Re-build my computer

Karl_T

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My TV room computer has finally died
>:(

I knew this day was coming.

I watch movies, lots of them. Been renting DVDs and copy to hard drive for years. Must have 20 Tb now with making a copy of each movie on two drives. Got eight drives to go inside the case and two more on external USBs.



I tried replacing the power supply - 850 amps. Tried an all new OS install, no joy. Problem is it seeing and running the huge number of hard drives. I do need to go through and individually check each HD.

I have a HUGE case that holds eight drives plus the large power supply with room to spare.


The motherboard is OLD. Next job is to replace it.

That's where I could use advice. I just need a decent MB with 8 SATA, not sure what else to look for as I have not kept up with the technology.

I will need a graphics card that runs two monitors - one is the TV - HDMI, the other is a regular computer monitor.


I went to Newegg and found AMD motherboards have far more selection when requiring 8 SATA slots. Also checked off 4or5 egg customer rating and got down the small number to choose from. see pic from Newegg page.


Could somebody advise which MB to get from here? also which processor and memory to go with it. Could use a suggestion on which graphics card also. for that matter, I should replace the sound card now too.


I am weak on this stuff, it will be a real struggle to get running. I am tempted to hire out building the box to a pro.

AMD MBs 8 SATA 4eggs.JPG
 
I think the first step is deciding what, exactly, you want it to do. Just play movies? Can the storage box be loud and hidden elsewhere? My main server has 20 drives in it... :)

What hardware is being replaced and what software does it run?
 
I think the first step is deciding what, exactly, you want it to do. Just play movies? Can the storage box be loud and hidden elsewhere? My main server has 20 drives in it... :)

What hardware is being replaced and what software does it run?

Just want to do a MB upgrade, one with 8 SATA ports - pick from the list I found on Newegg or similar. It just plays movies and surfs the web. No need for a fast cpu and tons of memory. The MB I have (six SATAs) has lasted about seven years now. VLC media player does the movies. Internet explorer and Firefox does the net. Thunderbird does the email. I will load excel and word. that's about it.
 
My TV room computer has finally died

I tried replacing the power supply - 850 amps.
I have a HUGE case that holds eight drives plus the large power supply with room to spare.

There's a good case/PS, fans, and drives, I hope; otherwise, motherboard replace WILL be problematic.
Even a motherboard without 8 SATA slots can serve your needs, because you can add cards...
only the system drive needs speed, it might be good to put a small (128G is not expensive)
SSD for software, use spinning disks for the video (speed not critical; even the old PATA had
no problem with multiple video streams in a TiVO).

An m.2 port (for an m.2 SSD) won't use up the SATA slots; I'd go that route.
Gigabyte GA-AX370 is a good candidate, IMHO. Onboard HDMI, and can take multiple video cards.
I'd not go for a high-end (high electric power) CPU, because fan noise doesn't improve the video experience,
but your PS fan is a given.

The huge (850W) power supply can run (at 6 W per hard drive) many more disks than you have now. There
may be options to explore, in power-on-sequencing, if a quieter supply were wanted. There are also
video-stream-server possibilities, and many smart TVs or Blu-Ray players are network-ready.
 
Sounds like you want the machine to be more than the typical media center. No problem. I haven't used any of the newer setups yet, so I can't really speak to specifics. I would decide based on features, reviews, and price. Honestly, all the main motherboard manufacturers are pretty good. The Ryzen chips should be plenty powerful, and unless you are doing heavy gaming you probably don't need anything special for the GPU either. Almost every card out there can handle HDMI and at least one other output for dual monitor. Many of them can even do quad output.
 
OK, I looked here

This one looks fine to me. I'll wait for others' comments before placing an order. I will need help on what cpu memory and video cards go with this one. Yep, I'd love less noise. But I am cheap too. The fan on this power supply only runs when it needs too, almost never.
 
Get whichever motherboard and CPU floats your boat. Then get a SATA card and plug it in for all the ports you'll ever need. With PCIe v.3.0 there is no bottleneck on SATA, and having a second, separate SATA controller from your MB will keep your numerous drives happy. Best part is SATA PCI cards are cheap and often exceed the specs of mobo embedded controllers.
 
I had trouble with those separate SATA controllers, don't want to try that again. Outboard USB hard drives have worked better. Milady just went to microcenter and bought a couple more. I put obsolete drives in these and use for deep backup. leave them turned off most all the time.

I just ordered the gigabyte MB, a low end CPU that only takes 35 watt and 4 gig memory. When I get it running, I'll look into video and sound cards. Got the huge MB manual downloaded and plan to read it several times. I need my computer back!!!
 
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