Hi all I'm going to be building my first htpc here in the next week or so and have a few questions. I want it to serve as a htpc/nas box. I will be using windows 8 pro with media center as the OS. I've bought the guide on here on how to convert W8 to a windows 8 server and look forward to reading it. I have experience using whs 11 as a NAS but this will be first foray into the htpc world. So I don't know much of anything about the software side of that. You know, using wmc, xbmc, etc....
I thought about using whs 11 again but after doing a little reading it doesn't sound like that is really geared toward htpc use. Mainly because I plan on putting an infinitv 4 cable card tuner into the pc eventually and getting rid of the TiVo and their fees. From what I've read the infinitv needs wmc as the guide and from what I've read you can't install wmc on whs 11 without doing some virtulization and such and I just don't want to deal with that. Is all that true. Is whs not ideal for a htpc? I'm also open to using windows 7. Is there any reason I might want to use windows 7 over 8?
I've used plex media server before to stream to a roku. I'm not familiar with xbmc but I've heard they are very similar. Is there a reason to choose one over the other?
On to the hardware. I'm going to be using i7-4770 as the processor. I have that, a motherboard and a silverstone htpc case on the way. All the other components.....ram, hard drives, psu, optical drives I already have....
Regarding the i7-4770. It has HD 4600 integrated graphics which from what I've read is pretty good. Probably overkill overall but hey I like to spend money. I also have a gtx 670 graphics card I'm not using at the moment. Would it even be worth it put it in there? I'm not aware of any software(besides video editing) that makes much use out of discrete graphics. I don't think any of the software most folks have in htpcs would make use of a discrete graphics card as far as transcoding and such do they? I don't want to put it in if it's basically going to sit there and do nothing.
On to storage. I have a 180gb SSD I will be putting the os and software on. I have 4 2TB grad drives I'm going to set up in a raid. I was thinking raid 5 or 10. Raid 5 gives you more storage(6TB) but performance wise is slow on the write side. Raid 10 gives you exceptional performance all the way around but you get less storage(4TB). I believe you can also lose a disk in each mirror in raid 10 so maybe a little better in that regard too. Thoughts? Is the write performance of raid 5 not really an issue and worth the extra 2TB?
And lastly, what would be a good remote? I have a harmony one, just need to get an IR receiver for it. Does the harmony one work well with htpc's? I have an ipad and I see that there are apps for wmc, xbmc, and plex. Even one for remotely logging on windows. I wonder if the ipad I already have is good enough? I've seen this:
http://www.amazon.com/iWiser-MEASY-Infrared-Wireless-Keyboard/dp/B009CS6AQ4
And this:
http://www.amazon.com/Cideko-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-AVK02/dp/B0058FAYP8
Both look like they might work well.
Anything you all can add or comment on would be appreciated.
I thought about using whs 11 again but after doing a little reading it doesn't sound like that is really geared toward htpc use. Mainly because I plan on putting an infinitv 4 cable card tuner into the pc eventually and getting rid of the TiVo and their fees. From what I've read the infinitv needs wmc as the guide and from what I've read you can't install wmc on whs 11 without doing some virtulization and such and I just don't want to deal with that. Is all that true. Is whs not ideal for a htpc? I'm also open to using windows 7. Is there any reason I might want to use windows 7 over 8?
I've used plex media server before to stream to a roku. I'm not familiar with xbmc but I've heard they are very similar. Is there a reason to choose one over the other?
On to the hardware. I'm going to be using i7-4770 as the processor. I have that, a motherboard and a silverstone htpc case on the way. All the other components.....ram, hard drives, psu, optical drives I already have....
Regarding the i7-4770. It has HD 4600 integrated graphics which from what I've read is pretty good. Probably overkill overall but hey I like to spend money. I also have a gtx 670 graphics card I'm not using at the moment. Would it even be worth it put it in there? I'm not aware of any software(besides video editing) that makes much use out of discrete graphics. I don't think any of the software most folks have in htpcs would make use of a discrete graphics card as far as transcoding and such do they? I don't want to put it in if it's basically going to sit there and do nothing.
On to storage. I have a 180gb SSD I will be putting the os and software on. I have 4 2TB grad drives I'm going to set up in a raid. I was thinking raid 5 or 10. Raid 5 gives you more storage(6TB) but performance wise is slow on the write side. Raid 10 gives you exceptional performance all the way around but you get less storage(4TB). I believe you can also lose a disk in each mirror in raid 10 so maybe a little better in that regard too. Thoughts? Is the write performance of raid 5 not really an issue and worth the extra 2TB?
And lastly, what would be a good remote? I have a harmony one, just need to get an IR receiver for it. Does the harmony one work well with htpc's? I have an ipad and I see that there are apps for wmc, xbmc, and plex. Even one for remotely logging on windows. I wonder if the ipad I already have is good enough? I've seen this:
http://www.amazon.com/iWiser-MEASY-Infrared-Wireless-Keyboard/dp/B009CS6AQ4
And this:
http://www.amazon.com/Cideko-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-AVK02/dp/B0058FAYP8
Both look like they might work well.
Anything you all can add or comment on would be appreciated.