[mythtv-users] My whole house setup

[Jeffery Swan]

 Gene,

Your points are all very good. My electric bill each month is in excess
of $300.00 (and all appliances are gas) but I do have a large family. As
for power consumption, I have been working on an external power supply
for the entire server room. So far it looks promising but the jury is
still out. Additionally, for about two years now, I have been SLOWLY
($$$) adding solar power to my house. The first change was the water
(well) pump and the change was quite impressive. Currently I am working
on moving all computer power to solar (thus the single power unit in the
server room).

As for consolodating backends, I have tried a few times but not been
satisfied with th results so, at least for now, this is my setup.

As always, I appreciate your input, keep it coming!


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Gene Stapp"
  To: "Discussion about mythtv"
  Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] My whole house setup
  Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:08:54 -0400



  On 10/23/07, Marvin Match <match at ece.utah.edu> wrote:

    On 23 Oct 2007 at 12:32, Jeffery Swan wrote:

    >
    > This is just a quick post for anyone interested in my (quite
    large)
    > MythTV setup and extras. I have had many people ask me for
    details so
    > I set up a Blog at:
    >
    > http://ultimatemythtv.wordpress.com/
    >
    > The Blog is pretty new but I will add content as time allows. I
    also
    > have a spot where I talk about future upgrades and modules I
    would
    > like to add. So,
    > If you are interested in a nearly 10 TB system, check it out.
    >
    > As always comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged
    (to my
    > personal email not this group as it would be off topic).
    >
    > -Jeff

  I'd like an estimate of what your power bill is every month with that
  many computers in your house.
  By your network topology I count at least 8 always on computers - but
  from reading your blog it sounds like more. I'm all for recycling
  older hardware, but new hardware is a one time cost as opposed to
  handing the utility company your bank account every month.

  I feel I could get the same or better performance and only use 3 24/7
  boxes.
  I'd consolidate my nas boxes into one large system. I'd use dual
  bonded gigabit for it especially since it already appears you have a
  nice gigabit switch that probably has the option to do link
  aggregation. With port multipliers you can put in up to 20 sata
  drives in a cooler master stacker case (or add some externals for
  more if you need it). The sata port multiplier code will even be
  native in the linux kernel starting in 2.6.24. You would also save
  more money by being able to invest in a really effiecient power
  supply (750 watts or so should do it with an efficiency rating over
  80%). Throw a q6600 in that new nas box, and a 2.5" low power usage
  notebook drive as the main drive and it could also be your main myth
  backend that does all your transcoding/commercial detection. It would
  also have no problem handling your dns/dhcp/mail/http/asterix(not
  sure you have asterix) server duties. That would allow you to drop 4
  constant use, power sucking computers and would probably pay for
  itself in a year due to lower power bills.
  I also feel looking at your network map that you could drop a few
  slave backends and not lose any performance. I don't see the need for
  an entire slave backend for just 4 cameras. If you don't want to use
  the cheap 8 input pci/pci-x camera recording cards, you could throw
  in 4 pvr-500s and accomplish the same thing you have now with one
  box. Add in one other slave backend to do all your satellite receiver
  recording with either 4 pvr 150s or again some pvr-500s.



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