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Full Version: Building a new HTPC / Nas
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I'm looking to replace my current HTPC with a file server / nas drive and am thinking of a few options:

I have an Athlon x2 4200+ at present with an HD 6570 and 3GB ram

1. I'm considering virtualisation for either XBMC or the file server itself, I'm vaguely aware that you can hack in 3D support for virtual machines but I get the feeling that this would be a horrifically slow and unsatisfying implementation. I'm also pretty wary of creating a huge VM as a file server

2. I'm looking at an AMD e350 based board to replace my current setup as I lack sata ports in my current board, I may drop the discreet card with this option as the AMD solution is more capable than the Atom offerings. I may change tack altogether though and go for a dual core celeron but I'm not sure about the relative power consumption and graphics performance here.

3. Android set top boxes are interesting but it's a bit of a mine field finding something that is or may be compatible with XBMC. Is it enough to get any device sporting an a8/a9 and a mali-400 and expect that to boot from flash? Would it just be less of a headache to go for a Raspberry Pi when they become fully available, I'd probably be willing or in an incidental position to wait for a second gen to be honest.

With option 3 the desktop would fall back to being a pure file server.

I'm really looking for best fit; I have a limited amount of hi-def files and a small-ish TV so I don't really have much need for a vast amount of decoding grunt but I do have an extensive media library.

I'm mainly a hardware monkey with some experience of working with VM and building boot loaders on USB drives so I can follow a set of instructions but I'm not particularly creative when it comes to developing.

Thanks for reading through all that and Hi, I'm new.