than the other if both a media server and an HTPC are not required?

Hello all, so I dismantled the 540 and found that I am likely only going to use the case based off of the MB and CPU combo. So here is my first attempt at a new build using this case and some research on my part. Let me know what you think! http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C2dd23 Let me know what you think!

Thanks for clarifying. I just checked my settings and Cache is definitely enabled. The option that I selected was "read only." I am not sure which disk the cache is utilizing though. In any case, I don't think that it is super relevant in my particular usage model as I am just using the array to store photo's and videos that aren't accessed often. If the operating system was on my RAID array, this would have been more important I think.

I'm sorry, I am not understanding your post. My goal was to have a RAID 10 setup as a file storage for my large library of videos and pictures. I wanted my documents and other office product stuff on my 840 pro. And I wanted my programs and OS on the Intel 750 SSD (which is obviously my boot drive). This is what I have accomplished with my instructions above. I did not want my OS on the RAID array. I thought the purpose of RST was to set up and maintain RAID arrays and that is what I used it for. I use Intel SSD toolbox to optimize the Intel 750 performance and Samsung Magician to optimize the performance of the Samsung Pro. Am I missing something?

Thanks Sam Z Man, I thought about that setup also. The problem with that is the GPU is too big and would not allow me to make the connections needed at the bottom of the board. Even with the SSD in the bottom slot, I had to put a significant amount of strain on a couple of connectors at the bottom of the board and the SSD is only half as thick as the GPU's. I think I may be in a bot of a catch 22 position at this point. Short of going with a 2.5" version with a hyperkit, I think that this will have to do.

I have this drive and booting from it is very easy. I would even go so far as to say that it was actually easier to set this drive up than my Samsung 840 pro drive. Also, I just completed my first build (using this as one of my many drives) and it literally took me 3 minutes to install the thing, get set as the boot drive and begin the windows installation process. Overall, probably a 15 minute job including the install time. I will however agree that this drive takes longer to boot than my 840 pro did.

So to update some things that deviated from my original plan 1. for those that know their cases, you can see that the Corsair 760t comes with Red LED fans when the case is black. I swapped out every fan with white Corsair LED fans because the red ones drowned out too much color 2. the H110 GT CPU cooler ended up with a push/pull configuration because I had extra fan headers and extra fans. But because of the CPU power plug placement on the MB, this necessitated that I break off the middle corner hub things at the bottom to make room for the plugs. You can see this in the last picture above. 3. I wasn't going to put a bottom fan in originally but decided to after realizing that my case was actually in a negative pressure state. Added this fan to help along with a filter mounted underneath the case 4. The LED light strip is uber bright. I added this because the case was really dark at night and I wanted to get more punch. 5. The cable management needs drastic improvement. It was going pretty well until I kept adding stuff outside of my original plan. 6. I wish that the SLI indicator lights matched the rest of the system there (red and white lights, the SLI ones are orange). Overall, I am pretty happy with this build. It seems to run great so long as it is shut down properly. File transfers a super fast, it looks great, is very quiet, and low in temperature. I'll post some benchmarks when I get a chance and also post my screen setup when the Ergotech gets here.

More pics

Updated Pics of Current State

Hello all, as promised I am updating this thread now that I have completed this build. I am currently running 4 WD Red's in RAID 10, one Samsung 840 Evo in AHCI, and one Intel 750 PCIe in NVMe all on the same motherboard. Here is how I accomplished this. 1. updated BIOS to ensure NVMe support 2. physically installed WD Red's and Intel 750 3. verified that NVMe drive was present in boot settings under NVMe 4. changed all SATA ports that had drives plugged in to SATA in the UEFI 5. UEFI installed Windows 8.1 onto Intel 750 6. booted into windows and installed all updates 7. downloaded Intel RST package 8. Initialized WD drives with Intel RST (you may or may not have to complete this step. My drives were brand new so I had to do it. Note: this process takes a long time to complete-mine took 10 hours overnight) 9. rebooted computer and went into the Intel RST BIOS utility (CTRL+I during POST) 10. created RAID 10 array and added WD Red's to array (the Intel 750 did not even show up on this screen as it is not RAIDable with this utility apparently) 11. Rebooted into windows 12. went into disk management in Windows and formatted the RAID array (now showing as one large drive) and assigned drive letter S: (you can set it as whatever letter you want that is available) 13. Rebooted computer and set UEFI to only boot from Intel 750 14. Shut down computer 15. physically installed Samsung EVO 16. set corresponding SATA port to AHCI in UEFI (note: my boot drive for Windows was the Intel drive only so I did not get any of the boot errors or BSOD that users commonly get when changing this setting after a Windows install-as far as Windows was concerned, the Samsung Evo was just another storage drive with crap on it) 17. set UEFI to ignore Samsung Evo as a boot drive 18. booted into windows 19. transferred desired files from Samsung Evo to my desired drives on new build-my pictures and my videos contents to RAID 10 array and my documents and my music to Intel 750 (yes I backed up this data before doing this) 20. went into disk management and reformatted Samsung Evo (it was used on a previous computer and had windows 7 and a bunch of other stuff on it i.e the stuff that I just transferred from this drive to my other drives) 21. set drive letter to R: (see note on step 12) 22. moved my documents and my music folders back to Samsung Evo 23. used test files to ensure that everything was working correctly 24. ran benchmarks to assess performance-it is awesome for my needs

Hello LTT! Update on this build the tower is built! I have an Ergotech triple monitor stand being delivered tomorrow and will set up the screens on Friday. But the computer POST's fine and windows 8.1 is installed. I have overclocked the CPU to 4.4Ghz and the 980's are in SLI and both slightly overclocked (I'll get my exact overclock specs tonight when I get home). Windows 8.1 is installed on the Intel 750 PCIe SSD, I cannabalized the 840 Evo from my old system which I am using to store my documents and my music, and the RAID 10 array is being used to store my pictures and my videos. Also, I ended up with 3 Asus VN248 monitors instead of the VN247's that I listed previously. I am split on whether I want to use this as an HTPC at all now. I have the old studio 540 looking sad and useless so I may repurpose that. Also, I may rededicate my WD mycloud EX4 as a media server and back up to a seagate 4TB external hard drive that I have no alternative use for. Any thoughts on this? Things I am still waiting on: 1. another RAM light kit from Corsair 2. new IO panel from Corsair (to change power and reset buttons from Red to White) 3. Ergotech triple monitor desk stand 4. ROG SLI bridge (backordered) 5. PCIe USB 3.1 add in card I'll post pictures of the build in its current state tonight. Questions for you guys: I used the AAFP connection on my MB for the ROG front base. However, my case also uses AAFP for it's headphone jack. I am anal about having things that don't work. Will an AAFP splitter from this connection cause any problems? Will that allow for two sets of headphones or just one at a time? My Intel 750 sits REALLY close to my bottom 980 graphics cards. It doesn't interfere with the fans at all (I have checked and rechecked) but will this cause any long term problems? Basically, it covers one half of one fan. I will try to get a decent pic tonight. It has to sit either there or right underneath the top card because of the PCIE layout. I have been monitoring temps and the bottom card runs about 3-4*C hotter than the top card during benchmarking. But neither card ever exceeds 70*C; even after repeated benchmarking at overclock settings. I have gone through the Nvidia configuration tool and determined that I need to plug all of my monitors into the top card in order to remain in SLI. These monitors only support HDMI, however. So I plan to use the single HDMI connection on the top card and two display port to HDMI adapters to provide signal to the other two monitors. Should these be active or passive adapters? Thanks all for all of your support and encouragement throughout this process!

Hello LTT community, I recently completed my first PC that I have dubbed Golaith:). This means that I have an old PC laying around that I want to repurpose and integrate into my home somehow. The specs on this PC are as follows: Dell Studio 540 Case Intel Core2 Duo@2.83Ghz 4x2Gb DDR3 generic ram (probably at 1333Mhz-I didn't check before cannabalizing for new build Nvidia GeForce 9800GT GPU Seagate 750Gb 7200RPM HDD Coolermaster 400w power supply (ancient) Generic LAN card Generic LGA775 Motherboard The specs on my home are as follows: Outside-3 zones of 2 channel audio (integrated into Control4 system) Main Floor: Main living room-65" Samsung TV, local Samsung Blu Ray player & 5.1 surround (integrated into Control4 system) Family Room-5.1 Surround integrated with Control 4 Audio (will likely never be used but convinced the wife that she may change her mind later when we were building the house) Office-Golaith:), WD Mycloud EX4, Networked HP 8610 printer Basement: Home theater prepped with 7.1 surround tied to Control4 system (set up for 105" projection screen), 2 additional 2 channel audio zones integrated into Control4 system), 27u Strong box containing DTV Genie (Main DVR), Xbox 360 Upstairs: Loft-5.1 surround integrated with Control4, Playstation 3 (used only for blu ray capabilities) Master bedroom-2 channel audio integrated with Control4, 55" insignia plasma (old but still great), DTV DVR (non-Genie), XboxOne (I know, I know, it was a birthday present from the wife) My original plan when building this house was to have a unified system that was seamless for my wife to use while having access to some advanced features such as airplay, temperature control, & streaming media (especially movies) without having to put in discs and do slide shows for family get-togethers. But I feel like my entire system is beginning to become fragmented. I am hoping that building either a dedicated HTPC (Code name David) or media server with Kodi will at least solve the problem of having to put in Blu Ray discs. I am not averse to building a new HTPC to be used solely for media duties, but I don't know where to start when it comes to required specs for 1080p viewing (VERY distant plans for 4k upgrades-like 5-10 years distant). My question is what to do with this old Dell Studio. I have a substantial media library to include a ton of CD's, boxes upon boxes DVD's and shelves of Blu Rays. I am not sure how to repurpose this old computer into either a media server or HTPC. I am also not sure of the difference between an HTPC and media server. I am not super concerned with noise as it will likely live in my office. If not there then it will be relegated to my AV cabinet in the basement. The only useable parts that I can see going forward would be the hard drive and case. Questionable items include the video card, processor, RAM, and motherboard. Items to definitely replace are the power supply (ungodly coil whine and age), and LAN card (I don't know what band it is rated for but it probably isn't even N band). What would you all do in this situation?

I actually really like the wireless keyboard and mouse that I use in my current setup. It is a microsoft 6000 keyboard and a logitech m705 mouse. I know that there is such better equipment available on both of these fronts but i really like them. I guess I could chalk that up to years of use. Kind of like that old backpack or that tattered shirt that one refuses to get rid of. But to answer your question, I was researching if these wireless products would work to set up bios without an operating system (and hence any drivers) installed. Some people said yes and some people said no. I was at microcenter anyway and just picked up a wired mouse and keyboard for ~40 which was the most I was willing to pay for something that I probably won't absolutely love anyway. But if anyone know where I can find a wireless, backlit, curved, nonsplit keyboard and comfy mouse, please point me in the right direction.