1 PC for all

[StormseekerV]

This is my first time posting so I'm hoping my question doesn't seem to noobish to people. 

In any case, I use to be a big gamer but now a days I find myself gaming less frequently. That being said, I've been reading on how to install a Linux MCE network server. I know you can have a Hybrid server which does the work of a Core/Media center but what I wanted to know is if this is possible.

I want to use my PC as the Core/Media Centre while still using my PC as my gaming/internet surfing box. I was hoping to get a dual monitor system going with one screen displaying the Linux MCE interface while the other one has a Virtual PC running Windows 7 64 bit on it where I could play most of my games and such.

Here are my PC specs.
Motherboard: Asus M3A78-T
Athlon 955 Quad Core 3.2GHZ with 6mb L3 Cache
8 Gigs of Ram
2x Hard Drives (1.5 TB HDD and a 750 GB HDD both running at 7200RPM)
nVidia GeForce GTX 275 896mb (PNY)
TV Tuner Card
2x DvD Burners

Thanks for any advice ahead of time

[tschak909]

short answer? no. There's a lot of pain going in this direction.

-Thom

[StormseekerV]

So I guess it's technically possible ... it's just going to be a major headache from what I understand and I'm better off just building a Hybrid system apart from my computer to work with ?

Thanks in advance,

[tschak909]

yes, or build a dedicated core and boot the PC as a media director. We have a boot switching application that handles this.

-Thom

[StormseekerV]

Thats a solutions that I will explore some more as well. Im trying to tie in my computer in the setup somehow as well beause I only have a 4 port router and right now 3 ports are being used. Once I add the Core Computer to the setup, it will take a port as well. If I had to built a hybrid system, it would take 2 ports to get everything I would want working at which point I would be short 1 port 

Ill keep reading up on this, thanks again

[tschak909]

you need to seriously read the FAQ.

Particularly, we require a 2 NIC setup in order to use all features. Essentially our out of the box configuration makes the system the central router, gateway, firewall, and provisioning hardware for the house.

Plug the first card into the modem, plug the second card into one of the LAN ports on the router, nothing into the WAN port, disable the old router's DHCP.

8 port switches are not expensive and can easily be added, look at an HP Procurve 1400 switch.

-Thom

[macaronij]

newbee question, is the second card to lan or wan

[tschak909]

first card to WAN
second card to LAN.

-Thom

[Techstyle]

I use the 100Mbit network port that is on my motherboard as the WAN and an added 1Gbit card for LAN.  The thinking being it will be a while before my ISP gives me 100Mbits but my internal network can benefit from Gb speeds.

I also added 2 D-Link DGS-2205 5 Port Switches (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/D-Link_DGS-2205), I know D-Link are not the best but they are on Amazon for $31 with $10 mail in rebate right now.  I have had them working for 6 months without so much as a reboot.