Media Server Processing??

Question

I'm looking to build my own quick and dirty media server/storage system for my home network.

My question is which computer will be doing all of the processing? Will the main server computer be doing all the processing for say movies or games? Or will the networked computer connected to the Server pull all the information and process it on its own?

If the outside computer is going to be doing all the work(processing) then why would i need a powerful server copmuter for mainly storage?

Answer 1

your machine with the graphics/audio cards will be doing all of the heavy crunching.  The server will only be accessing the storage devices and shoving it onto the network.

check out the qnap ts-409 series at newegg.  might be a little pricey , but it supports up to 4 TB of hard drives (4 total), provides RAID levels 1,2,5, & 6, and can handle ALL of your server needs (SMTP, FTP, WEB, MULTIMEDIA, even a usb printer or two or three.)  Has a 500MHZ cpu, 256 MB ram, and embedded Linux OS.  This puppy is compatible with all the OS's out there, even MAC and all in about a 6-1/2 x 8 in cube.  Access with a single rj45 gigabit ethernet connection.