SFF for Home Network

[BUR70N]

Hello All,

Just want some advice iam thinking of taking a big HD that i have in my current system and putting it in one of these along with CDR drive etc. I have a 1.4 TBird with alot of RAM.

I want to set this SFF as a Domain controler and have a Wireless LAN at home that i can share my Tunes with Via AirPort as iam going to be getting a PowerBook as i have had enough of sitting at a desk in my house also have my Xbox connected this way.

Now i want to know is a SFF up to the task of doing this? What one should i be looking at is it worth me using my CPU i have now?!

Please guide me the right way.. Many Thanks

 

[BUR70N]

Anyone?!

 

[MrE]

Then why wouldn't you buy a new G5 or used G4 to host your files? I know you can use AirPort for Windows, but it just seems a bit much to have your laptop a MAC running OSX and use Apple's AirPort on a Windows machine to host. Also, why would you create a Windows Domain for this setup? Are there other Windows boxes you are going to run? From your statement, it sounds like you should stay with a static ie same environment instead a mixed one. Hosting Domains is for Windows File and User Authentication and is a bit much for what you are planning to do.

Regards,

-E

 

[BUR70N]

Thanks for the Reply.

That was going to be my next question. What OS.. I don't mind moving away from M$. I just want a main storage drive for songs. Iam not going to have a desk as it is broken so iam thinking of getting a Mac. They are very sexy and seem to be really stable! I don't want to be stuck at my desk when i want to watch tv etc.. but still be able to surf or do some work.

 

[MrE]

Well, if you are looking for pure storage, just buy a network drive that can attach via ethernet. This way anyone on your network can share the files without the need for an extra PC. The advantage is easy setup. The disadvantage is that you will need to buy another networkable drive once the first is filled up, so spec. it large say something around 250Gb. On a cost level basis, network drives are a bit more in cost, but much much cheaper than building a PC for the sole factor of hosting files. Plus you don't need to deal with multiple formats for PC/MAC with regards to the disk's file system.

If you must use AirPort though, I'd still suggest that that you should stay with a MAC system as a host on your network unless you like to tinker building a mixed environment.

Hope this helps,

-E

 

[BUR70N]

Ok thanks for this again!!

I need a Windows based system for my VB course iam doing!! But want the freedom of a laptop around the home etc.. As that is what i would be using more!

What about a Xbox? with a huge drive in? Just a idea... *puts on flame suit*

 

[Bookmage]

You could take a modded xbox with a 250GB hard drive in it and store music and video files. You can access it via FTP for sharing files and also use it for basic storage. Building a computer just for storage and sharing files would depend on the amount of space I need. For basic needs, something like 2 x 120-200GB in mirror mode. For video, music, images and the like, I would bump it up to something like 4+200-300GB in a possible RAID5 or RAID 1+0. My music server is 4 x 120 in a RAID 1+0 with a future expansion of another 4 x 120. My Video server has 6 x 200GB and is also a 2K Domain. There are about half a dozen boxes on the network and each one has a separate function. A 2K domain was created for educational purposes (MS certification) and for having the same login on multiple computers.

Otherwise, unless you have a specific reason for running a 2K Domain, I would just throw linux/windows on a small system and share files via FTP and Samba. This sounds more inline with your purposes.