Help: Turning old Dell into Home Server/HTPC?

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Hello all, got a question for ya...

I have an old Dell E510 (Pentium 4, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD) that I was hoping to turn into a Home Server of sorts, perhaps as a Media Streaming PC or whatever. I have built numerous high-end gaming PC's for myself and friends, but I have NO IDEA at all about what a server requires...
I've been wanting to do this for some time, but recently my girlfriend's father (IT guy) was getting rid of some older PC stuff, and knowing that I had the intention of "reinvigorating" my old Dell, he gave me the following parts:
- Radeon X1600 PRO
- Radeon 7000 (idk much about this card)
- 1x Samsung 7200rpm 80GB HDD
- 1x Western Digital 7200rpm 20GB HDD
- 2x 1GB Sticks of OZC "GOLD" DDR2-667 (PC2-5400) RAM
- an entire 6-year-old laptop (haven't cracked it open yet)
- a few BNIB 80mm fans as well as a GIANT 250mm full-metal "Extremely high flow" fan
- countless cables/connectors (SATA/IDE/POWER/FAN/etc/etc/etc)
- A couple of wiring/cable management kits
(*I also have a ton of components from my old FX-51 gaming PC, but it's all Registered/ECC RAM, AMD stuff, and AGP; HDD's and Disc Drives, plus cables, are universal though...)

The PC now has 4x256MB RAM sticks in it (DDR2), so I figured pulling two and sticking the Dual Channel OCZ kit in for 2.5GB of RAM; a nice 150% increase.
I am hoping to install a secondary HDD to run in RAID1 (2x120GB); boost read speed significantly while the redundancy makes sense for some of the stuff that will be installed on there.
Eventually, I'd like to go to 2x1TB HDD's in a home server, but I may just get a 2TB USB3.0 external HDD and connect it through my router. Easier and even more redundancy.
As far as the video cards, I would think the x1600PRO would be the better choice, even though it's "aged", so is the computer, so it's not going to be bottle-necked by a P4 @ 3.0GHZ (I think).

This PC is located, currently, on the second floor, one room over from where the house's primary cable line is, and thus the Cable Modem and Router (upgrading to a new E4200 or equivalent 450/450 dual-band MIMO router, and using the current one as a repeater located on the first floor to allow for much better signal to reach the Home Theater in the basement; might do Powerline Ethernet as well).

I would like to be able to use the soon-to-be-reinvigorated PC to:
- Stream music (maybe movies?)
- Backup DATA (Master's Thesis and PhD Dissertation both so I NEED, NEED, NEED redundancy!)
- RUN RELIABLY
- Allow for the 5 other PC's in the house to connect to it easily:
- 1 laptop (Win7 Home Prem64, hardwired Ethernet, what I'm writing this on)
- 2 laptops (Win XP/7, both WiFi G/N, one used on 2nd floor one on 1st)
- 1 Gaming Desktop (my H2O/PhenomIIx6 1100T/CFX rig; Win7 Ult64; Hardwired Ethernet; nicest PC in the house but I don't want it to be a part of setting up this server)
- 1 "Work" Desktop (Dell XPS8300 SB-corei5/8GBram/etc; Win7Prem64; WiFi G/N, first floor)

Also, just to give a complete picture, the following will be connected to the network as well:
FIRST FLOOR
- LG 42" LCD Television (wired/WiFi)
- Time Warner HD Cable Box/DVR (wired-only, I believe)
BASEMENT
- XBox360 (hardwired ideal as it is an original-launch-model "PRO" as well as for Netflix streaming)
- PS3 (hardwired ideal for streaming)
- LG 55" 120hz LED-LCD Television (wireless adapter available from LG or on Amazon or can be wired)
- Denon Receiver (wired or via WiFi)
- TWC HD Cable Box/DVR (wired-only I believe)

So, as you can see, I have a need to upgrade to Gigabit ethernet, and while doing so I figure that a home server would help a lot in managing all of these devices.

I really do appreciate any and all help! I don't mind getting elbow-deep in some silicon, in fact I enjoy tinkering and building PC's, but like I said, a gaming PC's setup is seemingly worlds away from a server. I am venturing into unfamiliar territory!
Also, I am more than happy to provide ANY and ALL additional details that may be needed, simply let me know if I left something out
smile.gif


Thank you again!
Sincerely,
nleksan
 
Since you have an HDTV, it'd be nice for the HTPC to be able to serve HD video. Is the video card you have there capable of playing HD content and does it have an HDMI output? Or at least DVI output? If only DVI, then you'd have to run audio separately from the audio card, and if so, can the audio card output digital audio to an HT receiver?

I don't know much about the video cards you mentioned, so I'm not sure if these cards combined with a P4 CPU can handle HD, but possibly so.

If you're looking for media streaming software for your PC, I can recommend XBMC. It has lots of features and a nice GUI (multiple skins). You'd have to invest in a PC remote control (and possibly a remote extender if the media PC will be in a different room) though to be able to control it properly.
 
One thing about HTPC is that it needs to be quiet, so you probably should put minimal amount of fans and that also means you should reduce the power hungry components to good enough for the job.

I wouldn't run RAID in it. Since you have 2 HD with 20GB and 80GB, I'd use the 20GB as the windows / program drive and store all the data on the 80GB, and let the 80GB shut down when it is not used via power management.

If most of your access is via wireless, gigabit ethernet will not do much for you.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
and let the 80GB shut down when it is not used via power management.

Where do you go to change that for each individual drive in Win 7? When I go to power management, it only has a single Hard Disk setting ("Turn Off Hard Disk after...") even though I've got two internal drives in the machine.
 
Thanks for all the help so far, guys!
laugh.gif


I like the idea of using the 20GB for system, and the larger for storage. Power savings are always good, not just for the bill, but for money
smile.gif


Yes, with the HDTV, I would like to be able to stream HD Video, though I was hoping that if were set up as a "server" I could have the television connect to our network and then use the computer to stream media onto the television.

Regarding the Gbit Ethernet, I know that some things will be wireless, but not all; the connection from the router-laptop, router-Server, router-AV(Powerline Ethernet Adapter 500Mbs), router-gaming PC.
The house is only 13 years old (but is fairly large at around 5100-5300sq*ft depending if you count storage rooms). Thus, the wiring is all very good, and actually surprisingly thick (low-number gauge wiring). I've experimented with the Powerline Ethernet, and it works well, especially since you can buy "Range Extenders" that plug into any outlet and then transmit the signal over WiFi - allowing you to make your house "WiFi-blackout-free".

Also, the basement has a false wall in the area of the home theater, with about 2.5-3' between the drywall and the foundation, with speaker mounts/subwoofer mount/glass-door cabinet/etc built into the wall, speaker mounts built into the ceiling (there's even a power outlet on the ceiling for a projector!), and plenty of "invisible" holes for routing wiring. This also gives enough room to run a Gigabit Ethernet cable from the floor above.
So I was thinking: Cable outlet --(quad-shielded coax)--> Cable Modem --(10'Cat6 Cable)--> E4200 (or equivalent; 450/450mbps + Gbit Eth) --(40'Cat6 Cable)--> Wireless Router on First Floor (current router moved downstairs) --(40'Cat6 Cable)--> Basement Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Sound like it would work? Along with 3-4 Powerline-Ethernet WiFi Range Extenders at certain corners, the entire house should then have full-speed WiFi "N", literally everywhere.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway.


Oh, and the X1600PRO has DVI+VGA (I think it has dual-DVI, as this was the first-generation of ATI cards to support CrossFire and "Eyefinity"), the other has DVI+S-Video (don't need the S Vid)

Thank you all again so much for your help!

Sincerely,
nleksan

PS: let me know if there is anything else you need to know, and I will do my best to find it out for ya
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
and let the 80GB shut down when it is not used via power management.

Where do you go to change that for each individual drive in Win 7? When I go to power management, it only has a single Hard Disk setting ("Turn Off Hard Disk after...") even though I've got two internal drives in the machine.


That turn off hard drive setting should be enough as the chances of accessing a data only drive is very low.
 
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