6 replies to this topic

[-jordn-]

hey there,

i had an idea the other day that i wanted to build a server. come next payday, it will have:

• An AMD 64 3200+
  
• An MSI K8N Neo4-F
  
• 1GB RAM
  
• x4 250GB SATA HDDs
  
• LSI Megaraid 150-4 (RAID 5)
  
• DVD-RW drive
  
• Thermaltake Tenor Black Case
  
• DVB dual tuner card (not decided which one yet)
  
• 80GB HDD (for PVR)
  
• 40GB HDD (for OSes)

The majority of which is being recycled from my old setup, so im chuffed that it wont cost too much!  

anyway, the idea is that the machine is always on, and it doubles up as a Media Centre machine at the same time, watching movies, recording TV etc. Windows is the host operating system in this, but Xubuntu will be inside a VM controlling and writing to the RAID array.

The server needs to be able to communicate and share files with a handful of different computers (about 4) and an xbox 360 by windows media connect. the thing is, i would like to do all of this wirelessly using wifi. is it possible to have 4 or 5 simultaneous connections through one wifi usb adapter? I was thinking maybe it could be done, perhaps if they were all using different channels, but would you have to drop one connection to pick up another? or would i need one wifi adapter per connection (please say i dont...)

I would really appreciate any input on this!!

thanks guys,

jordn

[munky]

if you're planning on watching video over wifi, i think you'll be sorely disappointed in the performance, unless you're using 802.11n like the new airport express or appletv.  i had such a setup at home, and it was immensely frustrating having video which played back fine MOSTly, then would randomly crap out at the good bits.

i now have two 160Gb drives in the htpc machine - one for tv recording (EyeTV) and one for stored iLife content (movies, tv shows, music and music videos in iTunes, photos in iPhoto) and i dont stream jack shit.

[-jordn-]

hey munky, thans for the input.

how did you get it work? did you have simultaneous connections from one wifi card, but just over different channels? im concidering buying into pre-N stuff...

jordn

[munky]

you basically dont have to worry about it.  just as you can communicate with multiple computers on your LAN via wired ethernet, you can communicate simultaneously with multiple wlan hosts.

however, bear in mind that even 802.11g will be painfully slow for copying large files around, and for streaming it'll be basically shit.  when they say it can do 54Mbps, dont beleive them - thats a theoretical peak throughput - in actual usage you'll maybe hit a steady 15-20Mbps.  (this, incidentally, is why apple could never have done AppleTV without 802.11n).

PS you also dont *need* a wireless base-station - you can have just wlan cards talking amongst themselves in 'adhoc' mode.  might save you a bit of cash

[-jordn-]

looks like i definitely have to buy into the pre-N stuff. the only problem with it is that it is adapters with different brands may not work (or so they say...) i plan on streaming my media around my room, but i want to be able to use my laptop downstairs and still get decent speed. 802.11g isnt too bad for content, apart from movies. it requires a roughly sustained 6Mbps just for DVD quality. HD sources require ~24Mbps, and thats just for 720p!

thanks for the help munky!

jordn

[munky]

you're welcome!  yeah, stick with same-brand stuff.  if you're at all interested in using pre-N on a hackintosh, it might be worth doing a little investigation on teh cards out there - get one with the same chipset as the Core 2 Duo intel macs.

[Stellair]

Does that LSI MegaRAID SATA 150-4 boot from OSX?