# [Project] Batman: Fileserver / Torrent Downloader



## theeldest (Apr 17, 2009)

*disclaimer* 
It'll be a while before I get this complete, bear with me
*disclaimer*

Update (4/21/2010)
It bit the dust

Due to finances, I still hadn't actually upgraded the server (and really, it *was* working well enough).

But yesterday I try to pull up the show listing on the xbox and it won't connect. I try to SSH into the box but nothing. So I hook up ye olde monitor and see a Kernel Panic message. The system had thrown up a hardware fault.

I reboot and we're good for another 12 hours then same thing. Kernel Panic. 

I could check the processor and memory (I've actually got a spare s939 proc and DDR memory sitting around), but this is as good an excuse as any.

Here's what I've ordered:
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131609
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231185
Boot Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074


What's next?
Software wise, I'm switching from Gentoo (pain in the a**) to Ubuntu. It'll make it easier to manage packages and such as well as being more current (support for Gentoo is somewhat lacking; especially when compared to the Ubuntu community)



Original Post
I'd recently (July '08) upgraded my main system to the point that I had all the parts to set up a second computer. So I decided to get some more hard drives and turn it in to a file server:

The System
Motherboard: ASUS A8N5X (nForce chipset, s939)
Processor: AMD Athlon64 3200+ (Venice core @ 2.0 GHz)
Memory: 2x512MB Generic ECC 
Video Card: ATI x1300 Pro
PSU: 430Watt Thermaltake
Optical: Something I had lying around

OS Hard drive: 15GB IBM 
Data HDDs: 4x640GB Western Digital AAKS in RAID5


The Software
The computer is running Gentoo Linux. I picked it mostly to prove to myself that I could do it. If I were doing it all over again, I'd do Ubuntu for ease of install.

The RAID is software RAID. Though for this configuration, md gives performance that is close to what a RAID controller card would provide while being *much* cheaper.

Setting up file sharing for windows and mac is a piece of cake. Samba takes care of everything.


Bittorrent Downloading
This one took me a little while to figure out, but I finally found an option called torrentflux-b4rt. The system only requires the standard LAMP setup (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Then you extract the files to the right place, go to the webpage it generates, and follow the prompts for setup.


What's great with this setup is that I don't need to leave my main computer on to download torrents as I had in the past. If you do the port forwarding on your router, you can access the page from any computer connected to the net. 

When I visit my parents, I can use their computer to search Pirate Bay, download the .torrent file there, and upload it to my server at home to start the download.

It's very slick.


Media Streaming
Currently, I've got this server sitting next to my desktop, which is connected to the TV. For movie viewing, I play movies on the desktop from the server using a DVI => HDMI cable.

The problem: the desktop will soon be moving into a different room, and I need a way to watch movies from the server on the TV.


Solution: An xbox 360 (and I've pretty much got the wife convinced this is a good idea).

I can set up a program (Twonky Media Server) which will allow the xbox 360 to stream any media file from the file server directly to the TV (you'd normally need the desktop running Windows Media Player while streaming from a NAS).

The reviews I've seen show that Twonky works extremely well, though I'm open to other solutions.


To Do:
I've still got a few things I want to do with this server.

Get a Kill-A-Watt to see how much power is used.
Get two more 512MB ECC DDR memory sticks
Replace 640GB drives with something larger (I'm hoping these will last me until the 2TB  drives are around $100)


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## Th0rn0 (Apr 17, 2009)

Looking good!

Started something similar myself. But when installing the libraries so that my Xbox can stream media from my ubuntu box I killed it and never bothered to revive it. I think when I'm at Uni I will do this as I get a sick net connection. 20mb down 84mb up


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## theeldest (Apr 29, 2009)

Update:
Currently, I've got this server sitting next to my desktop, which is connected to the TV. For movie viewing, I play movies on the desktop from the server using a DVI => HDMI cable.

The problem: the desktop will soon be moving into a different room, and I need a way to watch movies from the server on the TV.


Solution: An xbox 360 (and I've pretty much got the wife convinced this is a good idea).

I can set up a program (Twonky Media Server) which will allow the xbox 360 to stream any media file from the file server directly to the TV (you'd normally need the desktop running Windows Media Player while streaming from a NAS).

The reviews I've seen show that Twonky works extremely well, though I'm open to other solutions.


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## TheCrow (Apr 30, 2009)

You can also stram divx, etc with an xbox1, this would spare you some cash.

The xbox 1 can also be run in hd with the right cables.


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## Th0rn0 (Apr 30, 2009)

Xbox + XBMC = The shit.


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## h3llb3nd4 (Apr 30, 2009)

XBMC?
what is that?


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## smee (Apr 30, 2009)

Well first, use Demonoid or IPtorrents, there private sites, much safer (from virus') and MUCH faster download speeds.
Piratebay sucks IMO...
BTW, if you need a Demonoid invite, PM me.


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## Th0rn0 (Apr 30, 2009)

X Box Media Centre. It is seriously good!

There is also a 360 version.


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## TheCrow (May 1, 2009)

h3llb3nd4 said:


> XBMC?
> what is that?



Watch my episode of cribs and i show you at the end!

If you want i can make another video and show you some smore of what it can do a bit more in depth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqfyoYPpjf0


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## Deleted member 3 (May 1, 2009)

Why bother with ECC? Why not buy cheap regular memory? I didn't even know Athlons supported ECC in the first place


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## Geofrancis (May 1, 2009)

athlon 64's dont support ecc ram thats the whole point in opterons they support ecc ram for server dutys


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## theeldest (May 3, 2009)

Update

Just ordered the Xbox 360. In case anyone else is interested, Dell has a pretty good deal on it now, just use Coupon Code QX934B1BM47BS? for 15% off any gaming console. (ended up at $245 before tax for the 60GB Pro, regularly $299)


In regards to Athlon64 and ECC
The Athlon64s do support ECC memory.

You can download this document from AMD. On the first or second page, it list ECC as one of the features of the socket 939 Athlon64s.

And really, at this point, ECC and non ECC DDR memory are the same price (outrageously expensive). So I'm testing some used ECC memory this weekend that should bring me up to 2GB.


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## theeldest (May 3, 2009)

smee said:


> Well first, use Demonoid or IPtorrents, there private sites, much safer (from virus') and MUCH faster download speeds.
> Piratebay sucks IMO...
> BTW, if you need a Demonoid invite, PM me.



Thanks for the offer, but I've got a Demonoid account already. The main reason I use Pirate Bay is that mostly I download TV shows. And I like Pirate Bay's format. You click TV Shows, then you click the season of the series (Under the Bones heading, you can click Season 4) and it'll take you to a listing of all torrents that are in Bones season 4. It's much more convenient.


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## smee (May 7, 2009)

theeldest said:


> Thanks for the offer, but I've got a Demonoid account already. The main reason I use Pirate Bay is that mostly I download TV shows. And I like Pirate Bay's format. You click TV Shows, then you click the season of the series (Under the Bones heading, you can click Season 4) and it'll take you to a listing of all torrents that are in Bones season 4. It's much more convenient.



Ahhh didn't know that about TPB, well thanks for that! I take that back. 

Can't wait for updates.


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## theeldest (Dec 12, 2009)

Update

The server has been serving it's purpose. It downloads the video, offers them to the xbos 360, and the 360 gives a good format for browsing media.

Now that it's working fine, it's time to upgrade.


One problem I have is some older video files are not compatible with the xbox, so I need to transcode them. But the relatively low performance would take quite a while. 

I'm also running low on space (1.8TB user accessible; 250GB free).


So here are the parts I'm considering:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131619
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231185


Hard Drives: 
1TB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145287
640GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218



The 1TB drive is going to replace the 640 in my current desktop. Then I'll take that and the 640GB above and add to the new RAID pool. Giving 3,200GB of storage.

Thoughts?


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## Geofrancis (Dec 12, 2009)

theeldest said:


> Update
> The Athlon64s do support ECC memory.
> 
> You can download this document from AMD. On the first or second page, it list ECC as one of the features of the socket 939 Athlon64s.
> ...



i supposed to say unbuffered instead of ecc


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## theeldest (Apr 21, 2010)

*Bit the Dust*

Update

Due to finances, I still hadn't actually upgraded the server (and really, it *was* working well enough).

But yesterday I try to pull up the show listing on the xbox and it won't connect. I try to SSH into the box but nothing. So I hook up ye olde monitor and see a Kernel Panic message. The system had thrown up a hardware fault.

I reboot and we're good for another 12 hours then same thing. Kernel Panic. 

I could check the processor and memory (I've actually got a spare s939 proc and DDR memory sitting around), but this is as good an excuse as any.

Here's what I've ordered:
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131609
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231185
Boot Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074


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## bpgt64 (Apr 27, 2010)

You should check out XBMC on Ubuntu, it works disturbingly well at organizing media, and connecting to other Window's File shares.


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