HTPC - 2021 alternatives

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Arachan

85 posts

Master Geek

#282719 7-Mar-2021 22:51

Hi folks

My (previously) trusty ITX box has unceremoniously died after ~10 years of chugging away. I'm in the process of trying to narrow down the faulted part but it really is time for an upgrade.

I was running ubuntu server on it, and used it for:

torrent server
dlna network share for smart tvs / PLEX
minecraft server
general file storage and sharing (has a 3tb hdd)

I was looking at what it would cost for a new cpu + mobo + ram and it's fairly expensive for what I need. Current gen would be something like ryzen 3, ddr4 ram, etc. Looking at NZD$600+.

The question is - in 2021 surely there are more cost effective options that can handle my minimal requirements? Something like a NUC or even raspberry pi perhaps? Would need to connect to a decent sized HDD though.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

ara

Scott3

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#2669761 7-Mar-2021 23:50

You could consider a NAS. Much lower power consumption than a server, and a compact footpring. Most have torrent, dlna & general file storage out of the box. apparently with a bit of tinkering a minecraft server can be set up too.

Of course they are also fairly slow for your $.

davidcole

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#2669771 8-Mar-2021 07:35

Or you might be able to switch to a raspberry PI 4 (the one with the most ram), though I did just note you had plex in there....if you clients are good enough, this still might work, and you'd have to migrate your 3tb drive to Usb.

But should be cheaper than a new motherboard/parts or nas.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
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NotATurkey

18 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#2669838 8-Mar-2021 09:36

Agree a Pi4 or NAS are both great options.
Could also get a NUC or one of those off lease Thinkstation's.

davidcole

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#2669852 8-Mar-2021 09:59

Or an ex lease desktop? Some i5. Won’t be as power friendly though.

Senecio

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#2669866 8-Mar-2021 10:15

Previous generation Mac Minis work well for this and can be cost effective.

PANiCnz

990 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2671069 10-Mar-2021 13:53

davidcole: Or an ex lease desktop? Some i5. Won’t be as power friendly though.

The SFF pc's from Lenovo and HP etc could be a good compromise. Ex-lease M93 is only $460 at PBTech, and can probably be had cheaper on sale.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2671080 10-Mar-2021 14:32

I don't like external hard drives for 24/7 operation (happily use them for occasional backups) so would recommend an actual PC for your uses. Things like a Minecraft server and Plex can also benefit from the horsepower of a real x86 CPU. Agreed that an ex-lease Thinkstation is going to be good bang/buck.

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Arachan

85 posts

Master Geek

#2671084 10-Mar-2021 14:36

I've bought a 8gb pi, wanted one anyway so won't be too cut if it doesn't handle mc plex etc.

I'll update this thread once I've had a play with it and done some testing.

Whatever I go with needs to be extremely low power, ideally it will be online 24/7 for the next 10 years :)

Cheers
ara

Jaxson

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#2671109 10-Mar-2021 15:15

Random side conversation but I've ended up swinging most of my original work to my Sony Android TV itself.
Was really worried when say our Tivo died, around how we were going to record live TV etc, but the rise of internet streaming/on demand apps etc has changed a lot of how I approach this now.

I can side load Kodi / Sky Sport etc and pull from my desktop PC hard drive.
Apps like spotify, youtube, on demand etc etc are all official onto the Sony TV.

Arachan

85 posts

Master Geek

#2675876 16-Mar-2021 22:58

Okay so bought and setup my pi4. Bit of a mission to setup given no SD card reader on pc but made it work via my phone.

Installed minecraft server, samba and deluged torrent server. So far all 3 haven't worked:

Minecraft server (bukkit/spigot, no plugins, basically vanilla) runs like a dog even with only me connected. Pretty much unplayable. Unsure how to troubleshoot this one - I did notice 32bit java is limited to 2gb ram which won't help.
Samba - transfers are incredibly slow to both SDcard and 3.5" drive in enclosure. In the 50KB/s range so unusable, unsure what the issue could be here and open to suggestions. I tried testparm and dd disk benchmarking and both came back a lot faster so maybe a samba issue?
Deluged down/up is also incredibly slow, likely related to above
Was planning on running dlna for smart tvs but haven't even bothered installing yet due to above issues

I also noticed that while anything is writing to disk (samba, deluged) the responsiveness of the pi tanks - ssh runs noticably seconds behind. Running top revealed nothing taxing ram/cpu so likely disk/io related?

Keen for advice, currently the pi isn't usable for any of my needs.

Cheers

ara

Mehrts

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#2675880 16-Mar-2021 23:22

I'd also suggest an ex-lease business desktop & configure it as a basic server/NAS.

I've picked up a couple of HP EliteDesk 800 G2 small form factor PCs from trademe for good prices. These run 6th gen Intel processors (I've got an i5-6500 & an i7-6700), which even at five-ish years old, still keep up with everything I've thrown at them while also being reasonably economical with the power consumption.

The i7 PC runs various VMs under Proxmox & it'll use around 25 watts at idle (measured with an external power meter). It ramps up to around 50-60w under serious load. This is also running a four-port NIC, three SSDs, plus the original 3.5" HDD. I did swap the motherboard with a Tower version of the same PC in order to give me five SATA ports instead of the original three, so it's not the basic machine it once was 😅

I was previously using an HP T620 Plus thin client PC for these duties, but I really needed disks attached via direct SATA, not external USB.

Handle9

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#2675911 17-Mar-2021 07:06

Some form of x64 system would make sense for your needs.

I changed my unraid server to a core i3 10100 late last year and I've been very happy with it. Quick sync is excellent for Plex transcoding and the low power consumption on the 10100 means that it pays for the additional cost.

If you haven't tried it have a play with unraid. You run Plex, Minecraft servers etc in dockers and get the benefit of a parity drive. You really need a cache SSD to get good write performance but for a server it's a really good solution.

openmedia

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#2675934 17-Mar-2021 08:00

I'm using a new generation Athlon 200GE in my MythTV based unit with a 450M motherboard. This processor has plenty of grunt for HTPC usage, but I'd probably recommend a faster processor if you're also going to run a minecraft server.

Real shame that newer Ryzen APUs are really hard to pickup here in NZ.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.