Video card needed for HTPC/WMC server?

[LavaSurfer]

My HTPC/WMC server is in dire need of an upgrade. I'm looking to build a new server and possible do away with my HP EX495 and combine everything into one computer since all I really use the Home Server for is DVR archiving and local backups.

I am looking at upgrading to Windows 8.1 and having an SSD for the operating system using my 4 2tb drives that are in my home server for movie/DVR storage in the new WMC server. I might pool them together like the server does now.

The WMC server is not used for anything other than ripping DVD's with MyMovies and serving 3 extenders.

I'm looking at using the new i5-4690 CPU, 16gb of ram, 240GB SSD (was wanting to go a little big for future proofing on this), and I am going to house it in a rack mount case to go with my other equipment. Total cost of the build is looking to be in the 850 range.

Should I worry about even installing a video card in my situation? I've been searching and I see plenty of people going without a video card in their builds. However if installing one would add a noticeable improvement I need to make sure whatever case I choose will be large enough for the card and I need to know before hand instead of putting it all together and upgrading later.

[mark1234]

Even if you were attaching a TV directly to this machine, the built in graphics in that CPU are more than enough for Media Centre.

[sbaeder]

is an SSD in a server like this justified? I had been thinking about this recently, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't needed, since all it is doing is running a bit of OS, WMC (fired up on boot), and some basics of flie serving (again, part of the OS)...To me, the benefit of the SSD is in running interactively, where you fire up different programs, etc. Once all the OS and WMC are running, and in memory (even is swapped to a non-SSD disk?), do you really need it?

Wouldn't it just make more sense to have the OS partitions, and the main recorded-tv space be on ONE single HDD, so you never have to worry about is the disk spun up, etc???

Don't get me wrong, SSD's are GREAT to give more "oomph" to a laptop or desktop machine...But do they really make sense for a WMC/File server? [and of course "want" is a lot different from "need"]

[barnabas1969]

When you're running Media Center - even if you only access Media Center from extenders - it is an interactive process. An SSD definitely boosts the speed of the menus in Media Center.

[LavaSurfer]

The main reasoning behind going with a SSD is I'm hoping the extender login/connect time will for from 5-10 seconds down to 1-3 seconds. Also if I pull up the guide for the first time after logging in it will take about 15-20 seconds to load it up. Overall the performance is VERY sluggish while browsing from my extenders (two HPx120n's & one xbox 360). I'm sure the overall performance is due to my pretty old Dell computer I have setup for server duties (AMD Athlon X2 5000+, 4gb ram).

The other main reason I'm upgrading is this computer simply doesn't have the horsepower to transcode in MyMovies to my extenders reliably. Basically if nothing else is recording and no other extenders are connected it is barely adequate, however once its loaded down I get errors and the movie never even starts. Also I was figuring that moving all DVR/movies under one roof I will cut out the possibility of a network connection not keeping up with the transcoding duties. I'm a little under half full on my server now with space for DVR/movies, so I figured once I got closer to 75% capacity with the hard drive I have now I could get an external HD case and connect it via eSATA or USB 3.0 and get better performance than a network attached HD or server.

Also, wouldn't an SSD help with transcoding? Or does the movie that it's working with go straight from the CPU/GPU out to the extender?

[barnabas1969]

Transcoding is done in RAM and uses the CPU (some programs can also use the GPU for transcoding) to do the work. The SSD won't help with that, but it will definitely make your guide and recorded TV menus faster.

[blueiedgod]

If you want to determine whether upgrading to SDD from HDD will benefit your particular set up, plug in a 4 GB USB thumb drive, and set it as "Ready Boost" device. If you see improvement, then SSD will help, if not, then other components are your limiting factors.

[mike_ekim]

To look at things from a different perspective: there are significant steps being made to improve hardware-based GPU transcoding, and Intel is part of that big push. To that end, if you decide to use a different intel processor make sure you still use one with a good IGP. The i5-4690 that you picked has the Intel 4600 graphics; mine has the 4400 and can transcode very fast, albeit with some quality issues.

Transcoding is done in RAM and uses the CPU (some programs can also use the GPU for transcoding) to do the work. The SSD won't help with that, but it will definitely make your guide and recorded TV menus faster.

I agree 100% if the computer is doing real-time transcoding, for example to an extender.

On the other hand, if you are transcoding files in your library to be watched later without real time transcoding (to reduce HDD space, or to be saved/viewed on a mobile device, or whatever other use you may have) a mechanical HDD can be a bottleneck. My server transcodes in the background while serving up media to other devices, and the last step where the new file is saved used to cause the server to lag horribly, so much that the show being streamed (not transcoded, only streamed) will start to buffer. I changed my set-up to a SSD for the OS, a HDD for recording, and a HDD for saving transcoding shows and it works a bit better.

[sbaeder]

The SSD won't help with that, but it will definitely make your guide and recorded TV menus faster.

That may be the case if you have a lot of shows or other data in the menus (or are running several extenders). My own experience (which may be "colored" due to running WMC on an AMD E350 class machine, and not anything near an I5 - or even I3) was that at first, when I had a separate SSD for the OS drive, and the recording space set to the SATA HDD, that it ran about the same as when I converted it to a single HDD with two partitions.

I did that, since I did seem to have some issues with the HDD going to "sleep" mode to save power (I guess). This caused a few issues with the dreaded "unable to record" message - even though WMC was smart enough to try again...After the swap, haven't seen one of these "bogus" messages...

So, as in all things....YMMV - I guess it all depends on the size of the DB used to hold all the meta-data...I can certainly see why it COULD help for that senario.

[LavaSurfer]

If you want to determine whether upgrading to SDD from HDD will benefit your particular set up, plug in a 4 GB USB thumb drive, and set it as "Ready Boost" device. If you see improvement, then SSD will help, if not, then other components are your limiting factors.

I totally forgot about his feature. I plugged in a flash drive lastnight and it made a world of an improvement! I figured that feature was a BS hoax! I'm almost thinking that I might get an SSD and a couple components that I was planning on getting for my eventual build and stick them in this old computer to see what it will do....

[LavaSurfer]

Lastnight I was looking at my other computer I mainly use for web browsing/working from home through VPN at work and it is an older Dell Inspiron 530 with a Core 2 Quad Q9300 and 4gb of ram. Seems that this processor would be a world of improvement over the AMD 64 x2 5000+ machine w/4gb of ram. I was also read that with a BIOS update that the motherboard would recognize 8gb of ram so I figured that with an SSD and gigabit ehternet card might solve me problems and be able pull through on my transcoding duties.

[sbaeder]

a quad core (of a newer vintange) would almost certainly help out if you run all 3 extenders at the same time. Good to hear that for you, the use of the FLASH (and eventually SSD) is totally justified. I guess since I don't use extenders, and have relatively less shows to manage locally, that it didn't really matter to me...And good to hear that a simple addition of a thumb drive can be used as a simple test (or fix).

[LavaSurfer]

I was really amazed. The menus on the extenders were at least 50% faster and transcoding through my movies started working. Although it did take a little over 30 seconds to initially fire up the movie. I didn't watch an entire movie though and the server wasn't recording anything at the time.