2011-12-18, 02:48
So I'm really torn what to do with my home network. Right now I have:
- 2 Win7 Intel PCs (1 gaming class, other 5 years old)
- 1 Win7 AMD PC serving as home media server.
>6 2 TB drives in 2 JBODs, FlexRAID to backup first JBOD to second
>XBMC c MySQL database, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Couch Potato
>Attached to big screen TV via nVidia HDMI card (runs XBMC)
>Has Haupauge TV capture card (not hooked up presently other than IR)
- MacBook Air (runs XBMC)
- MacBook Pro (runs XBMC)
- iPad 2 (waiting to jailbreak iOS5 so I can get XBMC back on it)
______________________________________________________
So here's my quandary. Since getting the Mac laptops for my wife and I, I'm really digging OSX. I'm thinking seriously about getting a Mac Mini server (actually would get the 2.5 GHz model, upgrade the processor and add server) for several main issues:
- parental controls across the house
- centralized calendar and contacts
- VPN software
- a more powerful machine to use with iMovie and Aperture
- move away from Samba if I can
Here's the issues I'm concerned with:
- Macs don't support HD audio over HDMI (though the hardware they run on do). I don't really want to run Win7 on a Mac (why pay the Apple premium)? So that kind of sticks me with needing a Win7 machine (or Ubuntu I guess) attached to the Main TV
- I don't know what to do with my current media server. I could convert it to FreeNAS or UNRaid, but I don't really know how well that will work with the Mac Mini Server. Doesn't it work best with attached storage?
- I looked into attached storage but can't fine a decent solution I like. Seems like the Pegasus thunderbolt solution would be nice but 1) I want it bigger, 2) I want it cheaper and 3) I don't want to pay for drives I already have. It may just be that I need to wait for the thunderbolt storage market to mature...
- Not sure what the heck to do with the TV capture card...may move it to the only Win7 machine I plan to keep...
Any thoughts on successful setups in a mixed environment like this?
- 2 Win7 Intel PCs (1 gaming class, other 5 years old)
- 1 Win7 AMD PC serving as home media server.
>6 2 TB drives in 2 JBODs, FlexRAID to backup first JBOD to second
>XBMC c MySQL database, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Couch Potato
>Attached to big screen TV via nVidia HDMI card (runs XBMC)
>Has Haupauge TV capture card (not hooked up presently other than IR)
- MacBook Air (runs XBMC)
- MacBook Pro (runs XBMC)
- iPad 2 (waiting to jailbreak iOS5 so I can get XBMC back on it)
______________________________________________________
So here's my quandary. Since getting the Mac laptops for my wife and I, I'm really digging OSX. I'm thinking seriously about getting a Mac Mini server (actually would get the 2.5 GHz model, upgrade the processor and add server) for several main issues:
- parental controls across the house
- centralized calendar and contacts
- VPN software
- a more powerful machine to use with iMovie and Aperture
- move away from Samba if I can
Here's the issues I'm concerned with:
- Macs don't support HD audio over HDMI (though the hardware they run on do). I don't really want to run Win7 on a Mac (why pay the Apple premium)? So that kind of sticks me with needing a Win7 machine (or Ubuntu I guess) attached to the Main TV
- I don't know what to do with my current media server. I could convert it to FreeNAS or UNRaid, but I don't really know how well that will work with the Mac Mini Server. Doesn't it work best with attached storage?
- I looked into attached storage but can't fine a decent solution I like. Seems like the Pegasus thunderbolt solution would be nice but 1) I want it bigger, 2) I want it cheaper and 3) I don't want to pay for drives I already have. It may just be that I need to wait for the thunderbolt storage market to mature...
- Not sure what the heck to do with the TV capture card...may move it to the only Win7 machine I plan to keep...
Any thoughts on successful setups in a mixed environment like this?