Moving WMC7 to a dedicated machine

[millerduck]

Hey guys, longtime lurker.

I am regretting daily my decision to have my main PC be my Media Center Server (I only consume content through extenders) and am looking to move it to a dedicated box. I would love some help with speccing out the new rig as well as tips on moving content, etc.

Current setup is:
Core i7 920
6GB RAM
120GB SSD (OS & Apps)
3 TB WD Red drive for all WMC content (primarily recorded TV)
Ceton InfiniTV 6 PCIe

Goals:
Smaller
Lower power
Cheap but reliable

Essentially I need to know what the lowest level of performance I can get away with is for a dedicated box to handle Live TV, recording up to 6 streams and serving up to 3 extenders (Xbox 360). I do not transcode or serve movies at all nor do I really use Remote Potato or similar.

As for the existing recordings, I believe I should be able to just move over the Red Drive to the new system once built and point Recorded TV there and be fine. Will I have issues with Copy Protected recordings? How about moving over (or copying) my recording schedule / preferences?

Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.
MD

[DavidinCT]

Are you planning to do a headless setup ? SO just a box in a corner serving this content or is this going to be connected to a TV to run the video ?

I just upgraded my HTPC and I have a Motherboard, CPU (Core2Quad @ 2.6ghz), Ram and video card combo that I was going to dump on ebay this weekend. It could fit perfect if you were just going to run a server, the system just needs a case, power supply and hard drives to go. I can even drop in a 90gb SSD for a little extra (OS drive). I was using this setup with about 5tb, 2 extenders and was running in 1080p with no problems on the primary tv (Blu-ray discs with no issues). If your looking to build a box, drop me a PM and this might fit for your needs.

The ONLY problem your going to run into is if you move to a new machine, any COPY protected recordings will fail. There is no way around this, you would need to keep WMC running on the same machine to be able to play this content back.

Recording schedules can be backed up with SeansWMC backup (look in the wiki here, I use it, works good) and restored.

If you want to backup your channel lineup, you can with Guide tool but, it's like a $5 donation to be able to back it up and restore.

[millerduck]

Are you planning to do a headless setup ? SO just a box in a corner serving this content or is this going to be connected to a TV to run the video ?

Essentially headless, yes. No playback per-se on the device and will likely manage through remote desktop most of the time.

Thanks for the offer on the hardware but I would like to target something from the latest crop of low-power Core i CPUs from Intel. The performance level of the Core2Quad you listed gives me a decent benchmark to start with though. How much RAM were you running?

The ONLY problem your going to run into is if you move to a new machine, any COPY protected recordings will fail. There is no way around this, you would need to keep WMC running on the same machine to be able to play this content back.

I figured as much, luckily that is only Game of Thrones right now so I can make the move once I get caught up, LOL.

If you want to backup your channel lineup, you can with Guide tool but, it's like a $5 donation to be able to back it up and restore.

Is this required only if I modified the Guide in some way? The only thing I added or changed in that regard from stock was MyChannelLogos.

Thanks,
MD

[mdavej]

My $150 J1900 based system handles all that just fine. At 10W max for the CPU, I can run it 24x7. Works off the shelf, no build required.

Restoring your channel lineup is a bad idea. Caused my system irreparable damage. Just run through the setup again. Doesn't take long. Moving your recording schedule should work fine though.

[millerduck]

My $150 J1900 based system handles all that just fine. At 10W max for the CPU, I can run it 24x7. Works off the shelf, no build required.

Make & Model? Newegg or Amazon link?

[mdavej]

Here's a refurb at Walmart for $139. Mine is a bit old (originally from Newegg), so I can no longer find any new ones. But it's a good starting point. The SFF case is a bit bigger than an Xbox. I happen to have mine sitting right on top of an Xbox. Another thing I like about the J1900 is it requires very little cooling, making it almost silent. In fact, some people use them in a fanless case without issue. I actually have 3 of these models that I use for various other purposes. I run Win 8.1 on all except my HTPC, which I'm keeping at Win 7 for extender compatibility reasons. One word of warning, this has practically no expandability besides a half-height mini PCIe slot. I had to unplug the optical drive to add and SSD.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Refurbis ... o/39899542

The J2900 version would also be a good option. It's a little faster than the J1900.

[RyC]

If you want to backup your channel lineup, you can with Guide tool but, it's like a $5 donation to be able to back it up and restore.

Is this required only if I modified the Guide in some way? The only thing I added or changed in that regard from stock was MyChannelLogos.

Thanks,
MD

If you haven't renumbered/removed/changed the channels around, then when you run TV Setup on the new WMC machine, it will automatically pull the lineup and guide again and you won't need GuideTool. Strictly speaking, you don't need GuideTool either way, but it makes restoring a modified channel lineup a lot easier.

[sbaeder]

you still will have issues with copy once shows, since it is a new machine...you can keep them around on the older machine until you watch/don't need them anymore. As for backup/restore, the bigger PITA is the schedule for recording. This is where a good backup/restore tool comes in handy. I've used Seans_WMC_Backup http://seanmauch.com/seans-wmc-backup/. It worked fine to reload all the series that I had (many on summer hiatus, so no way to use guide or search to re-add them).

Best of luck

[ZippyTheChicken]

Ceton has a page with minimum requirements .. I think i7 is pretty much what you want.. but maybe an i5 would work but it would be using much more CPU percentage wise.. An i3 won't work and I would probably expect problems with AMD so before any AMD investment make sure you talk with someone with the exact setup as you have.

[millerduck]

Ceton has a page with minimum requirements .. I think i7 is pretty much what you want.. but maybe an i5 would work but it would be using much more CPU percentage wise.. An i3 won't work and I would probably expect problems with AMD so before any AMD investment make sure you talk with someone with the exact setup as you have.

Great reminder. I hadn't even thought to look there. You are right with 0-3 Extenders they are indicating 3.0GHz Dual Core i3 or Quad Core 2. I think I have what I need at this point.

Thanks to all for the help. I will certainly be following the recommendation for the Sean's WMC tool for backing up and restoring the recording schedule too!

MD