[wildboarmouse]

Hi... I've been doing a bit of searching on the forum and keep ending up with more and more questions.

Background. The current home server is about four years old and due to be upgraded before something fails... I really want XBMC running our entertainment system and have so far been using a PS3 with PS3 Media Server. It works great, but XBMC is just a whole different league! I've been holding out for a couple of years and just making do...

Requirements:

File/General Server

• On 24/7/365
  
• micro ATX
  
• 2x 3TB HDD's, WD Red, independent volumes, used for general storage (no RAID)
  
• External 2TB USB HDD for backups
  
• Running iSpy for two 720p IP surveillance cameras
  
• Backup storage destination for desktop PCs and routine phone video/photo backups
  
• Windows OS
  

HTPC - XBMC

• Running XBMC
  
• S/PDIF output (preferred, not essential)
  
• Able to transcode 1080P
  
• Ability to run Skype (undecided)
  

Things to move off my personal PC

• Peer Blocker
  
• uTorrent
  

Other stuff:
Wireless is not used/needed anywhere

Given I'm looking to rebuild my home server AND put XBMC in the living room are there any good reasons why I shouldn't run all this on the same box?

I started looking at using a NAS + Raspberry Pi... The NAS (Synology DS214 or DS414) is more than capable of handling the general server needs, but it doesn't have an equivalent of Peer Blocker so that completely rules out using the NAS for torrents, even though it would otherwise be good. The NAS is great for the surveillance cameras though and meets my requirements in that area. So, it means I still run torrents on my own PC, which isnt' the end of the world... I'm usually only downloading a few 10's of GB per month.

Part of me really likes the simplicity of the NAS. I'm just a bit over micromanaging different applications for different tasks on the servers... something about that all in one package is very appealing.

If I were to build a server instead of a NAS, it would do everything the NAS would otherwise do, and would also let me remote desktop in to manage torrents. It's hard to beat the Synology GUI for usability though... It's then a question of Windows 7, or Windows Home Server 2011

Would something like an Intel i3 4130 on an Asus H87M-PRO be sufficient to run all the above tasks?

If I use separate devices to run XBMC and the server/NAS I have to make compromises (e.g. no S/PDIF using RaspPi, no torrent management on NAS etc) but by combining everything in to one I can keep costs down and still meet every single requirement.

I do remember seeing comment threads about not running XBMC on the same PC as a file server, but I'd really like to know a bit more about why this is a problem please.

I think I end up with three options

Setup #1
- Synology NAS
- Raspberry Pi
Pros: Easy! Uses Synology Surveillance tools instead of iSpy
Cons: No S/PDIF, torrents managed on personal PC

Setup #2
- New Server
- Raspberry Pi
Pros: Offload torrents to server, more versatile
Cons: No S/PDIF

Setup #3
- New combined Server/HTPC
Pros: Only one box, has S/PDIF
Cons: More faffing around than option #1

Thanks everyone... I'd really appreciate general input and thoughts please!

PS: I'm in New Zealand, so a lot of the pre-built boxes I've seen suggested just aren't available here

[CaptainPsycho]

There is no real reason not to have xbmc and nas in one box. You won't have any technical downsides.

Just the setup will take a bit more effort then on openelec installation.

[glypto]

I was on setup 1 and moved to Setup 2 recently. I would never consider Setup 3 - why to mo ve large, noisy, heat producing server to my living room?
You can run torrent client (transmission) on Synology by the way

[wildboarmouse]

There is no real reason not to have xbmc and nas in one box. You won't have any technical downsides.

Just the setup will take a bit more effort then on openelec installation.

I'd have thought it would be easier in some ways as all the content will be local rather than pulled from a network share... ?

I was on setup 1 and moved to Setup 2 recently. I would never consider Setup 3 - why to mo ve large, noisy, heat producing server to my living room?
You can run torrent client (transmission) on Synology by the way

Running the client on the NAS is appealing, but I'd only do that if there was an equivalent of PeerBlocker (or similar). I wouldn't worry too much about noise as building quiet PCs is something I'm pretty familiar with... heat might be an issue, yes... with only 2-4 drives that shouldn't be too hard to dissipate though.

After a bit more looking around, I think I'm going to go with the combined "All in one" build, which then gives me the option of using Raspberry Pi if the server is too noisy in the lounge. Thanks for the help

[tential]

My "sever" and xbmc are one box. My main gaming rig is my server. Makes it extremely easy to manage everything.

A dedicated server is nice definitely but it isn't a requirement. I'll move to a dedicated server when I get more cash though since I'd like to use unraid to protect my files. Right now if a hard drive died I'd have a mental breakdown.