[joshhansen]

I am planning on using an Acer Easystore Server with an Acer Revo with the Aeon skin. The actual XBMC will be on the revo. I have a couple hundred movies and quite a few tv series thus internal storage wasn't really a possibility. I was wondering; if there will be any lag or slowdown with using a server; should i use a gigabit connection or will it make a difference? Will there any be slowdown with grabbing all the thumbnails and everything off the server?

[pbu50w]

Try it and see then let everyone know the results

[joshhansen]

Thanks. But I would kind of like to get other people's experiences before i drop upwards of $800 on the computer, server and all the storage. Anyone's experiences would be greatly appreciated

[triumvirrr]

I personally use the Thecus 5200 Pro (seems to have similar hardware, but runs Linux) as Storage with 3 1,5 TB Harddisks as RAID 5 ans 2 1 TB Harddisks as additional RAID 1.

Performence over the network is absolutely no problem - no matter whether with 100 Mbit/s or Gbit/s connection. XBMC caches all the fanarts etc. locally, so there is no difference in browsing speed to having your media stored on a local disc. The only difference is, that the playback of high bitrate HD content starts slightly ( < 1 second) delayed on 100 Mbit/s networks.

I personally have switched to Gbit/s because it takes ages to copy Untouched BluRays via 100 Mbit/s, but this should be a one-time-job for each film and thus irrelevant for daily use. Regarding the comfort of using XBMC, 100 Mbit/s will totally suffice, at least judging from my personal experience.