Need Help with new build(s)

[CountCrackula]

At the end of the day, I would like to have a NAS (mainly for storage and backup, but also some streaming), an HTPC able to handle 4k (video playback, not necessarily gaming), and I already have my gaming rig that is capable for 4k gaming as well as VR. I am not sure of the smartest or most cost efficient way to do this, and am getting lost ready forums, watching videos, etc... I would like this to be as seamless as possible, and would like to not spend too much while still building a very solid setup.

 

Current Rig

Windows 7

3x512 SSDs

1x4 TB HDD

2x3 GB external HDD

ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero

980TI hybrid

CX750M power supply

i5-4690K OC'ed to ~3.9 (water cooled by Corsair H115

4x8 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM

 

This is currently being shared between my Samsung SUHD 4K TV, and several other monitors for gaming and regular use. I have thought about the Steam Link and other things but feel that a NAS and HTPC are a better long term solution.

 

Ideally I would like to be able to spread out my systems through the house, and not suffer from wifi latency or anything like that. With a NAS is it essential to go with such a high end drive like a WD red or green? I would prefer cloning (Raid 0?) with slightly cheaper drives and then if one dies it isn't the end of the world. I would like to start off with around 4-8 TB for my NAS with room to expand. Being able to steam to other devices (phone, kindle, ipad) from NAS would be kinda nice but not essential.

 

One thing I have been thinking about it (although it is a bit over my head ATM), would be to use virtualization to simply turn my gaming rig into a NAS (per the linus video), and then just build a reasonable HTPC but am just not sure if that is the way to go. I would like this to be reasonably simple to setup, with as little maintenance over time required as possible.

 

Extra Parts I have to work with:

EVGA 960 superclocked

Corsair 500W psu

256 GB SSD

I also have an i5-4690K that I just found!

Thanks for any help that you guys/gals can give! I'd be grateful from anything from common knowledge/tips, to complete build guides, or even options that I am not aware of!

Edited April 22, 2017 by CountCrackula

[Droidbot]

I'd say do double duty - roll the NAS into the HTPC! 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($59.48 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock H270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($105.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($49.88 @ Newegg) 
Storage: SK hynix SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($80.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Best Buy) 
Video Card: *Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 2GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($73.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Mini ITX Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $955.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-21 12:26 EDT-0400

 

Something like this. Pentium is an i3 6100 clocked 200Mhz lower, so not much, and there's 16TB of WD Red storage. The difference between Red and Blue (or NAS vs Consumer) is that consumer drives are built to be used for short spurts of 1-12h, whereas WD Reds are validated and built from the ground up for reliability and 24/7 operation. RX460 is enough for 4k video playback, even light party games and game streaming. 

 

If you're looking for Plex or other video streaming uses, take a look at the Ryzen 5 lineup from AMD, but you WILL have to switch mobo and case, as there is no Ryzen ITX mobos at the moment. 

 

[CountCrackula]

I like the general idea but I believe that the smaller the pc case in the living room, the happier my lady will ultimately be...

[Droidbot]

2 minutes ago, CountCrackula said:

I like the general idea but I believe that the smaller the pc case in the living room, the happier my lady will ultimately be...

have a look at that case. it's bloody small for the amount of space it offers

[CountCrackula]

Fair enough. I should use my i-5 instead since I already have it right? Then could I theoretically use my weaker PC as a sort of "steam machine" utilizing my main rigs graphical prowess?

 

[Droidbot]

4 minutes ago, CountCrackula said:

Fair enough. I should use my i-5 instead since I already have it right? Then could I theoretically use my weaker PC as a sort of "steam machine" utilizing my main rigs graphical prowess?

 

Well, you could take your 4690k out of your main system and buy a new chip to put in there (I suggest e3-1231v3 as it's essentially an i7 4770 for $240 brand new)  Scrap that, use the 4690k that you found somehow haha

 

And use that on the server with the AsRock H97I-AC, which is $160 at the moment. But since the 4690k is a high watt chip it could make some noise when in a small case.

[CountCrackula]

Noise isnt a huge issue for me... I have loud surround sound speakers

[CountCrackula]

So do you think it would be easy enough for a novice to set up the gaming rig/NAS and keep it stable?

 

 

[Droidbot]

Yeah, just learn how to use basic stuff like Windows drive sharing, etc, and you'll be fine. Run a 10-foot interface like the Alienware Alpha's HiveMind interface (you can download it from a lot of places) on top of Windows and you'll be fine for light gaming/HTPC use. 

[CountCrackula]

Windows drive sharing client side? I imagined I'd run some Linux veriant as the actual server since its free

 

[CountCrackula]

Is there anything else I can do since I'll have an OP CPU inside of it that I'm not thinking of?

[Droidbot]

Just now, CountCrackula said:

Windows drive sharing client side? I imagined I'd run some Linux veriant as the actual server since its free

 

if you're rolling it into 1 machine, Windows is the best imho

otherwise Windows for HTPC 

and Linux or Windows for NAS

 

Windows > Windows HDD sharing can be done on Client versions like Win10, etc. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770880(v=ws.11).aspx

[CountCrackula]

Isn't windows server ed like several hundred $?

 

[CountCrackula]

Does that mean I'll need to upgrade from 7 to 10? I'd rather not, but figured I would probably have to eventually

 

[Droidbot]

It works on 7 as well, don't worry about that. I've had my home server running 7 and HDD sharing worked fine to 10 and 8.1 systems

[CountCrackula]

Ok cool. How many Linux server distros are out there? Is any one obviously the best?

 

[Droidbot]

There's loads, try Ubuntu Server for noobs to the OS. I run OpenMediavault myself. 

[CountCrackula]

Thx. 1 Last question. I have heard that Kaby Lake is the only CPU capable of (I believe) streaming 4k Video. Does that apply here or is that only for like netflix, or what? If that's the case do the new AMD cards allow 4k streaming?

[Droidbot]

That's 4k netflix, which ONLY works on Edge.

Stupid, I know.

It's due to a DRM module integrated on the processor