Posted by Kromey at 4:31pm Nov 21 '07Okay, here's the rough plan. I'll finalize it more once I've got a better idea of what my budget will be.
2-4 500GB-750GB SATA hard drives
Mid-range AMD CPU (probably dual-core, 64 bit)
1-2 GB RAM (might go less, might go more)
DVD-ROM (might get a burner, but doubtful)
Low-end video card with DVI output
Wireless presentation mouse; wired keyboard?
The latest Ubuntu release
Basically, the idea is that this will be an always-on PC in the living room that will serve two main roles: It will be a centralized, fault-tolerant data storage unit for our home network, and it will be a media center through which we can use our big HDTV to watch the various downloaded videos or even play the wide range of music in our living room through something a little more high-fidelity than laptop speakers (the desktop has nice speakers, but that's in the office).
To that end, the requirements are as follows:
1) At least 500GB (preferably 1TB or more) sharable hard drive space that can be regularly backed up. I intend to use rsync (or a similar tool) to run nightly incremental backups of the shared files onto another hard drive, and try to maintain at least a 7-day history of backups. Something akin to what is described here.
2) It must be capable of playing video files. This pretty much describes every desktop OS out there, but it does exclude the possibility of a server-variant Linux (e.g. OpenFiler) that does not have a GUI desktop environment.
3) It must be easy for my girlfriend (a Windows user) to use. This is why I'm leaning heavily toward Ubuntu.
4) [Very very optional] It would be nice if this system could also rip and encode my DVD library. You know, in case something happens to my vast array of purchased DVDs, it would be nice to have backups. This is the only reason I would go for a higher-end CPU or more RAM, and only if budget permits.
So what does everyone think? Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms? Random insults?
2-4 500GB-750GB SATA hard drives
Mid-range AMD CPU (probably dual-core, 64 bit)
1-2 GB RAM (might go less, might go more)
DVD-ROM (might get a burner, but doubtful)
Low-end video card with DVI output
Wireless presentation mouse; wired keyboard?
The latest Ubuntu release
Basically, the idea is that this will be an always-on PC in the living room that will serve two main roles: It will be a centralized, fault-tolerant data storage unit for our home network, and it will be a media center through which we can use our big HDTV to watch the various downloaded videos or even play the wide range of music in our living room through something a little more high-fidelity than laptop speakers (the desktop has nice speakers, but that's in the office).
To that end, the requirements are as follows:
1) At least 500GB (preferably 1TB or more) sharable hard drive space that can be regularly backed up. I intend to use rsync (or a similar tool) to run nightly incremental backups of the shared files onto another hard drive, and try to maintain at least a 7-day history of backups. Something akin to what is described here.
2) It must be capable of playing video files. This pretty much describes every desktop OS out there, but it does exclude the possibility of a server-variant Linux (e.g. OpenFiler) that does not have a GUI desktop environment.
3) It must be easy for my girlfriend (a Windows user) to use. This is why I'm leaning heavily toward Ubuntu.
4) [Very very optional] It would be nice if this system could also rip and encode my DVD library. You know, in case something happens to my vast array of purchased DVDs, it would be nice to have backups. This is the only reason I would go for a higher-end CPU or more RAM, and only if budget permits.
So what does everyone think? Thoughts? Suggestions? Criticisms? Random insults?