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Media Server PC

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IrishAssassin

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Location
Montreal
Hey guys,

I'm looking to build a computer for Media purposes (alot of 720P and 1080P content). I'm just curious what type of processor would run this without issues. My budget is fairly tight (300$ CDN), but this is what I have so far.

CPU: Intel E5400 2.7 ghz
RAM: 2x1 GB Kingston HyperX PC2-6400 4-4-4-12
MOBO: Asus P5QPL-AM (main reason for this board, it has GBLAN and onboard video)
CASE: Antec 300
PSU: OCZ StealthXtreme 500W

I already have a 500GB Seagate drive (almost full) and a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green drive.

EDIT: Which operating system would this work well with? I was thinking just installing Windows 7 but maybe a Linux OS would be a better choice?

Would this setup be good enough to run 720P/1080P video to a PS3/Asus O-Play box without stutter or lag?

EDIT #2: I won't be using to computer directly, it will used through my PS3/Asus O-Play to stream from this server.
 
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If your using on board graphics you may have a problem.

Why would that be? I'm not streaming through the video card, I'm going to be streaming through the network (gigabit). The only reason I need onboard video is for the initial install of the operating system.
 
It will stream fine to the ps3 as long as the video format doesn't have to be transcoded on the fly. If it doesn't, then those specs are waaaaaay more than you'll need. To give you an idea, My WHS box consisted of an under volted s754 a64 2800+ and 1 gig ddr and a caviar black as the OS drive. Streamed 1080p/720p fine wired through gigabit. Transcoding was a different story though.
 
Well the PS3 will transcode on the fly, I haven't had problems from the computer in my sig though. I'm not sure how the transcode works with an Asus O-Play.
 
Well the PS3 will transcode on the fly, I haven't had problems from the computer in my sig though. I'm not sure how the transcode works with an Asus O-Play.

I'm not very good with the terminology or complete understanding, but If you use ps3mediaserver and try and play like a an h264 encoded video in an mkv file container, you'll see your cpu work it's butt off at 95% or higher and then the video stutters every 2 seconds. If you convert the video to a native format the ps3 can play before you stream it, you're cpu will maybe be working at 5%.
 
I'm not very good with the terminology or complete understanding, but If you use ps3mediaserver and try and play like a an h264 encoded video in an mkv file container, you'll see your cpu work it's butt off at 95% or higher and then the video stutters every 2 seconds. If you convert the video to a native format the ps3 can play before you stream it, you're cpu will maybe be working at 5%.

When I use PMS, my video doesn't stutter but my CPU is working pretty hard, I'll see how it goes. Thanks for the input guys.
 
Small bump, I finally got around to ordering the parts, I also ordered a second 1 TB hard drive to setup Raid 1. I'm going to be installing Ubuntu 32-bit on the desktop. Ubuntu has a built in VNC server, and I'm going to install TightVNC on my main computer so I can remote control the media box but anyone know if I can fully remote control even though my ubuntu box won't have a keyboard or a mouse plugged in? The reason I ask is because the software we use at work, must have a keyboard/mouse plugged in at the other end to be able to use the local keyboard/mouse. I'm not sure if that works the same way with VNC.
 
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