media server recommendation

peteratwork · **11th January 2007, 01:44 PM**

Hey Everyone

Just wanting some advice from people.

I'm wanting to build a machine that will be hidden away and purely act as a media server and used to rip dvd's to hard drive, then it will purely stream the video, music and photos to my xbox and another basic pc and laptop.

I'd love to hear about people recommendations.

thanks in advance

arkay · **11th January 2007, 02:04 PM**

Have you ever used linux and are you adventurous?

All that can be achieved easily on a cheap motherboard, not very fast CPU and small amount of ram. You just need something that has enough disk controllers on it to do the job.

It'll take a little work though but I'm happy to help if you want to give it a try.

Alternately Windows can do a similar job, albeit more expensively (buying the OS etc).

Do you have any spare hardware lying around or are you needing to buy something?

Cheers,

Arkay.

tyronne27 · **11th January 2007, 02:30 PM**

would definatley agree with arkay, it sounds like you want a NAS device of somekind? due want to RIP the DVD's directly from the media server, or will you do this via another machine and store it on the server? if the later is the option you can use FreeNAS (great product) has a tiny footprint.

OpenBSD/FreeBSD with Webmin is a good option, webmin has a lot of plugin modules.

Windows Server would be overkill.

Banjo · **11th January 2007, 02:42 PM**

Check out these threads.

Windows Home Server In Detail

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...le-server.html

peteratwork · **11th January 2007, 03:54 PM**

Ok here goes from what I've read these are the specs I'm going to work with.

AMD AM2 Sempron 3400
2GB Kingmax 667 DDR2 RAM
4 x 400GB Seagate NL35 Sata HDD (setup raid 5)
ASUS M2N MX Mainboard
Fortunetec KA380 with 400 FSP PSU
Pioneer DVR111 DVD Drive
Windows XP Home Edition

Look forward to any feedback

tyronne27 · **11th January 2007, 04:55 PM**

not really necissary for that much ram for what you are doing. I would halve it. there is also a limited number of concurrent connections for windows xp

peteratwork · **11th January 2007, 05:06 PM**

Wouldn't the extra RAM help when ripping dvd's to the hard drive?

Relmz · **11th January 2007, 05:09 PM**

The CPU & RAM seems a little overkill to me.
You really don't need a setup that powerful to run a file server - like arkay said, the main consideration would be that the motherboard you've chosen has enough HDD controllers (which it does).
I would suggest cutting back on the CPU & RAM - I don't think a system with those specs would never be used to it's full potential as just a media server, and you'll save a bit of cash at the same time.

I'd have to agree with tyronne27 - FreeNAS would also be my recommendation.
I've just setup a FreeNAS box on a P3 1GHz with 192MB RAM and so far it's worked perfectly for streaming my videos, music and pictures across the network to my PC's and xbox.

I haven't had a huge amount of experience with Linux, but the setup of FreeNAS was quite easy, and there's plenty of guides available on the net.

impact · **11th January 2007, 06:23 PM**

FreeNAS is great !

Or use your old XP licence as you move to Vista.... just share the drives and your done. I like this idea, as you can also remote access the machine through a Remote Desktop Connection...

(this is what I have done - my old XP OS is now handling 9 Tb of storage - hidden away, never seen, except when I remotely log in....)

I_am_fodder · **30th January 2007, 07:23 PM**

Hi all,

Holy crap 9TB of storage!!!!!

OK just had to look into this for a customer and i did have one running for a while.
there are 3 main one i know of, all running under Linux (or different flavors there of).

FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org/)
free (duh) and a little tricky to get going. but works really well. also forums are good.

NASLite (http://www.serverelements.com/)
this is a great product, reasonably priced for what you get. has some really nice features, like being able to sync each night to another NASLite unit. also supports drive controller cards so you to can have 9TB of data...... swap meets hmmmmmmm.
(also its licensed per naslite box, not one off fee for the software. much like windows)

Openfiler (http://www.openfiler.com/)
this is probably the top of the line in free NAS software. Another open source product but this one hooks into active directory via LDAP. works REALLY well. gives you all sorts of status & other reports. Dead simple to setup.
Again FREEE

From the hardware you are quoting then you need to make a decision as to if the NAS unit is just going to store stuff or is it going to crunch shows etc. if it is just going to store stuff that hardware is EXTREME over kill.
( I had NASlite running on a P2 450, 128 RAM and 3x80GB HDD until the power supply decided it wanted the MoBo black and the HDD to stop spinning !!!)

If on the other hand you would like it to crunch recordings then that hard ware would work and you could use the XP home edition to run crunchie on. then you could have your cake and eat it to.

But be ware that you can not remote desktop to a home edition box. or is it you cant remote desktop form a home edition. I always get that mixed up.

Chris.