[noxide]

I started purchasing items to make my first HTPC, which include a cheap mATX mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813135288 and a Pentium G620, and a 128GB SSD.

Im looking at a HDD for storage but I started thinking about different options.

I have a desktop in my home office, this is where I typically download torrents and stream via wireless to a PS3 (living room) and xbox 360 (bedroom)

The HTPC will be in the living room, but I still want to be able to stream to my xbox 360 in the bedroom (and possibly put a htpc in the bedroom in the future)

So I was thinking what I really should do is.. Have my Desktop PC have the mass storage and still have the xbox 360 stream. And have the HTPC stream from my desktop.

Can my desktop perform as a media server and a home office computer?

Otherwise, if I were to make my HTPC the main source to download torrents how am I supposed to get it to stream to the xbox 360 when both the htpc/xbox are connected through the router on the desktop?

Obviously im no computer wiz, but I can learn fairly easily.

Recap of what I want to do...

I want my home office desktop to be able to download all my torrents/music and have my HTPC and Xbox be able to connect to the desktop to stream. This will all be wired connections, not wireless anymore)

[Harro]

If you use your Office PC for the storage and streamer:
Buy a large hard drive or usb drive. Set folders up on drive you have choosen. Share the drive on the network. You should be able to access that drive from any location on your network.

Down side is that your office pc will need to be on when you access the media from other location on your network. So if you are in the bedroom and want to watch a video on your shared drive , you will need the office computer running.

If you set yout main HTPC up for the storage the same rules apply as if it were the office computer.

[noxide]

Typically my office computer is on 24/7 anyways.. probably why my light bill is so high lol. If i use my office computer to share across the network. Do I need to setup MySQL?

If I make my htpc the main server but my office PC has the router. And my xbox 360 is plugged into the router. Can my xbox access the HTPC through the router?

I just always thought it had to be in an orderly fashion, but you're saying no matter how things are connected, as long as its on the same network, everything can be shared within?

[RaggSokk3n]

As long as everything is connected to the router you should be fine.

[Mallet21]

So I was thinking what I really should do is.. Have my Desktop PC have the mass storage and still have the xbox 360 stream. And have the HTPC stream from my desktop.

Can my desktop perform as a media server and a home office computer?

Absolutely......I've got pretty much the same setup. My office PC houses about 6gb of media and I use it to stream to the rest of the house.

[noxide]

Mallet21,

Does your HTPC keep up with blu rays and high def stuff? Does the HD5450 allow you to watch 3d? Lastly, do you keep both the HTPC and the server on 24/7?

[Mallet21]

HTPC keeps up with full bit-rate rips just fine. Don't know about 3D (don't have a 3D TV).

The office server stays on but goes to sleep when no one is accessing it. I shut the HTPC off (hibernate) when I'm not using it.

[noxide]

Does you server wake up when someone is trying to access the hard drive?