[robla64]

I respect the opinion of the users here so please help me.
I have 4 original xbox XBMC setups in my house and currently use a Windows Vista share to serve the media.

I bought a 1TB drive and was wondering how I should use it.

-Setup FreeNas on an old machine (I am familiar with this)
-stick it in the Windows Vista Business ed. box and keep using that share (sometimes this can be a pain with the usernames and passwords
-Setup a Ubuntu box so I can use it for torrents and ripping and such as well as sharing
-Any other ideas

[ali B]

I have a synology 106j dedicated nas box. it runs linux under the hood and has an apache web server built in (for both web admin interface and personal webserver). along with that it also runs a download client so you can set up independent downloads of torrents, ftp links files and normal web link downloads (http: ) as well as a few others. in there i have a western digital green drive and it runs like a charm with the original xbox. low power, quiet, (almost)always on. i was going to go down the free nas route but this was loads easier. Most comercially available NAS solutions will offer similar options too, with some offering raidable configurations. i think they are a little pricey now tho
for minimal outlay, I'd use any hardware you have available - i.e the vista share or freenas

[Geeba]

My first server was an old PC destin for the skip! cant get cheaper than that - It was fine... it ran XP and had logmein installed on it so I could access it anywhere.... I now run Windows Home Server.