PC to run 24/7 as download machine

TheDoc

Won’t get into the specifics as I don’t want charter issues and I’m fine with the software setup.

Was exploring a raspberry pis viability for this requirement due to its small form factor but the reality is the download speeds and write speeds to a nas would be horrendous not to mention the unraring of 1080p content breaking it.

So looking for a second hand, low cost PC to just run as a download machine.

Have a NAS i can utilize (2 bays) and will just run this from my pc room. Power plug, WiFi Ac adapter (no wired options here) and that’s it. After initial setup will utilize rdp solutions.

Having a look on adverts but probably not sure what’s too much or what’s too little. Figure plenty of people here use one themselves or know the usecase.

Any help be appreciated.

Ironically I had a lovely HTPC I sold only two months ago and see the person who bought it selling it again. Would happily buy it back , but as I don’t need the media playback functions (Have a firestick for that) I’m not looking to spend the 150-200 euro to buy my old rig back

Lu Tze

TheDoc wrote: »

Won’t get into the specifics as I don’t want charter issues and I’m fine with the software setup.

Was exploring a raspberry pis viability for this requirement due to its small form factor but the reality is the download speeds and write speeds to a nas would be horrendous not to mention the unraring of 1080p content breaking it.

So looking for a second hand, low cost PC to just run as a download machine.

Have a NAS i can utilize (2 bays) and will just run this from my pc room. Power plug, WiFi Ac adapter (no wired options here) and that’s it. After initial setup will utilize rdp solutions.

Having a look on adverts but probably not sure what’s too much or what’s too little. Figure plenty of people here use one themselves or know the usecase.

Any help be appreciated.

Ironically I had a lovely HTPC I sold only two months ago and see the person who bought it selling it again. Would happily buy it back , but as I don’t need the media playback functions (Have a firestick for that) I’m not looking to spend the 150-200 euro to buy my old rig back

I wouldn't discount buying back your old machine, at least it's a known quantity as regards what's inside it!

TheDoc

Lu Tze wrote: »

I wouldn't discount buying back your old machine, at least it's a known quantity as regards what's inside it!

Yeah it's a fair point the more I think of it, I know it'll do exactly what I need.

Lu Tze

TheDoc wrote: »

Yeah it's a fair point the more I think of it, I know it'll do exactly what I need.

Does it have the WiFi AC card? Which would negate any further outlay on top of a PC, most on adverts wouldn't have any card

TheDoc

Lu Tze wrote: »

Does it have the WiFi AC card? Which would negate any further outlay on top of a PC, most on adverts wouldn't have any card

Nah it was used wired

TheDoc

Thinking I might just build again. That thread above with the lads talking about their media severs has me giddy.

Wcool

Why is the Pi not sufficient? Does it really matter if the unrarring takes 4 min instead of 30 sec? You automate this task so will find your download to be unrarred when you come home.

Unless you need to hook up a lot of disks I don't see the problem. Downloading doesn't require any processing power, even a 20 year old computer would do it.

Raspberry Pi: Low cost to buy it, low cost to run it (<3 watt). Only downside is that you have to learn some Linux.

I have an old Model A Pi hanging around. PM me if you want to give it a try, I will post it for free. If you don't like it mail it back.

TheDoc

Wcool wrote: »

Why is the Pi not sufficient? Does it really matter if the unrarring takes 4 min instead of 30 sec? You automate this task so will find your download to be unrarred when you come home.

Unless you need to hook up a lot of disks I don't see the problem. Downloading doesn't require any processing power, even a 20 year old computer would do it.

Raspberry Pi: Low cost to buy it, low cost to run it (<3 watt). Only downside is that you have to learn some Linux.

I have an old Model A Pi hanging around. PM me if you want to give it a try, I will post it for free. If you don't like it mail it back.

Hey. I had the original Pi and it was totally unfit for purpose and never really worked well.

From some extensive checking online , general consensus I’m getting is I’d be mad to use a Rpi to be downloading and writing proper 1080p content to a NAS

That’s the consensus I’m getting anyway. That’s not accurate ?

Hotblack Desiato

I have an RPi3 running Libreelec & TVHeadend and a couple of USB tuners, it records HD content to a NAS just fine (the "NAS" is just a cheap USB hard drive stuck into the back of my router)

RPi3 is a very different animal to the RPi 1, but still reasonably low power and cheap.

gctest50

A mac mini ? small & quiet

TheDoc

gctest50 wrote: »

A mac mini ? small & quiet

Not the sort of money I’m looking to spend tbh

TheDoc

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I have an RPi3 running Libreelec & TVHeadend and a couple of USB tuners, it records HD content to a NAS just fine (the "NAS" is just a cheap USB hard drive stuck into the back of my router)

RPi3 is a very different animal to the RPi 1, but still reasonably low power and cheap.

I’ve found Linux (ran my HTPC on Ubuntu for a bit) a nightmare using actually NAS with. So finicky and unintuitive to setup for this day and age.

I’m not adverse to a Rpi3. It would be an ideal type of size and device.

But like I said. I’m finding general consensus is they arnt great for downloading 1080p content , unraring it and then writing to a NAS.

That not the experience you’ve had ?

What is the download speeds like on Rpi? I’ve a 360mb connection. Must check what’s its LAN interface is

gctest50

I think its lan is done through usb(2)


ODROID maybe ?

Wcool

TheDoc wrote: »

Hey. I had the original Pi and it was totally unfit for purpose and never really worked well.

From some extensive checking online , general consensus I’m getting is I’d be mad to use a Rpi to be downloading and writing proper 1080p content to a NAS

That’s the consensus I’m getting anyway. That’s not accurate ?

Well, just to be sure: are we talking about downloading only? or should it also play the media?

If it is downloading only really almost anything would do. I would try to find the cheapest Windows computer I could find then. Celeron or Atom processor.
But even your NAS could do this if it was made by QNAP or Synology: it will probably have a torrent module and you could use another computers browser to operate it.

You say that your connection is 360m. I take that as 360/8 =45 Mbyte per second. Do you really get that speed? Always? I guess if that is the case you will need a computer with 1000mbit ethernet connector rather than 100mbit and only the latest Pi 3+ will have that.

If you need media playback too and want Windows (I personally will *never* go back to Windows, I even play games on Linux Steam) then a cheap Celeron is already good enough. Still around 150 euro.

TheDoc

Have an amazon Firetv running Kodi for playback. So no media playback required

TheDoc

In terms of download speed I get between 30-34 mb/sec through Sabnzbd via Usenet.

It’s not essential to maximize the download speeds as I typically schedule downloads overnight. But at the same time, don’t want to be getting hamstring at 10mb/sec through a ****ty LAN port or Ethernet setup.

In saying that. If I went Rpi I’d probably have it Ethernet and downstairs hidden behind a display unit.

If o went a small form pc build I might well run it upstairs on wireless using an AC adapter (run one in my gaming rig successfully) and have it wirelessly download and write to a NAS.

The NAS I’d have donwtairs beside the TV definitely plugged Ethernet. Although FireStick is a wireless solution so would be streaming content wirelessly , but from about 2 foot away.

Should note I don’t have a NAS. Thought I did. Must have thrown it out :’(

TheDoc

Just for a test tried streaming some 1080p content from my pc upstairs through Firestick and it was choppy.

So that rules out and all encompassing build sitting wirelessly upstairs. So it’s definitly looking like a NAS downstairs by the Tv.

I want to avoid having a pc in the front room. Since we got rid of my HTPC that was slick looking , we prefer the minimal setup now and not having a hulking pc there

Wcool

Nearly sure the Firestick isn't the problem, it is the wireless connection to it.

A Pi3 or any reasonable ARM based box will play everything except maybe HEVC and/or H265 encoded media.

What you need to do is make your connection from your media to your media player wired, not wireless.

Anyway, downloading can be done on the cheapest windows box available

Hotblack Desiato

TheDoc wrote: »

I’ve found Linux (ran my HTPC on Ubuntu for a bit) a nightmare using actually NAS with. So finicky and unintuitive to setup for this day and age.

If it presents itself as an SMB/Samba device there should be no issues at all.

I’m not adverse to a Rpi3. It would be an ideal type of size and device.

But like I said. I’m finding general consensus is they arnt great for downloading 1080p content , unraring it and then writing to a NAS.

That not the experience you’ve had ?

Haven't been torrenting or unraring on these at all in fairness. Just using one as a tvheadend Saorview streaming/recording server and 3 of them as Kodi clients which can stream live or recorded Saorview from tvheadend and they can stream satellite TV recordings from my Humax satellite box as well. Wireless TV anywhere in the house

What is the download speeds like on Rpi? I’ve a 360mb connection. Must check what’s its LAN interface is

The Rpi3 is 100Mbit ethernet but as with the older ones the throughput is shared with the USB interfaces. Can't run a speed test through Libreelec/Kodi unfortunately, I have one RPi with a Raspbian desktop on it but it connects through wifi. Here is a guy who ran speed tests on wired (and wireless) Rpi3 and the 100Mbit ethernet maxed out at about 95Mbit, but in the real world you'll be using USB storage and the bandwidth will have to be shared with that, so you could reckon on half that.

TheDoc wrote: »

Just for a test tried streaming some 1080p content from my pc upstairs through Firestick and it was choppy.

Depends on your wifi signal obviously, but I'm streaming live RTE2HD (1080i) from the tvheadend RPi (ethernet connection to the router) on wifi to my laptop right now and it works fine. The bitrate on RTE1 or 2 HD is variable between 5-7Mbit/s.

Hotblack Desiato

There's now an RPi 3+ out, which according to here has much better networking:

https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus

Faster ethernet
The Pi 3 B+ has significantly faster wired networking, thanks to an upgraded USB/LAN chip, and you should see speeds that are 3-5x faster than on previous models of the Pi, at least 300Mbit/s.

TheDoc

Wcool wrote: »

Nearly sure the Firestick isn't the problem, it is the wireless connection to it.

A Pi3 or any reasonable ARM based box will play everything except maybe HEVC and/or H265 encoded media.

What you need to do is make your connection from your media to your media player wired, not wireless.

Anyway, downloading can be done on the cheapest windows box available

Seeing there is third party extension kits that make Firesticks Ethernet cable compatible so might grab that.

As you say any old thing will do the downloading. Thinking an Intel NUC i3 looks the job. About 100 euro second hand and with 8GB ram and SSD will be perfect.

Then just getting a separate two bay nas should do the trick. Ran a two bay for years utilizing both bays. Wasn’t bothered with raid or redundancy. Tend to keep my libraries lean so no panic for data loss.

Think a NUC+ Nas seems way to go.

Never figured on using external HDs through USB, always assumed the write and transfer speeds would be a hinderance.