Building a media server (1 Viewer)

[RichardJB]

Hi all,,I am looking to replace my old Compaq Presario
with a newer computer and then I want to turn the Compaq into a media server for my network at home. Does anyone know of any good websites with specific step by step
instructions on how to do this? The machine does have a Pent 4 chip with 750ram. I am willing to put 4
hard drives-1-music 2-movies 3-games 4-video. Any help will be greatley appreciated.

 

[Harris_C]

htpcnews.com is a good place to start.

 

[SethH]

If you do put 4 drives in it you're probably going to want additionaly fans. Also, make sure the power supply can handle that load. I would be tempted to get two very large drives and partitioning them as need.

 

[Vivek_IVB]

you're going to need an additional PCI pata card, as you can only control 4 total devices on your mobo. presuming you've got a CD/DVD, that's 3 HDs. presuming you've got a boot HD, that's 2 more. a PCI PATA card can handle 2.

No step-by-step needed, really. Basically, for the first 2 dedicated to data:
- open up machine
- plug new HDs into the onboard PATA controller
- plug in power supply (how many watts is yours - you may need a new one).
- turn on PC.
- run diskmgmt.msc to make sure all are formatted and have partitions setup
- have fun

If you buy a PCI PATA card, then:
- open up machine
- plug in new card
- plug new HDs into both the onboard PATA controller and PCI hard
- plug in power supply (you'll definitely need a new one)
- turn on PC
- run diskmgmt.msc
- have fun

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

If you're buying the drives, then buy four really big ones (300-500 gigs) and a RAID card from 3ware.com (the four port cards aren't obscenely pricey.) Then make one volume out of the drives in a RAID5 array; you lose one drives worth of storage but gain resiliency - any one drive can break and you won't lose data.