[Gatorfreak]

Ordered Asus AT3IONT-I and an SSD drive for the OS. This will not only be an HTPC but a media server with two 1TB drives in RAID1. I also want to be able to have it handle torrents and scheduled FTP jobs for offsite backup.

So what are the pros/cons of using Ubuntu desktop vs server version? Given the other things I want the machine to do, I don't think XBMC Live is for me. I have a little experience with Ubuntu but none with any other flavors of linux.

[poofyhairguy]

Desktop is full blown Ubuntu, server is a special display-less Ubuntu. XBMC Live is just a custom Ubuntu.

For XBMC you should avoid Ubuntu Server as I think it uses a special kernel that is bad for performance. Honestly it comes down to if you need the Ubuntu Desktop. If you do, pick regular Ubuntu, if you don't (aka you plan to do everything via SSH like I do) get XBMC Live (which is basically a slightly changed regular Ubuntu).

Out of curiosity, what HDs are you planning to buy?

[Gatorfreak]

Thanks for the advice. I looked in the wiki and for whatever reason, I ended up thinking XBMC Live used a different linux. Thanks for pointing that out.

I already have two 1TB Samsung eco-whatever 5400rpm drives. They're currently in external enclosures and connected via USB to a TomatoUSB router. It works, but the disk IO performance is pretty bad.

Sounds like I'll give XBMC Live first shot.

[poofyhairguy]

Look at my sig for how to install the programs you want on XBMC Live.

[Gatorfreak]

Ha! I was already checking out the links in your sig. Couchpotato sounds too good to be true! Like you, I need a wife-friendly setup.