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darksun20 · 2013-03-09, 04:28

Hi all, this may not be the correct sub-forum, so move if needed.

I'm looking to build two HTPC's and one server to stream from. What would be the best way to go about setting this up?

I'm probably going to install Linux on all 3 machines, for stability and speed, with XBMC (obviously). On the server that I'm going to host all media on, do I need to have XBMC installed and running on that as well? What type of hardware would I use for the server itself? I have a few of older PC's at my disposal, 1 being a P4 machine, one a c2d, & I'm not sure of the 3rd just yet.

I hope this makes sense, if you need any other information or details let me know.

Rick P. · 2013-03-09, 16:17

The P4 will work fine for a file server although it'll be power hungry for what it's doing. You don't need to run XBMC on it unless you also want to be able to watch stuff directly from your server (i.e. in your office or wherever you put the server). If you want to do this pick up a $25-$30 nVidia video card on sale (like a 510 or 610 model) if you don't already have something newer. It will do all the work while you're watching stuff on your server. The C2D is more than enough for a HTPC. Again, upgrade the video card to a cheap nVidia card if you don't have one already. Also, since you're using linux stick with nVidia - ATI will work but the nVidia chipsets are better supported.

For my file server I have a big mdadm RAID array since this is my only source of TV but JBOD would work fine too. Mine now has a multi-core CPU for on-the-fly transcoding of multiple concurrent videos, but it used to use a lowly Sempron 145 CPU (about as fast as a decent P4 CPU) and it just ticked along at 10% - 15% CPU load or so running a full Ubuntu desktop install. Also since you're using linux use nfs for file sharing instead of smb. It's faster and has less overhead.

PatrickVogeli · 2013-03-09, 20:35

For the server, I would consider getting newer HW, as I believe it will be cheaper in the long term. You can buy a very nice Intel Processor for less than $40 and a Motherboard with 8 SATA ports for about $60. This will be much faster, but more important it will be much more power efficient to run than your old HW, also cooler and quieter. There's a quite recent thread which may help you: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=158368

There are lots of posts talking about HTPCs out there, if you plan on running Linux (I would recomment Openelec because of its appliance feel) then I think nothing can beat running and Nvidia GPU yet. After that I would guess something based on Intel Ivy Bridge would be second possition.

darksun20 · 2013-03-09, 20:47

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I'm thinking I'll scrap the P4 machine and maybe get a nettop and use the c2d for the server.

As for the whole home feature, I thought every PC (even the server) needed XBMC installed. I'd like to be able to pause in one room and start in another. If I'm incorrect on that, that is fine.

DavidT99 · 2013-03-09, 22:59

No, the server does not require XBMC on it. Each instance of XBMC is standalone, you will need to setup a MySQL database on the server and point all XBMC devices to it to be able to pause in one room and resume in another.

David

darksun20 · 2013-03-10, 19:09

(2013-03-09, 22:59)DavidT99 Wrote: No, the server does not require XBMC on it. Each instance of XBMC is standalone, you will need to setup a MySQL database on the server and point all XBMC devices to it to be able to pause in one room and resume in another.

David

Awesome, exactly what I needed to know. Thanks again everyone for your responses, hopefully I have this up and running within a week or two!