Questions for an upcoming media server build

[s00per8]

Hi all,

Newbie here to this great forum, and a newbie to building computers as well so please excuse my ignorance.

I want to build a media server for my house. The goal of the media server is to store all of my blu-ray and album rips so I can access them anywhere from the house, anytime. This means the media server will:

1. Always be ON
2. Be power efficent

Attached is an image below of what I want:

I do have a couple of questions:

1. Since the communication with the media server will be wireless across all devices, any recommendations for a router?
2. Would Linux be the best OS for this server build? I don't want to pay for a Windows license 😛
3. Can I get away with cheap CPU parts? I am sure I don't need an i7 to run all this.

Any recommendations or suggestions would be great.

Thanks :awe:

 

[el aye]

Can I get away with cheap CPU parts? I am sure I don't need an i7 to run all this.

If all it will be doing is acting as storage, even something as slow as the first generation Intel Atom CPUs will work. I ran a WHS using a single core Atom for over a year. I ended up upgrading it to a Q9400 though because it was actually a really cheap upgrade for me and I started to use the system for on-the-fly transcoding to stream HD video across the internet.

 

[s00per8]

If all it will be doing is acting as storage, even something as slow as the first generation Intel Atom CPUs will work. I ran a WHS using a single core Atom for over a year. I ended up upgrading it to a Q9400 though because it was actually a really cheap upgrade for me and I started to use the system for on-the-fly transcoding to stream HD video across the internet.

Thanks for the reply. I am assuming the CPU will need to transcode also when it streams to, say a WDTV Live for a 1080p film, to display on the television? Would the Atom be able to handle that as well?

 

[Charlie98]

If you are planning on transcoding I would go with at least an i3.