Legit Reviews

So, after having moved in to my new place, I had thoughts of ripping my entire DVD collection. I forgot about it for a while, and lately I got the itch to build it again.

So here is the ordered planned build

DVD Ripping Machine


1 x ($64.99) BD-ROM ASUS | BR-04B2T % - OEM
$64.99
1 x ($29.99) COOLER SCYTHE|SCSK-1100 R - Retail
$29.99
1 x ($52.99) CPU INTEL|CELERON E3300 2.5G 775 R - Retail
$52.99
2 x ($19.99) DVD ROM LITE-ON|iHDS118-04 18X % - OEM
$39.98
1 x ($57.99) MB MSI|G41M4-F RT - Retail
$57.99
1 x ($99.95) CASE ANTEC|THREE HUNDRED + BP430 RT - Retail
$99.95

The NAS to store all the Rips
4 x ($179.99) HD 2T|WD WD20EADS % - OEM
$719.96
1 x ($699.99) NAS NETGEAR RNDX400E R - Retail
$699.99

And the Networking
1 x ($129.99) POWERLINE LINKSYS|PLK300 KIT - Retail
$129.99

The Front End
Mac Mini Running Plex Media Center

Rips are going to be direct from DVD to VIDEO_TS

All will be played on 47" SONY LCD, and 5.1 Surround Sound System

Pictures to come as I get the parts

Seems that the storage part is the big cost overall. One would hope that you pick a format to store in that would last longer than 8-tracks or Beta video.

I noticed the case you chose the Antec 300, its a great case I've used it on 2 builds.
I would suggest the Antec 300 Illusion from Newegg, its $20 cheaper than the one you have listed and already has most of the fans installed!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 29066-LC4A

The one I bought has the PSU with it. Saved me some case, plus I don't like the LED fans in the front there.

stev wrote:Seems that the storage part is the big cost overall. One would hope that you pick a format to store in that would last longer than 8-tracks or Beta video.

The one thing I think we can count on is no matter what physical form that digital media will take, we will always be able to store the digital form. I was going for speed here, with over 600DVDs ripping to mp4 would have taken far too long.

I'm going for a Living room setup, yes I could have built my own NAS server, but when it came down to price, it was really not that big of a difference and not worth it. I know the NAS I bought will deliver the necessary speeds, will be quiet and its reliable. I'm looking at 6TB of storage space so we'll be able to store thousands of DVDs.

Everything is built, and I'm starting to Rip DVDs. I've hit one bottleneck though, I've maxed out the onboard NIC transfering to the NAS. 10MB/s is the max for the onboard NIC, so I need to by a better NIC.

I'll have some build pics soon.

dicecca112 wrote:Everything is built, and I'm starting to Rip DVDs. I've hit one bottleneck though, I've maxed out the onboard NIC transfering to the NAS. 10MB/s is the max for the onboard NIC, so I need to by a better NIC.

I'll have some build pics soon.

really 10mb/s ? damn - do you have the newest drivers and such for the network stuff on the MB? Are you sure it is the built in stuff or the NAS unit? I have never seen a built in gigabit card give such low speeds.

Mike

Sounds like the powerline adapters can't get a good signal
Are you sure you're not plugging them into any extension leads?

While they claim to give ~300Mbit speeds, it's not the case. ~10Mbit does seem very low though, in theory the powerline adapters should provide ~25Mbit + speeds

It could be, I have the NAS and the ripping box on the same power line hub.

But its a 10/100 nic, so 100 would be 12.5 MB/sec [Megabyte-per-second] and I'm maxing at 10.0MB/sec

Re-test with a direct ethernet connection without the powerline adapters, if it stays at ~10 then it's the NIC(s)
If it goes up, then its the powerline

So I replaced the NIC, borrowed one from Work, and I just stay stuck at 10MB/s when transferring to the NAS. I can't set the router to 1Gig Full, it won't grab an internet IP. Am I stuck here? One of the guys in work said to grab a Gigabit Switch, but does it really matter if Comcast can't provide the speed? And I thought the only place Gigabit would help would be in my Home Network not internet speeds? I'll test without the PowerLine adapters tonight, I'll have to move everything to the Living room. Probably should get some new Cat 6 Cables too.

Your NAS can't get an IP at GigE speeds as the comcast modem proly only supports 10/100. If you cant get the link up, there's no chance of layer 2 coming up and giving you an IP.

What you could try do is use a GigE switch between the router and the LAN. The LAN clients can link at GigE speeds, and have the trunk link to the router as 100Mbit. The problem here is the switch will most likely auto-negotiate the link speed, so after rebooting a PC or the NAS, they will all try to link up again at 100mbit. If the switch is managed, you can tell it to only use GigE speeds.

Even if you can get the switch to connect at 100 to the modem and the rest of the LAN to connect at GigE, you'll proly experience problems with packet collisions etc due to the different speeds ran.

Simple answer is, you're proly stuck at 100Mbit on the LAN. The powerline adapters are most likely seen as 100Mbit to the other clients as well. (300Mbit is not an Ethernet standard, so NIC's can't negotiate at this speed - the 300mbit just helps when poor signal or distance in wiring)
As you've proly already noticed, 100Mbit is fine for streaming HD the only issue is with transfers.

Ken

I bitched to Comcast so they are sending a tech out today with there newest Modem that can connect to routers at 1Gigabit Speed. We'll see, that is the only part of the equation that doesn't support GIgabit.

Are you sure the powerline adapters can do it too?
If they can't, it might cause minor issues later. Make sure not to enable jumbo frames on any clients on the lan if they can't do GigE

Not 100%, I have do some digging. Worse comes to worse, I can plug the Desktop and the NAS directly to the router and just use the powerline for the Mac Mini and other devices that need it in the Entertainment Center

It was a combination of the Cable Modem and the Powerline, setup the new Modem, set the Router to Gigabit, plugged the NAS and the Desktop into the Modem and boom 480Mbps/s (60MB/s) transfer rates to the NAS.

That makes me happy Thanks for all the help Ken

NP

Glad you go it sorted.

So I've gotten into the ripping, and I'm kicking myself for not getting the 5 Optical Drives.

It's taking me around 30 minutes to rip 3 disks to ISO, and then another 30 to copy to the NAS, averaging around 50MB/s transfers to the NAS

Ended up with XBMC, but I ordered the wrong cable to connect the Mac Mini to my Receiver, it works perfectly with my laptop, but not with my Receiver, want the full 5.1 Experience

Everything works perfectly, the rips look great, sounds great, no skips, not stuttering, works perfectly

Ripped probably 10% of my DVD collection, so in probably two months I'll have everything done.

Here are some basic pictures

'bout time you posted pics

Looks like a great setup. I've a 2TB NAS setup and will be looking into getting a 4 bay nas in the next ~3-4mths (moving house again at end of month)
How much noise does the nas make when in use? If placed behind the htpc, would you hear it when watching tv and someone else is streaming from it?
I'm looking from a low noise 4 bay nas and I'd be more than happy with teh performance you're getting.

I know I haven't said it yet since coming back, but It's good to "see" you Matt!


Ken

With the TV on, I need to be two feet from it. The DVDs spinning up being ripped are louder. Good to see you back too Ken, it was too long