[WndrWmn]

Hello,

I live in the United States. I am in doing some precursory research for a build because the last time I built a PC was back in the XP days so to say my knowledge is out of date is an understatement.

First project is more immanent than the second. I need to upgrade my back up storage because my HW is old and getting full. My back up storage I am hoping can be multi purposes. I would like to set myself up with a NAS system aimed at being both usable for general back up and streaming. I would like to be able to have a home entertainment system where I can rip my CD & DVD music and video collection to make it accessible to me on my Samsung Series 7 Smart TVs and also allow friends to share in my collection from their homes over the internet. The part about sharing with my friends is TBD because I know that will depend on their level of equipment types and internet speed. That part is not a must have but I would like the experience of being able to build such a system. I would like it to have the potential for RAID with both redundancy (parity) and performance so if I am correct in my knowledge that would probably be a RAID 5? My question is this: Is it possible to have a NAS RAID system do both standard back up and be an entertainment streaming system?

I currently have for my storage:

An old 3TB USB Seagate HD that is getting pretty full. I have 10TB Degoo account that I am working on uploading much of the information to for redundancy. I also have a 10 yr old (as of this year it is 10 - purchased it in 2011 - found the receipts! Happy B'day old girl) that is booted all the way up to it's max capability as follows:

HP Pavilion DV7 Entertainment laptop - DV7-32bUS
16GB RAM
1TB SSD for the C:/ drive
1TB HD internal (this model has two bays)
Legacy BIOS not UEFI - MB cannot handle that
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

I will hopefully be looking at replacing the laptop within the next 3-6 months

I plan on building a screaming desktop as my second project which now leads me into my second precursory questions.

The desktop I want to build will be for me learning streaming and video editing for some basic YT videos and maybe a very basic web site for myself. I might actually want to at some point reacquaint myself with modern gaming. I say "reacquaint" because TBH the last video game I played was the Atari 2600 (one stick one button very rudimentary) and I would like to up my skills to be more relevant. Here's my questions:

Are there differences in HW needed between gaming, streaming and video editing? If yes, can you point me toward some good reading material and also maybe even give me a brief understanding of the differences? Are there any magazines that I can sub to in order to modernize my brain? I know one thing for certain, I want a smokin hot RGB case. I am a Geekette after all so I like bling that is pretty - I come from the era of discos with all the crazy lights and mirror balls so bling is a must.

I would be wanting to play RPG games starting out with anything from DC Comics Universe (after all my name should tell you everything you need to know on that).

I think I have put enough meat on this quest for knowledge for now to get me started. I look forward to the replies. I don't have a budget yet because I am only looking for info to modernize my brain.

Thank you to all for reading this and for any/all replies..........


Sincerely,


Wonder Woman

 

[bassfisher6522]

For the build: Your 3 - 6 month time frame may not be enough. Meaning at this point in time.....PC hardware pricing is on the "RISE" across the board, especially the GPU market. This is all due to Covid-19 and the new Tariffs (USA) that were enacted the first of this year. You'll need a pretty healthy budget and then factor in the GPU. Or, look at those pre-built systems from Skynet, ABS, Cyber....and so on.

 

[Rich-M]

"Are there differences in HW needed between gaming, streaming and video editing? " Basically the answer is no that a high end pc with good quality video card can do all of that, the problem being a Spunk states is that the prices right now for certain components just make no sense. Video cards are way out there with quality cards now way over $300, double the price before the pandemic started with. Motherboards are higher while memory is lower, go figure? We have an admittedly old build guide here but the pricing is probably temporarily way off and for now there is no intelligent way to properly update it or I would have.

 

[bassfisher6522]

the problem being a Spunk states is

Wow....I know I'm old and senile, cripple and half blind....and now I have a new name to go with all that. ROFLMAO!!!!!

 

[WndrWmn]

Ok, totally well understood about the price situation. I don't need the unit immediately. That being said are there any build guides that I could look at for comparison? I am leaning toward Intel instead of AMD for CPU, my confusion comes with GPU (is that the same as a "video card" which is what it was called back in my XP build days....I am thinking the answer is yes, but want to confirm) as to what is best and second best etc....are there any good articles you can point me toward so I can modernize my brain on that? I would also want it to have video capture capabilities.

Now for my question about the NAS.....Any opinions? I want to lean toward SSD but research is yielding that HDs are more common, is that correct? I would like a 4 bay unit that can accommodate trans coding for streaming....My biggest question is this - the functionality/use is that based on the enclosure/housing or is that the responsibility of the type of drive? And again, for what I am looking to do is it possible to be "multi-function/multi-purpose"? Am I limited to picking one OR the other and cannot have it for both usage?

Thanks,

Wonder Woman

 

[Rich-M]

Wow....I know I'm old and senile, cripple and half blind....and now I have a new name to go with all that. ROFLMAO!!!!!

Oops I have answered quite a few posts behind Spunk Funk today sorry Jimbo!

 

[Rich-M]

Wow....I know I'm old and senile, cripple and half blind....and now I have a new name to go with all that. ROFLMAO!!!!!

Oops I have answered quite a few posts behind Spunk Funk today sorry Jimbo!

Ok, totally well understood about the price situation. I don't need the unit immediately. That being said are there any build guides that I could look at for comparison? I am leaning toward Intel instead of AMD for CPU, my confusion comes with GPU (is that the same as a "video card" which is what it was called back in my XP build days....I am thinking the answer is yes, but want to confirm) as to what is best and second best etc....are there any good articles you can point me toward so I can modernize my brain on that? I would also want it to have video capture capabilities.

Ok, totally well understood about the price situation. I don't need the unit immediately. That being said are there any build guides that I could look at for comparison? I am leaning toward Intel instead of AMD for CPU, my confusion comes with GPU (is that the same as a "video card" which is what it was called back in my XP build days....I am thinking the answer is yes, but want to confirm) as to what is best and second best etc....are there any good articles you can point me toward so I can modernize my brain on that? I would also want it to have video capture capabilities.

Now for my question about the NAS.....Any opinions? I want to lean toward SSD but research is yielding that HDs are more common, is that correct? I would like a 4 bay unit that can accommodate trans coding for streaming....My biggest question is this - the functionality/use is that based on the enclosure/housing or is that the responsibility of the type of drive? And again, for what I am looking to do is it possible to be "multi-function/multi-purpose"? Am I limited to picking one OR the other and cannot have it for both usage?

Thanks,

Wonder Woman

Ok, totally well understood about the price situation. I don't need the unit immediately. That being said are there any build guides that I could look at for comparison? I am leaning toward Intel instead of AMD for CPU, my confusion comes with GPU (is that the same as a "video card" which is what it was called back in my XP build days....I am thinking the answer is yes, but want to confirm) as to what is best and second best etc....are there any good articles you can point me toward so I can modernize my brain on that? I would also want it to have video capture capabilities.

Ok, totally well understood about the price situation. I don't need the unit immediately. That being said are there any build guides that I could look at for comparison? I am leaning toward Intel instead of AMD for CPU, my confusion comes with GPU (is that the same as a "video card" which is what it was called back in my XP build days....I am thinking the answer is yes, but want to confirm) as to what is best and second best etc....are there any good articles you can point me toward so I can modernize my brain on that? I would also want it to have video capture capabilities.

No comparison there may be more hard drives out there but Ssd drives are definitely preferable as substantially faster with a longer shelf life. You can use both an Ssd drive for Windows and then a hard drive for programs and storage
.

 

[WndrWmn]

Hello,

That still leaves my other question about NAS units. Is it the enclosure or housing that designates functionality as in if it will be used for entertainment streaming requiring trans coding or is it the drives that designate the functionality? Additionally are there any particular drives for entertainment streaming as well as 4 bay enclosures?

 

[Rich-M]

I don't believe there would be any difference in the drives for use. Easiest way to designate functionality I would think would be to map the drive in Windows but we are far from my expertise here.

 

[WndrWmn]

Oops I have answered quite a few posts behind Spunk Funk today sorry Jimbo!




No comparison there may be more hard drives out there but Ssd drives are definitely preferable as substantially faster with a longer shelf life. You can use both an Ssd drive for Windows and then a hard drive for programs and storage
.

I know that both HDs & SSDs can be used for a variety of purposes; that wasn't what I tried (albeit in apparently a clumsy manner) to ask. I definitely need to have a back up storage solution and I am thinking about a NAS unit, but I will definitely be wanting to build a unit that will be used for ripping my CD & DVD collection to so I can stream to my two smart TVs and or any other devices as well as over the internet to where ever I might be or to share my collection (if possible) with my friends. My two questions are can one NAS set up be used to be BOTH an entertainment streaming/storage AND a general use data storage ALSO? Additionally is it the NAS drive bay unit that handles trans coding for streaming or are the drives the ones that are built with that functionality?

Sincerely,

Wonder Woman

 

[bassfisher6522]

That still leaves my other question about NAS units. Is it the enclosure or housing that designates functionality as in if it will be used for entertainment streaming

This is generally done by/with the software that comes with the NAS if buying a ready made NAS. WD for example has a few lines of Home Style NAS flavors.....ie ones for generally backup, ones for media storage/entertainment and so on. You just need to do your research.

 

[Rich-M]

Just a general point though is NAS is probably the slowest transmission speed available probably why I don't use mine for backups. I remember making image files took forever when I first started using NAS drives so I stopped doing those with NAS drives.