Brand New Home...Brand New Installation 5k (US) Budget

[tschak909]

The internal wiring of the house WAS a good idea, no doubt.

Just be aware that there are a lot of moving parts, an that if you're doing your first attempt with EVERYTHING in the house, it will be a bit confusing to those not accustomed to the system, already.

-Thom

[tridum]

Well Thom...

I really appreciate your comments, instruction, and tips much more than you know.  And yes, i've been attempting to monitor every issue discussed in the Forum.  And maybe I haven't been quite clear in my approach, or at least not communicating it well.  I can be very guilty of that...just ask my wife!  Hahah.

My objective, although i may have not been saying this, has been to take WHAT WORKS, by majority opinion, or at least by veterans like yourself, and apply that to my situation, based off of the parameters of my budget and objective.  I do have a ulterior motive here; but more on that later.

My objecitve here, is to learn, and apply a STABLE, AFFORDABLE, SYSTEM that is able to be scaled up or down as needs and or budgets permit.  Mostly, because from what this particular situation allows is a way to experiment...mostly ...where it only affects me and my family.  And if nothing else, we are first adopters.  So, as ignorant as I am of this wonderful system, im not coming into it with blinders on. I expect there to be wonderful challenges, that will require many silly questions from me, on how to resolve them.  Let me put it to you like this, the first computer I owned had a casette tape as a hard drive and said TRS-80 on it....and it was a wonderful discovery to be talking to people on something called bulletin board services...!!!

So...after all that..hahaha...my other motive, as mentioned earlier, is that I own a 3 phase housing development right outside of New Orleans, that I've been working on for several years.  It's small in comparison to many around it, but we have yet to build homes.  Within in 3 years though we will have completed construction on about 75% of the homes (110 homes). Well at least we hope so, if the economy steadily improves....  I have only one partner in this, and so we are truly very flexible in what we do, and how we do it.....

So in my head, i'd love to experience linuxmce's growing pains...as i'd love to get it to the point to deploy it in every home we plan to build as a add.

When i first started this thread, i asked general questions, after reading he linuxmce site.  And in this thread, I've asked the same types of questions; mostly general in nature.  So why you may, as other's probably feel, that my questions or even my objectives are juvenille or the scale to big, or my expectations of the system to mainstream, let me assure you, when you lived life as i have and seen 6k of storage be a 1000 dollar investment to what we have today, I truly do not. 

All have responded have taught me something.  And i really appreciate your time and input.  I hope you continue to share what you know with me.

P.S. every home we build will be compliant with cat 6e....hahah....



Now, that being said...

[tridum]

so im wired, if nothing else...and wonderfully happy with result...all in all it wasn't that bad, the difficulty was in transferring all my connections from 1st floor to 2nd floor...was pretty easy just tedious.  I purchased one of my proposed MD's over the weekend, a Acer small form factor, and im chomping at the bit to truly get this going...but now, the hard part comes in deciding on a Core.  There haven't been to many direct recommendations....so im going to stick with the basics i've been able to read about here in the forums.

[tschak909]

as an aside...

the FIRST computer I had, was a TRS-80 Model I, with Percom disks.
the SECOND computer I had, was an Atari 800.

I've been around, too.



-Thom

[B34N]

...but now, the hard part comes in deciding on a Core.  There haven't been to many direct recommendations....so im going to stick with the basics i've been able to read about here in the forums.

As previously mentioned, I'm pretty much at the same stage with my system. The core is also my next step. How much power should a core have? What factors are most important? My head starts st spinning when trying to decide between processors. There are just so many different types of processors out there I don't know which one is best.  If using http://www.cpubenchmark.net is there minimum and recommended CPU score that one should consider? Is there a score that above which makes no meaningful impact in the core's performance?

As I mentioned in a previous post, my core will likely serve the whole house audio mostly from Pandora.com. Is there a suggested option to use something other than the core to do that? The rooms which will have in-wall and in-ceilings speakers will not have MDs in them.  I'm also trying to decide if my core will also serve video to a nearby TV or if I will get a separate MD.  Likely I will use it as a hybrid initially and as my system expands I will offload other tasks using a MD and a NAS.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[JohnEdwards]

This is where your choices start getting furry.  If you want true surround sound out of these PC's you really need something that is at least 4.1 capable, and better yet with an optical output on it.  Depending on your computer selection almost any surround sound system will work.  The only requirement is that your receiver have an input that will correspond with an output from your computer.  If your computer has a coaxial S/PDIF jack then your receiver should have one too.  A standard headphone jack on any computer can be converted into 2 RCA audio ports.  Some motherboards allow up to 10 channels out in this manner on their motherboard.  Of your selections the First is only capable of stero as far as I can tell.  The second looks like it can do 6 channel, and the last is probably the best at possibly 8 channels.  The MSI (last option) also does not remap the ports using a driver, which will make it more likely to work in a linux environment without the availability of a separate driver option.   I am looking into pricing a Media Director with the whole package, but it is proving time consuming.  I will post when I come up with something to be reviewed by the masses.

Is there anyway to get the audio to travel through hdmi?  What are the limitations in audio quality through hdmi (if that's even possible)?

[tridum]

hahaha..Thom your a hoot...gotta love it...you win the Ego pop...(what ya dont know is you had "won" already cause your system works and im trying to learn to make mine now)....my point in saying my long time tenure is that i expect problems...i really do, i also expect to work through them and reach the objective.  Stable, functional, affordable system. 

And btw, you REALLY  were better than me, cause "ownership" to me, was limited to how man hours i was willing to sweep the floor and restock miss labled resistors in the little wire bins at the local shack...then i could play to my hearts content on space invaders!....

SO NOW!....hhhaha...what about my core...okay, lets up the ante...if ya had 3k to spend on a core, what would you get..to run all functions of the system? 

[tkmedia]

3k to spend on a core

Wow 3k for something an ATOM core can handle.....
The heavy lifting is done with Media directors, and now mostly handed off to the gpu on the media directors, if you run VDPAU. (Nvidia accelerated drivers.)


But If you want to spend 3k on a core
PM me I am sure we could work something out


Tim

[tridum]

Now we are talking Thom....your so suave!  Educate my ignorance out of me!

When reading the overall understanding of how the system works, my interpretation is that the core ends up doing most of the processing. And from what your saying, (at least regarding the video component of this) it's the MD's which are doing it.  And by the way,  the 3k is theoretical on a "if i had to..." as it seems through all the various individuals who have listed what they are using, there is no consensus on what core to build/buy.

My other question, is yes, it seems at a minimum you can run a Atom, for the main component of Linuxmce, but my real question is, what about the other components of the system which I want to implement? (security, phone, audio, gaming...etc)

And yes you've already chastised me on over reaching my expectations, but im not refrencing right now that all components work without flaw...on first boot, im talking say in the future as the system becomes more refined.  My point being is i'd like to spend on the core what's needed to support all functions that  the system is capable of handling.  And that is the recommendation im after....

[B34N]

3k to spend on a core

Wow 3k for something an ATOM core can handle.....
The heavy lifting is done with Media directors, and now mostly handed off to the gpu on the media directors, if you run VDPAU. (Nvidia accelerated drivers.)

So you are saying that an Atom is more than enough for a core?  Newegg is selling http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-SlickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&ItemList=Combo.343643 for $179 including shipping today.  If this is enough power then I guess my only concern is that I would need external tuners since the single slot would be used up by the 2nd NIC. Or is there a mini PCI-e NIC available that would be supported?

How big of a HD should I have for the OS? I have an old mini PCI-E SSD that I'm guessing could be installed in place of the wireless nic that the MB comes with and then I could have the OS on the SSD and keep all media on a large HD.  Would this make sense?

[tkmedia]

My other question, is yes, it seems at a minimum you can run a Atom, for the main component of Linuxmce, but my real question is, what about the other components of the system which I want to implement? (security, phone, audio, gaming...etc)

For several months now I have been running all aspects of lmce off my atom 330
I have 5 media directors off of it but usually not more than 3 playing media at any given time.
The major issue i found is that it takes like 15 minutes per MD to regen the orbiters.

So I say try it ... worse case move it to the edge as a MD if you don't feel its up to the task.


Tim

[tridum]

that's a wonderful idea, in fact I am going to try it...like that and save my 3k...as i would like to see exactly what it does if it lags like that...

[bbnd]

Tridum, earlier you posted that you would be taking pictures of the install. Have you done that? Are they available anywhere for public viewing? If you need some storage space, I would be happy to make a public album for you on my website.

don

[tridum]

alas, didn't do it for the wiring, as i figured that was a bit too mundane, but will be doing it as i place all the MD's as well as the core...i saw the video's on Utube of tom and that's kinda my objective; to archive what happens as i go through this install...

[bbnd]

Have the builders drywalled/plastered yet? Just as a CYA I take still pictures and video at the end of each day as a contractor works (or several times a day if I can get away from work). You ought to see the look on their face when there is a discrepancy and you lay the photos/video on them.

Also, in  new build, video/pics are GREAT documentation of where stuff in the walls (pipes, wire etc) is running. You might have a blueprint but you can't believe how many times I have seen a subcontractor make a change on the fly to save a few bucks or minutes.

don