[Arranf]

Good day!

I've been playing around with XBMC for a couple of weeks now on my own PC in my bedroom and I'm looking to expand XBMC's presence to three TVs around the house.

• My current TV in my room
  
• TV in a second bedroom
  
• TV in the living room
  

Both bedroom TVs won't need a HTPC as both can function fine but I will need a HTPC for the living room and a method of sharing my video library between all three XBMC installs.

HTPC wise I believe I'm in group three and as such I'm currently leaning towards a refurbished Apple TV 2 due to the relative inexpense however I do understand there are a few compatibility issues here and there. I'm looking to play content all the way up to 1080p remuxes with DTS with the odd bit of streaming off the internet.

File server wise I'm looking to reuse a Dell Dimension 7100 I have sitting around downstairs however I have a few questions.

• Would the Dell be able to work as a server, are there any hardware limitations?
  
• My files are split between an internal 2TB WD Green, a 1.5TB external, and a 2TB external. Would any server be able to handle the external drives?
  

TL;DR
Is a Dell Dimension 7100 an acceptable file server?
Are there any budget HTPCs that are recommended over an Apple TV?

[eskro]

forget AppleTV2 and 1080P,,,,
you'll only get 720P with it,,,

Server wise,
many of us use unRAID servers to feed our htpc's around the house...

[Arranf]

forget AppleTV2 and 1080P,,,,
you'll only get 720P with it,,,

Server wise,
many of us use unRAID servers to feed our htpc's around the house...

With regards to the HTPC do you have any other suggestions?

[eskro]

well, i guess u want 1080P...

then i suggest you check my guide again,,,

i mean, its pretty much all in there...