Got network?

[MSattler 387]

As of now, adding a drive to my present mid-tower server is not an option. All 6 sata ports on the mobo are already used.

But again, I have seen speed of up to 90mbps writes with current setup, which I'd love to get on a more consistent basis.

 

if pc 1 and 2 are connected to the same 1G switch, my data doesn't travel past the switch, right? As in it doesn't go past the mutual switch back to my router (?)

 

Right, it will stay local to the switch. 

 

You can always buy a SATA Controller if you have an open PCI-E slot.  The other thing to keep in mind is you may be hitting the max throughput on your onboard SATA controller if you have writes occurring to all of the drives at the same time.

[Guest asrequested]

That could be right. 1G is around 125MB/s, so you may have congestion. The main reason I went 10G. If I'm downloading, transferring and remuxing over the network, it eats the bandwidth.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Thanks for confirming about the traffic path.

I never write to more than 1 drive at a time, I believe Windows allows it, but Terracopy doesn't by default, it actually doesn't even write to more than a single destination folder at a time, even if it's on the same drive. It just queue's it. The few times I've overridden it to write to multiple destination, I noticed it divided the speed between jobs

Edited April 26, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

That could be right. 1G is around 125MB/s, so you may have congestion. The main reason I went 10G. If I'm downloading, transferring and remuxing over the network, it eats the bandwidth.

I do 99% local remux.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Is there a way for me to analyze what's going on while I transfer a file around, to pinpoint if my occasional bottlenecks are at the source or destination?

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Just thought of a possible explanation for my roller coaster write speeds.

if I happen to be doing a local remux, does that "eat sata bandwith" and possibly affect write speed when x-fering a file?

My workhorse pc is an i7-2600 3.40Ghz cpu (one of the first gen) with 12g of ram

[Guest asrequested]

@@pir8radio would be a good person to ask that.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I just moved a movie file with nothing else (muxing) going on and was getting better speed (40-50mbps)

 

On my work pc, I have 2 drives, the OS drive (along with all software), all data I am working on is on the bigger data drive.

So when software "x" (located on drive C) is chewing on data that's on data drive D, are sata ports working up a sweat?

Even though the data does stays on drive D, I now tend to think we're on to something (?), as software "x" is a un-shameful cpu hog

btw, I am refering to XmediaRecode (I sometime use HandBrake instead)

Edited April 26, 2017 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I thought this work pc was future proof with an i7 and 12g of ram, but I'm begininng to turn "Doofus", will my tax return go toward new work main pc?

I have growing storage needs that weighs in more at the moment...  

[Guest asrequested]

Lol.. You keep referring to me

 

It sounds like you're transcoding not remuxing. That could account for slow down. It's hard to tell. If you're transcoding, use quick sync. That'll take the load off the CPU.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Its hard not to refer to you, I've been reading up a few hardware threads (show your server rack and show your rig among others), and it just cracks me up how often you order stuff. The Fedex delivery guy must know you on a first name basis by now...

 

Transcoding it might be, my bad, I am basically just compressing down some overinflated files thrown my way, so I don't need to order (a la Doofus, see, again) a new 6tb hard drive every other week to store them

 

Yeah, seeing how often you take stock in silicon valley makes me look conservative in comparison, with my yearly pairs of new 6tb hdd and new pc every other year. My entourage think I'm nuts. We're always someone else's Doofus I suppose

 

EDIT: BTW, I remember Penkethboy refering to your avatar, It does remind me of childhood x-mas cartoonish to me, as in Frosty or Rudolph

Edited April 26, 2017 by jlr19

[Guest asrequested]

Yeah, I guess I do have a nice collection of spare parts. I recently had to organize it, so I could find stuff. I've got some hard drives about to be given to me. I may build a test/backup server. Just for fun Just need to buy a few more parts.

 

What i7 do you have? You definitely want to use Quick sync when transcoding with handbrake. It'll be quicker, and save your CPU all that work.

[Guest asrequested]

My avatar is a clanger

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Yeah, I guess I do have a nice collection of spare parts. I recently had to organize it, so I could find stuff. I've got some hard drives about to be given to me. I may build a test/backup server. Just for fun Just need to buy a few more parts.

 

Short for ordering more parts= Doofus

[CharleyVarrick 277]

What i7 do you have? You definitely want to use Quick sync when transcoding with handbrake. It'll be quicker, and save your CPU all that work.

Comp's a Dell XPX-8300, with an i7-2600cpu@3.40Ghz, rated 5.9 as per windows performance index (whatever that's worth).

At the time I ran PC Pitsop and they said it was in the top 4%

When I bought it, it was Dell's flagship desktop, mine had 12g of ram (which still holds up today), and could even be upgraded to 64g (who needs that?)

 

Years have past and I realize the casing, as "pretty" as it is from the outside, is a really poor design as far as cooling and expendability is concerned.

Drives run concerningly warm and I'm maxed at 2 drives. Never buying brand name pc ever again.

 

My 2 servers are newer custom built, with Anted Three Hundred Two cases (6 drives run 15c cooler, and by converting 2 of 3 unused 3 5.25' bay and slapping an expansion card, I can fit 2x 2.5" and 8x 3.5 drives, 9 if I remove the present dvd drive (which has little to no use: I have an ext. usb disk drive if need be)

Edited April 26, 2017 by jlr19

[MSattler 387]

 

My 2 servers are newer custom built, with Anted Three Hundred Two cases (6 drives run 15c cooler, and by converting 2 of 3 unused 3 5.25' bay and slapping an expansion card, I can fit 2x 2.5" and 8x 3.5 drives, 9 if I remove the present dvd drive (which has little to no use: I have an ext. usb disk drive if need be)

 

I probably should stay quiet lol.  My "collection" has grown a lot.

 

2 x 4U Unraid Servers with Desktop grade gear for 55TB of Storage

1 x R610 Dell Server with Dual Proc Hex Core Xeons, 64GB of Memory (ESXi 6.5)

1 x i7-4770 with 32GB of Memory (ESXi 6.5)

2 x Synology DS410's

1 x Dell XPS 8900 i7-6700 <For Emby Server with GPU Transcoding>

1 x SuperMicro 1U Dual Proc HexCore Xeons, 32GB Memory

1 x Quanta LB6M 10G Switch

1 x Cisco SG300-8p Switch

1 x Cisco SG200-26 Switch

1 x Cisco SG200-26 Switch (Standby)

2 x HDHR Prime's

 

And I just ordered a QNAP TS-1635 to be my central storage for my ESXi servers.

 

Of course clients too, in my house between kids and such we have:

 

6 Shields

2 Roku Sticks

1 MiBox 

 

That doesn't count the players my kids have at their moms house.

 

Trust me, you don't wanna see my Amazon expenses =)

[MSattler 387]

Comp's a Dell XPX-8300, with an i7-2600cpu@3.40Ghz, rated 5.9 as per windows performance index (whatever that's worth).

At the time I ran PC Pitsop and they said it was in the top 4%

When I bought it, it was Dell's flagship desktop, mine had 12g of ram (which still holds up today), and could even be upgraded to 64g (who needs that?)

 

Btw, the XPS-8300 can do a max of 16GB of memory.  I only know because I owned one =)

 

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for//xps-8300

[MSattler 387]

BTW, if you are dealing with more 4k content, it would be a good time to upgrade from the Sandy Bridge setup you have to the new Kaby Lakes.  The link below shows the capabilities of the new processors.  I'm actually looking to upgrade my Dell from the i7-6700 to the i7-7700 so that the gpu can transcode HEVC 10bit as well.

 

What this means is that whether you are having Emby transcode it, or you are using Handbrake, the GPU will do the transcoding, and your CPU will not be doing much of anything.  In terms of Emby transcoding, it's nice because it leaves the cpu to handle the client traffic, and doesn't keep the client's from slowing down with it's interaction of the Emby server when movies are being transcoded.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Btw, the XPS-8300 can do a max of 16GB of memory.  I only know because I owned one =)

 

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for//xps-8300

Weren't different rev. of XPS-8300 possible.

In any case (pun not intended), I would never buy a branded pc again, lesson learned.

 

And no, I am not throwing a penny at the xps anymore, already upgraded graphic card 3 years ago. 

It's my wife's soon to be next pc (and her pc will become our neighboor's technically challenged pc).

You have one of those neighboors, happily using Yahoo mail along with WinXp pre-2k build. He"ll go ballistic when he gets my gift, being just warp-drived 10 years ahead)

 

Again, the XPS is my "workhorse" pc (downloading, x-media recod-ing, handbraking)

Emby resides on a much newer server inches right of the XPS. And this server sees little "action", its sole role being holding the vault and serving it when asked to.

 

 

I do not have any 4k content at the moment, but I know it'll come (for me) sooner than later.

Edited April 26, 2017 by jlr19

[MSattler 387]

Weren't different rev. of XPS-8300 possible.

In any case (pun not intended), I would never buy a branded pc again, lesson learned.

 

There may have been, the max spec for that processor by Intel is 32GB.   You cannot beat dell for the XPS boxes, it's what I use for Emby and it's sweet for the price I paid.  I bought my i7-6700 for like $600 I believe.  I could never have built a box to that quality for what I paid.

[Guest asrequested]

Yup. My i7 7700k is effing awesome.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

There may have been, the max spec for that processor by Intel is 32GB.   You cannot beat dell for the XPS boxes, it's what I use for Emby and it's sweet for the price I paid.  I bought my i7-6700 for like $600 I believe.  I could never have built a box to that quality for what I paid.

Exactly what hit me when I saw it with 200$ off on dell's website back then. Custom building a comparable unit (hp wise) would have been twice the price. Its done a gazillion task for me but its time has come. It is just sad to see, looking back at mine, how bad the internal layout is done (so much wasted space), and the miserable airflow in there. I remember seeing a Dell forum post advising to remove the side panels and put an oscillating fan next to it.  

 

I need to Doofus (I mean order) my new workhorse pc.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Seeing MSattler last post, It brings a nagging question for me.

What's a Unraid server?

 

If you don't feel like explaining it from scratch its ok, you might want to just share a not-too-geeky link explaining Unraid vs Raid

Edited April 27, 2017 by jlr19

[MSattler 387]

Exactly what hit me when I saw it with 200$ off on dell's website back then. Custom building a comparable unit (hp wise) would have been twice the price. Its done a gazillion task for me but its time has come. It is just sad to see, looking back at mine, how bad the internal layout is done (so much wasted space), and the miserable airflow in there. I remember seeing a Dell forum post advising to remove the side panels and put an oscillating fan next to it.  

 

I need to Doofus (I mean order) my new workhorse pc.

 

All depends on what you want to do with it.   Personally I would never again go with a tower for containing numerous amounts of disks for storage, no matter what tower I put them in.  I had a Antec 1200, that had 10 drives in it.  You cannot add any more fans, or get better airflow than that.  And in the end I was still better off going with a 4u server, with hot swap drive bays.

 

It just depends what you need to use it for =)

[pir8radio 1292]

Is there a way for me to analyze what's going on while I transfer a file around, to pinpoint if my occasional bottlenecks are at the source or destination?

 

 

@@pir8radio would be a good person to ask that.

 

lol you guys were chatty today!     Well, late in the game....   PRTG is my go to "thing" for monitoring "stuff"....     You can log lots of goodies on your drives.