|
TV Server PC
I'm going to build a Server pc for our upcoming home network. The main job of the "server" will be that of a NAS. However, it will also have the software needed to to run the Sonos music system and MediaPortal.
Each room around the house will potentially have a HTPC running media centre and have a dual dvb-t card of some sort. The foxtell, thanks to logifuse, will get streamed around the house using Mediaportals new tv server. Either directly, or hopefully, via an media centre plugin.
So, that being said. What hardware seems to be working well for people at the moment. Will the cpu have to be really beefy? I think no, but I'm happy to stand corrected. My basic thoughts are to spend a lot on the Case, cooling, motherboard and hard drives. I don't really know a good analogue tv tuner since I've never had foxtel before.
Here is the proposed build:
Coolermaster Stacker case (or maybe thermaltake armour LCS)
Any other suggestions would be fine. It doesnt have to be super silent, and the room will be cool, but I'm planning for at least 8 hard drives, so I'd rather be safe then sorry.
ASUS M2N32 WS Professional
I've always been a fan of amd processors. I've been out of the game so I don't know if they are still worth it, but it wont be overclocked so I don't think the processor will make a big deal. This board supports 10 sata drives, as well as heaps of other nice things.
6x Samsung 500Gb Spinpoint hard drives.
I've had a couple of these and they havent failed so far. My seagates which I used to always use, tend to die on my fairly regularly. Are there any other alternatives?
This board has two separate raid controllers, so I might get a couple cheap 80Gb drives and raid 0 them for a speedy OS. The actual OS setup will be backed up once I perfect it, so if this dies I'm not too worried. the 6 Samsungs will be in Raid 5.
I'm not really sure much of the rest matters. I'll use maybe 2GB of decent corsair ram which I always use. I'll need about 750W for the power supply and I wont skimp on that but I have no idea which brand I'll use. It will all be connected to a UPS as well.
Can anyone help me fine tune this rig? It will certainly have about 4 people streaming mp3s at the same time, as well as at least one hd tv recording going to it, plus the 2 tuners for foxtel will be going all the time and there will be a lot to record.
Any help, is as always, very much appreciated.
|
