Media PC

See also New PC.

Storage

Current

Drives

sda	300 GB Maxtor 6V300F0	200 GB md0 RAID (backups) / 100 GB raw
sdc	1000 GB Seagate	boot
sdb	500 GB WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0	200 GB md0 RAID (backups) / 300 GB raw

Partitions

raidunused

sda1	243175873	md0
sda2	39070080	VMs
sdb1	243175873
sdb2	19535040	boot
sdc1	243175873	raid
sdc2	733584127	unused
sde1	488384001

New

sda	300 GB Maxtor 6V300F0	OS(s), VMs + swap
sdb	500 GB WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0	500 GB md0 RAID 1 (backups)
sdc	1 TB Seagate ST31000340AS	500 GB md0 RAID 1 (backups) / 500 GB raw (media, temp)

Steps to configure Linux system with RAID drive

1. full normal backup
2. identify other files to preserve
   1. media on /mnt/media and /mnt/spare, VMs on /mnt/spare
3. backup files
   1. add new drive via sata
   2. create raid and media partitions
   3. copy media and VMs to tb media
4. suspend VMs
5. make sure documentation is available during process
6. unmount affected volumes
7. repartition existing 500gb http://www.unix-tutorials.com/go.php?id=620
8. shut down and configure internal drives
   1. add tb as sdc
   2. temporarily remove 300GB
   3. check into /etc/fstab using drive IDs
9. reboot
10. re-start VMs
11. set up tb RAID1 and start mirror
12. in future, reinstall boot/vm to 300gb, remove 80gb

Comments on RAID

Using RAID 5 is more complex, but when a drive fails (as did the ST31000340AS) under warranty, sending it back has no data security risk.

External

• Maxtor 200 GB - media
• Maxtor 500 GB - backups

50 GB free (June 24/2008). est. 100 GB RAID can be cleared up, 200GB moved external.

NCQ performance on Seagage 7200.11 - http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=26006

The problem with the above config is the array is spread across all working drives, so there can't be fast directory to directory copies. Solution is to move to something like this:

500 + 500 raid1 300gb boot + working/media external 1tb 500gb backup + 500gb working/media

Video

NVidia En7300GT silent

New card? - ASUS EN9600GT Silent - http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUwMSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA== would need a new case.

Etc

• Antec nsk2400
• Asus P5B-VM
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
• 4 X 1 GB ?? DDR-2 RAM

Linux Multimedia

Audio

Need 7.1 digital (optical) audio pass-through capability

 wii    dvd    etc
  |      |      |
[    52xv540u tv   ]
         |
         |  toslink w/ dolby digital 7.1
         |
   [ computer ]
         |
         | toslink w/ dolby digital 7.1
         |
       [amp]
         |
      speakers

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dolby_Digital_and_DTS

http://alsa.opensrc.org/DigitalOut