Hello all,
Here's the dealio. I have collected almost enough spare parts to build a second PC, all I need is a cheapo case, PSU, and low budget PCIe card and I've got another computer. I have lots of HDD's, with lots of storage on my main computer but I want to strip it down because I would like to take all of my movies, music, audiobooks, etc...off the main machine. So my plan was originally to build a home server of sorts, slap a couple of TB of drives on it and just use it as a media server. Problems include; I run Windows XP Media Center 2005 on my home comp and really don't use the media functions on the main comp so I thought I'd move it to the other, but I can't afford to go buy a copy of XP Pro. I have never used Linux and don't know how hard it would be to set this stuff up, and really cannot dedicate a huge amount of time doing so. I don't know if media center and linux will play together as my concept works. I am now not even sure if a server is what I need, since it will really just be acting as a media player or storage unit depending on which PC gets Windows Media Center.
So in a nutshell, that is where I am. Just wondering if any of you server pros could advise me?
Jon