Want to build a media server for the house

[Private_Snoball]

Well as the title says I'm trying to build a media server for my house, something to hold all my ripped DVDs and music, something I can set up and put somewhere and not worry about it.

I've checked online for some ideas but all the articles are from quite some time ago that I've seen, and I'm worried they won't fit what I want to do with it.

Currently I just have all my info stored on my everyday use PC and I use TVersity to stream my media to my xbox 360 and other PCs. I let TVersity convert on the fly so I don't have to do any mass conversions to work with my 360. I hoping to continue to be able to do something like this.

I basically want to recreate this scenario just with a seperate system doing the leg work. I've pretty much not decided to go the Linux route for my OS simply for ease of use with inoperability between my 360, PS3, and my media server. I'm pretty much set on Windows Home Server but I'm not sure what parts I should be getting. Everything states that I don't need powerful hardware, but that is subjective, I need to know just how low I can go since I will probably still be converting on the fly.

Thanks for all the help guys, I know I am a pain sometimes :)

[primesuspect]

Just remember to start here (http://icrontic.pgpartner.com). :D

You really don't need to worry about processing speed if all you're talking about is a file server. Storage capacity will be the key here, along with a nice network card.

[RichD]

Plenty of storage. May want to consider some form of raid array.

[Private_Snoball]

Plenty of storage. May want to consider some form of raid array.\

I've thinking about going home and grabbing my old system, Athlon 64 3500+, ASUS A8N-SLI, 6600GT for video (when I need it), raid controller is built in, 2 gigs Corsair XMS Ram DDR.

Then just buying 2 WD 750GB Caviar GP HDDs and running them under RAID1. Should I even bother with running the OS under raid 1 or just use an old 80gig drive and throw it on there. With the other two running their own RAID and on seperate partitions its not like I risk losing any data if my OS drive eats it right?

For right now this is my plan. What do y'all think.

[Zuntar]

I like it, so much I'm doing just about he same thing. Except I went for a new yet scaled back pc that can handle some media center fun.

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX
AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor
New 80+ power supply
old case, 2 Gb OCZ (had already)
I'm gonna use my 250Gb wd for now but their will be two WD 750GB or 1Tb Caviar GP HDDs and run them under RAID1.