One machine for multiple purposes

[ryanissamson]

So, I'm new to building so take that into account when responding. I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row and get my expectations where they ought to be.

I'm wanting to build a powerful system that kind of serves as a hub for everything, that is, if it is possible to build such a system. For starters, I would want it to:

• be used for web development, running multiple VMs.
• serve as a central hub for automated backups, cloud storage like Sparkleshare, and also storage for home security.
• run XBMC on a television while simultaneously working on other things (although this won't be the norm).

Is it possible to make this machine a HTPC and use it for all of these purposes simultaneously? Can I make use of two monitors while watching something on XBMC on a television? The alternative is using a Raspberry PI (which is what I'm doing now) to play XBMC and access the content through an NFS mount.

Thanks!

 

[russwilliston]

I would think that this is all very possible. It sounds like you'd be happiest with an i7 (quad-core with hyperthreading, so you'd have 8 threads) and lots of RAM for all your virtual machines.

I haven't used XBMC, but I like your Raspberry Pi idea -- using the Mac for storage and maybe transcoding. (You could keep Serviio running on the Mac, and use DLNA.)

I set up a Fusion Drive with a 120GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive....it's given my family lots of speedy storage space for pictures and videos without having to juggle things between two drives. That might be something that you'd like to use too.

Good luck!

 

[ryanissamson]

Thanks so much for the response. I'm glad to know I'm somewhat on the right track and that I can always have the Raspberry Pi to fall back on if I need a separate unit to serve media directly to the TV. It actually handles full 1080 really well depending on the source of the media. Right now I'm using a Samba share (meh), so it can't handle anything more than 720. My only complaint is that the response time on the Raspbian build (in XBMC) is a bit laggy with controls.

Getting back to the reason while I posted, all can feel free to chime in.

I'm wondering, would having two video cards help/change my situation? Again, I'm new to building, but my goal is to build a machine that I can work with on two displays and my family can use as a media center with the HD TV concurrently. It might not be a possibility, but I love streamlining things and the idea of having one machine that does everything in my house energizes me.

Additionally, should I consider a specific video card(s)? I currently have a 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display and am adding either another identical display or a Dell Ultrasharp to display vertically for coding. In the world of video cards (the ones listed in recommended builds) are some specific to certain connections? Should I make sure all of my displays use the same connection?

Lastly, the matter of software playing content but doing other things. I'm not 100% certain that OSX can play content full screen on a display while utilizing the other displays. Furthermore, I'm not certain that a media player can utilize full screen while leaving the other screens alone. Although, with the release of Mavericks, we are getting true multi-full-screen use of displays so that might solve it. I'm hoping to use XBMC so that my wife can just use her iPhone as a remote and always have it available and ready to go. If anyone can speak to that, I'd be grateful.

Another (less desired) option that I've considered is to build a very cheap customacmini that could do the job of the pi and take the media server responsibilities from the main machine as well. The PI cannot handle running as a server and displaying content concurrently.

So, that's a lot. But, I hope it's a puzzle that someone else can help piece together or talk through with me! Additionally, I'm not looking to put together this machine until after I make a cross-country move in September. So we're likely looking at an October build. I'm starting early to level up in knowledge and to start accumulating parts as they go on sale. Money isn't really a concern (within reason) so feel free to think big when you respond if a solution seems complex. I plan to build a machine that sticks with me for a long time and is upgraded as time goes on.

 

[ryanissamson]

Am I in the right forum here or should I be in The build thread?