Combining Main PC/Gaming PC/Home Server and HTPC

[IamDavid]

I'm tired of maintainig all the different PC's in the house so I'm looking to combine them all and run vritual machines. Will I see a major hit anywhere?

Current PC's and their uses:
Home Server:
Host 100+ Gigs of music/movies for the entire family (5 Laptops, 3 tablets, Phones)
Constant recording of 6 servailance camera's
Typical backups for all other machines once a week.

HTPC:
Watch full HD movies on connect TV

Gaming PC:
Skyrim, and Diablo 3 when released. No FPS.

Main PC:
Typical stuff like Photoshop, web browsing and so on....

Current system specs I'd like to run this all from:
2600K
16GB Memory
ASROCK z68 Extreme7 Gen3
OCZ Vertex3 - SSD
Dual AMD Radeon HD 6900's
3X Dell U2412M's (2 connected via Display port, 1 thru DVI).
Windows 7 64

Idea:
Run a WHS 2011 on a Virtual server with all hosted files and recordings going to external drives.
Run HDMI cables to the different TV's in the house.

Will I see any major performance hits when trying to watch movies or play games?

 

[Ken g6]

I see you want a grand unified theory of PCs. Well, grand unified theories are hard to come by, but some unification can be achieved.

The way I see it, you have two very different tasks here. On your home server, you need reliable, real-time, on-demand data storage and retrieval. On your main PC you need to be able to use all its power to play games or process Photoshop filters. You could combine both, but you wouldn't have a reliable remote backup for your main PC, and various buses just might not be able to handle recording 6 cameras, playing - how many TVs do you have - and playing a game too. So I suggest combining your main PC and gaming PC into one machine; and combining your HTPC with your home server if you can get the cabling to work.

I wonder, though, how you plan to control your HTPC remotely? Some kind of wi-fi wireless keyboard?

 

[mfenn]

You can easily use your gaming PC (assuming that's the one with the 6900's) as a main PC. If you want to combine that with the server, there's really no point in using a VM, Windows 7 can do SMB shares just as well. The HTPC depends on whether or not you can get the cabling to work out.

 

[IamDavid]

I see you want a grand unified theory of PCs. Well, grand unified theories are hard to come by, but some unification can be achieved.

The way I see it, you have two very different tasks here. On your home server, you need reliable, real-time, on-demand data storage and retrieval. On your main PC you need to be able to use all its power to play games or process Photoshop filters. You could combine both, but you wouldn't have a reliable remote backup for your main PC, and various buses just might not be able to handle recording 6 cameras, playing - how many TVs do you have - and playing a game too. So I suggest combining your main PC and gaming PC into one machine; and combining your HTPC with your home server if you can get the cabling to work.

I wonder, though, how you plan to control your HTPC remotely? Some kind of wi-fi wireless keyboard?

Thanks Ken, you're probably correct that I'll have to settle for 2 computers. I have found a few interesting options like buying the Logitec wireless camera's that can record to a SD card, then backup to a PC at a certain time of day/night. Most of the thime I wouldn't be playing movies to multiple TV's and I cant imagine a time I'd be playing a game AND watching movies at the same time.

For the remote control I've been testing a few differernt tablet apps, so far I'm impressed.

 

[IamDavid]

You can easily use your gaming PC (assuming that's the one with the 6900's) as a main PC. If you want to combine that with the server, there's really no point in using a VM, Windows 7 can do SMB shares just as well. The HTPC depends on whether or not you can get the cabling to work out.

The automated backup and external access is why I'd like to stay with WHS somewhere. I could probably "make" it work with just Win7 but it won't be as easy I think.