Media Storage server recommendations

[rotteneggz]

Hi all,
I plan on getting an xbox solely for XBMC and want to build a file server that would hold all media to stream to the xbox. My question is, do i need a powerfull PC in order to stream ~4gb movies, 720p videos and the likes? Powerfull videocard needed or can on onboad VC work fine?

Thanks in advanced

 

[JiM2100]

If you are using XBMC + PC fileserver, then you don't need a powerful CPU or video card. The PC is not decoding video at all, just moving bits from hard disk to network.

One thing you might want to think about, classic xbox with XBMC does not have enough horsepower to play 720p/1080i content AFAIK

 

[Grentz]

If you are using XBMC + PC fileserver, then you don't need a powerful CPU or video card. The PC is not decoding video at all, just moving bits from hard disk to network.

100% correct.

I have used a P3 450mhz CPU on an old system without issue to stream to XBMC.

Now I use a Dual P3 500mhz setup because I am running some other things on the server as well, but you dont need much to stream content. XBMC is doing all the work on its end.

 

[rotteneggz]

Nice, thanks for the quick reply's.
Now let's say i had a SOHO network and all the computers needed to access a quickbooks file and other documentations and audio files on the server. These files would be in use all the time by ~5-8 computers. Would i then need a computer with greater processing power and more ram or would a mediocre computer run everything fine like for example a p4 1ghz 1gb ram computer.

 

[Grentz]

Nice, thanks for the quick reply's.
Now let's say i had a SOHO network and all the computers needed to access a quickbooks file and other documentations and audio files on the server. These files would be in use all the time by ~5-8 computers. Would i then need a computer with greater processing power and more ram or would a mediocre computer run everything fine like for example a p4 1ghz 1gb ram computer.

You could still run that easily on a P3 system with say 512mb - 1gb of RAM. There is not much processing power needed to serve up files to smaller groups.

Heck, a whole company I did an upgrade for was running a Dual P3 450mhz Server w/512mb of RAM. The server was the Domain Controller, File Server, Backup Server, and application server for an accounting program. It easily ran all this for about 15 client computers

You do not need much to run a file server unless you have lots of clients on it.