Evening all ;D
I'm planning on implementing a LMCE system in my home, and would appreciate some advice.
Basically, I'm not sure whether I would be best using a hybrid core system or separate core with a media director system in the lounge...
The 2 systems I have available are as follows -
Media Centre type low profile case
Gigabyte GA-M68SM-S2L
2GB DDR2 800
Athlon 64 x2 4200+
500GB Maxtor HDD
LG BD/HDDVD drive
and
HP Proliant ML110 G5 Server
Dual Core Xeon 3065
1GB
250GB
DVDRW
Obviously the components can be jiggled about a bit as necessary - if I go for the hybrid for example I'll probably use both HDDs in it, if I have a separate core then I'd put the 500GB drive into that etc.
Not sure what would be the best setup in terms of performance though?
Cheers
A dedicated core is rarely necessary for performance - this is usually only done if you want to use a noisy system for the core. 2GB is probably overkill. Video chipset is the most important piece. Then sound. Then your NICs (you need 2 on the core, yes?) Personally, I would situate my media on a separate machine from LMCE. If you have a general PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) put a big drive in that and share it out.
Quote from: colinjones on January 28, 2009, 10:39:08 PM
A dedicated core is rarely necessary for performance - this is usually only done if you want to use a noisy system for the core. 2GB is probably overkill. Video chipset is the most important piece. Then sound. Then your NICs (you need 2 on the core, yes?) Personally, I would situate my media on a separate machine from LMCE. If you have a general PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) put a big drive in that and share it out.
Thanks for your feedback. :)
There's no noise issue with the "media centre" system I have, so probably not worth setting up a dedicated core...just means I can use the HP server for something else. ;)
In terms of the RAM, I've got it sat there doing nothing so it might as well be in the system, even if it doesn't make much difference - at least it's there if I need it.
Will the GeForce 7025 chipset be sufficient do you reckon? For sound, I was thinking of using the onboard S/PDIF output straight to my AV amp.
When it comes to the NICs, can I use the onboard NIC for one of them and just add a dedicated card for the other, or do I need 2 dedicated cards?
As you reckon it would be best to keep the media separate, I can just store it on my main file server. :)
Cheers,
All sounds good. I have used the 7050PV which is similar just faster, so I don't think you will have any problems with that chipset. Your audio approach is right. No, just so long as you have 2 compatible NICs ... Intel's seem good.
Have fun.