Build for itunes movie storage

[lemoncade]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to build a PC to serve one purpose, itunes movies.

I like streaming movies from my pc to my apple tv. I want to build a tower just for this purpose. I'm thinking the most important part of the build will be storage.

I'm going to use this case:
COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

The rest of the build is still in the air. I do have a two power supplies laying around, one is 750 watt and one is 850 watt.

Looking for Motherboard, ram, hard drives, CPU, etc.

I'm not sure how fast this PC should be (CPU speed). Will the graphics card matter (Other than, you are not allowed to download HD movies without HD components, but I found a way around this).

thanks guys.

[David M]

How many movies do you think eventually? There are drives up to 3TB now. You cannot use a 3 TB drive as a boot drive yet, but an external 3TB drive is fast enough to stream HD movies.

I know a little something about copy protection and what you would need to do to get your idea to work. But according to the forum rules, we cannot go into the specifics of how to do this. I could PM you a great idea about a wonderful piece of software with respect to what I think you are thinking of doing, which technically is illegal under the DMCA.

In my opinion, if you paid for it, it is ethical for you to convert your media over to any storage format you wish.

We can though recommend a computer build with a gigantic drive or drives that you can do whatever you want with.

About how much do you want to spend?

Which brand PSU's and models do you already have?

[lemoncade]

I'm @ 1.8TB now. It requires 4TB because I back the drive up (2TB and 2TB backup). The more space the better tbh.

I'm hoping to get 12T in this thing. 6TB for space, and 6TB for backup. If I could cram more in, that would be great.

Power supplies are CORSAIR

The one I'd like to use is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139021

The 850 is a new CORSAIR as well. If it makes better sense to us it, I will. I also have a 950 CORSAIR saved for my gaming rig, but I could use it and re-order once the Sandy Bridge mess is sorted.

As far as money, I've already ordered the case, I have the power supply and I'd like to spend no more than 1200 (not including what I've already spent).

[lemoncade]

Originally Posted by David M I know a little something about copy protection and what you would need to do to get your idea to work. But according to the forum rules, we cannot go into the specifics of how to do this. I could PM you a great idea about a wonderful piece of software with respect to what I think you are thinking of doing, which technically is illegal under the DMCA.

I buy some of the movies from itunes. The rest are from my Blu-Ray collection.

I rip the Blu-ray to MKV, and then convert via Handbrake to ATV2. I then drop the movie in itunes to stream to my TV. Every movie is either an itunes purchase, or a backup of my own Blu-ray. Is backing up in this manner and adding to Itunes to play via Apple TV 2 illegal in any way?

[David M]

I don't know. The Apple part of it is legal because Apple sticks to the law although they do sell non-copy protected media now. I think the movie industry is most concerned about people making copies of the highest resolution movies which would be 1080p. They don't seem to freak out as much about people making copies at lower resolutions.

[lemoncade]

Can anyone suggest a motherboard that is reliable and has several Sata outputs? I would like to use all of the drives available in the case mentioned above for this build. I'm not sure how much ram would be good for this build either. 2g, 4g, more?

Would streaming to the apple tv even use my graphics card at all? Would I even need a good graphics card? If not, what would be a good choice?

[David M]

You don't need a powerful graphics card for streaming movies to your Apple TV or even to your monitor. Onboard graphics will work.

For a boot drive, you can have as much as 2 terabytes. For an external drive you can go higher. There are drives as high as 3 terabytes now. That's a LOT of movies especially if they are not 1080p HD movies.

I think you might start out with a single 2 terrabyte boot drive and then if you start to come close to filling it up then consider adding an external drive. I would consider a 2 terrabyte WD green drive as your boot drive. It's not the fastest drive, but you won't hear it clicking away during a movie. You will probably want to get an ultra quiet PSU, a quiet case and a very quiet CPU fan so you don't have to listen to those either during a movie...or just try to ignore a bunch of fans whirring away or banish the computer to another room and run a long data or video cable...whichever the case it is with an Apple TV.

I'm not up on the most suitable Intel board for you but glc or someone else will know.

I would get four gigs of RAM minimum. RAM is so cheap now you could get eight but I can't imagine your OS and media player software ever needing more than 4 gigs. Get Windows 7 64 so you still have the option of going to 8 gigs if you ever need it.

[lemoncade]

I have almost filled 2Tb already. To be honest, the 2TB drive is recognized as 1.81TB. I have it nearly full. Almost all of my movies are 720p and are around 2.5 - 3.5 GB each.

I stream the movies from my PC to my Apple TV2 via wireless 5Ghz. The media/itunes computer is in my office. I use it to stream movies and audio to home stereo and TVs. I want to add an Apple TV to all rooms in my home. This way, anyone in any room in the house can stream a huge library of music and movies. I really hate running around looking for a DVD/Bluray/CD etc.. It's just clutter after a few hundred.

My goal is to have a wireless stereo/movie library available in every room of my home.

I would like to build a computer to last, and get good load times.

Using External storage (as I am now) create some lag when you access the drive and it was in sleep mode. I 'think' internal drives will not have this issue.

Any help picking out parts to build a reliable machine with several hard drives would be appreciated.

[glc]

Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 3MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I32100

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9

Boot drive: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Storage drives: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Put the boot drive and the optical on the SATA 6.0 controller, and you will have room for 4 storage drives. If you run out of space, then you can start using USB 3.0 externals.

[lemoncade]

Thank you for your time