Home Server/HTPC suggestions?

[Caydus]

Firstly, heya guys, nice seeing you all here

Anyways, on to my question.

As of late, I've been thinking of ways to improve my home network and my home theatre system and I've come to the conclusion that I need both a home server and a HTPC, or something similar that does what I need it to do.

Currently, my home network looks something like this:

• Synology DS410j 4 bay NAS
• PC /w Win7 Pro
• Netbook /w WinXP Pro
• PC /w WinXP Pro
• Netbook /w Win7 Starter
• Notebook /w Win7 Home
• Notebook /w WinXP Pro

All linked together with gigabit ethernet and G wireless /w 2 access points, one upstairs and one downstairs.

There's a total of 4 users, so basically 1 computer per person except for the netbooks.

I'm thinking I'll be building a pretty quiet, low power host, with probably an Atom processor with a large amount of RAM and perhaps a small 40GB or 60GB SSD to run the OS, relying on the NAS for main storage.

So what I need this to do is:

• Local file sharing with access control
• Network print sharing
• Secure FTP from a remote site, or dial-in VPN access
• Backups of PCs and select important files

As for the home theatre side of things, my needs are pretty basic, it's just that we currently have an all in one solution from Samsung that has a shockingly bad PC streaming interface that we want to get rid of.

• HDMI out to the TV and optical audio output to the Samsung.
• Able to access and play content on the NAS, including videos supporting a variety of commonly used codecs and music.
• Be able to watch digital TV and record it to the NAS.

There's a few other things I want to do, but it isn't as important and more as low priority, curiosity things that would be nice to have, like domain support, wsus, software firewalls and DHCP.


What I've been thinking of is to have the host OS be Windows 7 Home Premium to take advantage of the built in HTPC functions, then perhaps use VMWare Server or Workstation to virtualize a server environment to do the rest of the stuff.

There's also a possibility of virtualizing both environments in ESXi, though I'm not sure how well the HTPC will be able to cope with playing full HD content through the NAS or a Blu-Ray disc if I decide to fit a Blu-Ray optical drive further down the road. That and I've never actually used ESXi before so not sure how to go about it.

Though I could just forsake the HTPC and get an X Box to do it or something similar if it all proves too much.


Right now, I've got access to a few spare software licenses, including:

• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

The server licenses are educational licenses mainly since this is more of a project to learn the systems. Don't have anything from VMWare yet though.
Hopefully trying not to spend anything on software, though I've been hearing people raving on about how good WHS is for the home environment, it may be worth considering.



Any constructive suggestions or opinions about this project would be appreciated.

 

[ldcarson]

Sounds like you have some good ideas. For me I use the thecus 4100Pros (2 of them) for streaming) I also have a WHS server that also streams and backs all my computers up. I am playing with UnRaid and FreeNas at the moment on another server (Back up to the Thecus NAS). I stream video to multiple rooms and have not had any issues to date with either thecus or the WHS. Both seem to perform well on the network.

For actually playing movies/media - In the living room I went with Acer Revo 3610 Netbox PC as my HTPC. I give it a 5 stars, no problems with 1080P and use BOXEE software as the interface. Seems to play just about everything I throw at it and is small, lightweight, green in power and integrates nicely with my Home theater amp. I like having the Acer revo in the living room because I can also surf internet if I want or need to without getting the laptop out. The revo runs windows 7 home and I had it loaded with 4 gigs of RAM and 250 gig hard drive. I have a fiber cable for Audio to direct pipe into HT Amp. I have the Revo runing HDMI to my Sony LCD tv and am pleased with the signal and processing (Revo uses Ion/Flash)

For bedrooms I use WD live, no problems with those either, they run on the wifi network (N) and stream 1080P without any issues (So far). Everything to date has been very stable and I am pleased with the setup.

 

[Osamede]

Go with the windows 7 home. You can both serve files and play media very well with that. If cost is not in play it is hard to beat that.

 

[Caydus]

Thanks for the responses and as per your recommendations, i went and chucked the Boxee software on one of my VMs and it's great. I'm loving it already.

But I'm just wondering if I could get free to air TV if I plugged in a digital tuner from within the Boxee interface.


I'm also intrigued by the netbox that seem to be cropping up. I looked around and can't seem to find retail Intel Atom processors, or mobos that support it in a regular ATX/ITX form factor.

I'm also a bit worried about the Atom CPUs not being able to handle streaming Flash embedded 1080 video. I'm also going to end up rolling the home server into that PC as well in the form of a VMWare appliance, so possibly VT-x may come in handy too. According to this chart, it looks like i need a Z520 or higher and even then I'm not sure if it can handle it all.
But if I don't do the netbox option, i may end up increasing my power consumption tenfold with an AMD x3 based solution.

 

[Jesse B]

I like to recommend the cheap AM3 CPU's for these kinds of applications. With some shopping, this can actually be a cheaper solution than an atom setup, and it will provide significantly more performance. These chips will draw a bit more power, but due to the low utilization they'll be at for the majority of time, they will still be very power-friendly.

Just my $0.02

 

[Osamede]

On the NAS/file serverfront, yes the Atom dual core will be fine. I have and Atom 330 box as a file server running Windows 2008R2 and that does pretty well. I'd imagine you'd get the same results with a lean install of Windows 7.

On the media player/HTPC, I concur with the comment above. If you want a PC based solution and are going to the trouble to build it, I'd look for something beyond the Atom.