OS advice for Media Server build?

[wjogert]

OK, I'm building a basic file server to store all my movies and music.

I have Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Windows 7 Pro. Server versions are NOT WHS, and I have 32 bit and 64 bit. Win7Pro is only 32 bit.
The HTPC is running Win7Pro 32-bit... as is every other system in the house except for my daughter's Vista machine.

I don't have a lot of experience in networking. I plan to build the server as power-efficient as possible. I haven't decided if the server will run 24/7 or if it will be powered down until needed.

I'm looking for any suggestions/advice before I begin assembling hardware this weekend.
I know Win7 has "homegroup" networking which made linking my desktop and my HTPC incredibly simple. Will Server2008 link to Win7 the same way?

Thanks in advance

 

[/usr/sbin]

IIRC the Atom based systems are pretty power efficient and should handle basic home server duties fine.

 

[mrc73]

Over the last year I also built myself a home network with a media server and then PC's in each of the rooms I wanted to have access to the server. For each of the "client" PC's that connect to the media server I installed Windows 7 Professional. For the server PC I installed Windows 7 Ultimate (although I think any version of Windows 7 would work).

With this setup it's really easy to connect everything together. In windows Media Center you can just connect to the server PC as a network drive and all the movies are quickly found and recognized. I get nice thumbnails showing the cover art for each month using MyMovies (free download) which automatically recognizes new files and downloads the cover art for them. Windows Media Center on the "clients" also recognizes when a new file is added to the server and adds it right to the Movies section. This software does a lot more too so you might want to check it out.

So far I have loved this setup and it has been pretty much problem free. Each PC also has a Netflix plugin (which is built into Windows Media Center) so the kids can watch stuff through that as well.

I've also just begun to set up the server as my main DVR. I plan to get rid of satellite this summer and just use over the air HD since we don't watch much outside of network TV anyway. Windows Media center will also let the main server record all my programs (with the addition of a tuner card) and watch those on the client PC's. Each client PC could also be a separate DVR if you desired and they could also then share their recordings with all the other clients.

As far as networking, I went with a gigabit network setup. Perhaps this was overkill but since some of the movies I'm copying are HD (ripped Blu-Ray discs) I wanted to be safe rather than sorry and doing so was not all that much more expensive.

As far as hardware in the server, I simply went with a Core i3 with 8GB of ram and a bunch of disc space for the movies and recordings. Perhaps 8GB is overkill but it was pretty cheap, only $50, when I bought it so not really cost prohibitive.

Anyway, that's my setup and it's been working really well for me for about a year. I thought about going with WHS but it didn't seem to give me much more than standard windows 7 other than the automatic backup of the client PC's, which really was not an issue for me since nothing really resides on the client PC's anyway.

 

[wjogert]

Yeah, I have MyMovies on the HTPC. Been using it for years. Once I get the media server in place, I then have to figure out switching to the server-based MyMovies instead of the stand-alone that I currently use. Then I have to get all the movies in my database to recognize the change in file location. uugghh.

As far as hardware, I plan to use parts already in my bins. I have several SK462, 478, 939 and 775 options to choose from... single core and dual core. I've seen a lot of "overkill" hardware-recommendations for HTPC's and file servers, lol. Really no need for a gaming system.
Probably just pick the lowest wattage setup as I believe any one of those CPU's should be adequate to handle storage and streaming?