Media server using old hardware

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crunky

n00b
Joined
May 6, 2007
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Hey guys, I'm wanting to put together a media server using old hardware I have laying around the house.



1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
media server/data backup for myself and a couple of friends. I want to be able to stream movies over my home network as well as the internet, to my gf's Wii, 360 etc..

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
 ~$100 to get it up and running.

3) Where do you live?
 Arizona

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Hard drive(s), maybe a sata controller

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
 I will be using a Tyan S1832DF mobo with dual P3 750mhz cpus, 1gb of pc100, using a generic case with a 250w psu. I have an assortment of agp or pci video cards I can use.
I would like to be able to use a card that accelerate transcoding, but its not a necessity. I have a Radeon x800 pro that I might be able to use.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Possibly

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
N/A

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within the next few months

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Already have the board, don't care about raid

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
No, I am open to suggestions; but I will most likely end up with some version of Linux.

So what do you all think? I'm not sure if the dual P3s will be enough juice, but I want to try.
 
how many drives you're planning to add to the server in the future
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
I'm not really sure yet, I'm probably going to start with a single 1tb drive and expand as storage starts to fill up. I don't have a whole lot of movies yet so 1tb ought to last for a little while.
 
Hmm with a generic 250W PSU, the absolute max number of drives I'd add is ONE. If you plan on adding more than one drive, I'd upgrade the PSU:
$40 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU

However if you're only gonna use one drive only for the rest of the system's lifetime, then pick up this PCI SATA card and this hard drive (chosen because it's low power):
$14 - SYBA SD-LP-SIL2IR PCI SATA Controller Card
$80 - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5400 RPM SATA Drive
---
Total: $94 plus tax and shipping.

Personally, I'd recommend this option:
$40 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
$14 - SYBA SD-LP-SIL2IR PCI SATA Controller Card
$55 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
---
Total: $109 plus tax and shipping.

500GB should be enough since you said you didn't have that much movies to begin with. The Earthwatts 380W PSU provides a significantly higher chance that the hard drives and system isn't killed by a crappy PSU. In addition, it'll give you more room for more hard drives.
 
x800 won't help accelerate video processing. You'll need at least an HD2000 series, IIRC, or a GeForce 8000 series. I agree with Danny, get the EA380.
 
AFAIK:
ATI - HD2400 or better
Nvidia - 8400 or better
for H.264-1080p
 
Word, thanks dudes. I also just found a 350w psu in my cache of old crap, I may use it for a few months and spend the cash on HDDs instead.
 
crunky said:
Word, thanks dudes. I also just found a 350w psu in my cache of old crap, I may use it for a few months and spend the cash on HDDs instead.
Click to expand...

Which 350W PSU? Just because it's larger doesn't mean that it's any better than the 250W PSU you were planning to use.
 
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