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[JONCAT]

I have been mulling over some options for my system here, and I 'd like to make an HTPC, in a sense. I'll actually be using a 32" LCD (yes I convinced the wife!) as my PC monitor and for movies (we don't have cable, just rabbit ears). So I have been thinking about wireless options and firewire, none of which seem appealing to me because I like to have speed and reliability, but I'd like to hear your experiences.

I have a firewire enclosure but the PCI card I was using needed replacement before I could really use it. I popped an HD in the enclosure and things were running really slow; I later assumed it was because of the bad PCI card (anything 5.15volts or lower on the 5v rail would lock the PC or prevent boot).

In a fast PC that is rigged for stability & speed w/ 1GB of memory, and decent mem bandwith, 400mHz, what kind of performance can I expect from firewire hard drives?


I was thinking of setting up a media server, but it sounds slow even at 125mb with Afterburner enabled on my Sveasoft firmware, and what if I have a lot of traffic bogging down my network; VoiP, uploads, downloads, etc.
I have pretty much ruled out any wireless solution except in the future using the MC11 UPnP server to stream to a Terratec Noxon.


Lastly, I need to have my EMU1212M near my analog archiving rig so it would work nicely to build an HTPC that would actually house my current rig. I am used to the speed of my WD 10000rpm Raptor hard drive and thought it would be nice to have two of them on a RAID 0 array, but that means a new motherboard (yes I am getting greedy).

My current setup is silent, and I am afraid even with low volting fans and good heatsinks etc. I will still heat up the system with something like 4 HD's (especially w/ 2 Raptors) and a hot ATI9800. Firewire would solve some problems in this regard because I could keep my current setup and just add a 500GB external, but only if it would be somewhat fast with read/writes. I have spent 2 years with this DFI motherboard and tweaked the OS (which is the only thing on the Raptor until it was perfect; I have been saving an image and occasionally re-flashing at problem times for two years...it's hard to let go when you get something like Window$ to run stable and efficient.

Guess I am just talking out loud here, but I know there are MANY folks here who will some great input.

thanks,
Jon

[Alex B]

... In a fast PC that is rigged for stability & speed w/ 1GB of memory, and decent mem bandwith, 400mHz, what kind of performance can I expect from firewire hard drives? ...

The real life transfer speed should be about 25-30 MB/s (when the data amount is bigger than the drive's buffer). I have tested that with an integrated Intel controller and Maxtor OneTouch 7200 rpm drives.

Access times seem to be fast enough. I have not experienced any slow downs when compared with my internal drives.

... Guess I am just talking out loud here, but I know there are MANY folks here who will some great input.

Hmm... Would you like to ask more questions?

 

[Mastiff]

I have a suggestion: Newer motherboards often support external S-ATA disks. I have an Asus P5E something, and it has a slot thingy where you can plug in two S-ATA disks. Seems rather nice. (Even though I use a Stacker case with room and airflow for 20 disks, at least!)

[dcpete]

I will tell you that the ATI 9800 is a huge heat producer and far outweighs the heat a bunch of drives will produce - if ventilated properly.  I have a office computer with a 9800 on one side of my desk.  The other side has a new media server.  I have 5 drives in the media server in a Thermaltek Tsunami Dream case (great case btw).  It runs significantly cooler than my office computer with the 9800 in it.  I installed a heatsink/fan on the 9800 and fans throughout that case.  I've removed all the drives, but one.  It's still hotter.  Sure, the picture is outstanding with the 9800, but I don't think I would do it over again.  It's just insane how much heat the 9800 generates.

[Alex B]

I will tell you that the ATI 9800 is a huge heat producer and far outweighs the heat a bunch of drives will produce - if ventilated properly.  I have a office computer with a 9800 on one side of my desk.  The other side has a new media server.  I have 5 drives in the media server in a Thermaltek Tsunami Dream case (great case btw).  It runs significantly cooler than my office computer with the 9800 in it.  I installed a heatsink/fan on the 9800 and fans throughout that case.  I've removed all the drives, but one.  It's still hotter.  Sure, the picture is outstanding with the 9800, but I don't think I would do it over again.  It's just insane how much heat the 9800 generates.

That's why I chose Radeon 9600 for my HTPC. It has never been too slow and the picture quality is as good.

[JONCAT]

The 9800 is hot bugger, I put an 80mm Panaflo on it and removed the little jet engine that was on there; it runs fun but the GPA gets way hot.

Alex B, are you using the 9600 AIW?

I'll look into those external S-ATA mb's...but the I am starting to think firewire will provide the path of least resistance. 2 years ago I'd be happy to set up a new OS on a new mb, now I am just too busy and too tired to do it, although thoughts of a Raid 0 Raptor array get me a little energized.

I am looking at HTPC cases mostly.

JC

[Alex B]

Alex B, are you using the 9600 AIW?

No, just the basic model with passive cooling. I have a separate BrookTree circuit based TV card (Hercules SmartTV Stereo). I have used it mainly for inputting S-Video signal. Its tuner is not good enough for a big TV screen. I rather use my S-VHS VCR as a tuner if I like to record something with the PC.

[Mastiff]

Well, if your display device is of low quality of course the 9600 will do. But on higher end systems nothing below a GT6600 will be sufficient - getting a quality improvement that compares to a 2000 dollars (at least) projector upgrade for 150 dollars is too good to skip! Going from a 9800 to a 6800 on my HTPC (soon to be replaced by a newer model with a PCI-E GT6600) was that much of an improvement on my CRT projector.

[dcpete]

I am used to the speed of my WD 10000rpm Raptor hard drive and thought it would be nice to have two of them on a RAID 0 array

I'm kind of curious.  What type of things do you notice an impovement on?  I shyed away from those 10,000 rpm drives on my Media Server because of heat, noise and I just didn't need the speed.  I had some old 10,000 rpm SCSI drives that I used as a boot drive on an older machine.  Sure it seemed like it booted faster, but compared to my newer machines it's now seems slow.  These days I'm into capacity, not speed.  Also Raid 0 seems unsafe.  No redundency.  But if you can justify the need for speed, more power to you.

Chris

[JONCAT]

I agree with you on many counts as I am also into capacity. The RAID 0 array would house the OS and software which would be backed up with an image. All storage would be on IDE and in the future maybe firewire. Maybe I should consider some Seagate 7200 RPM drives instead, less heat and quieter. The allure of the Raptors may be just that. This system will be my main rig so I get tempted to go overboard. Right now its in a closet behind my stereo but in the future, once built, it will be out in the room on an A/V stand. Right now, the hard drives can be heard accessing, I think it's prob. the Raptor.

JC

[JONCAT]

Are you gaming or watching TV/Movies. I have gotten a few responses in other forums stating NO DIFFERENCE between DVD playback on a 9800 or 9600 AIW card. I assumed that picking up an X800XT AIW would be a step up and work well with a 32" LCD; opinions?

I am considering giving my 9800 to my brother since he is more of a gamer and I watch movies. So the passive 9600 AIW looks nice. The AIW's are nice but some other cards may fit the bill, I'll have to look around. Does the Hercules SmartTV have S-Video & Audio input to archive stuff from a VCR/TV (I too want to use my rabbit ears through my S-VHS).

JC