So I am a little bored at work and not in the mood for actually working due to recent back problems and I decided to piece together a build for a future project. My project is going to be a home server and media center type of setup. Currently I'm using my old very old Dell desktop as a local file server which has my music, some videos, pictures, etc on and is accessible via a modded xbox to my home theater as well as all PCs on my home network. A media storage if you will and I want to centralize it all. An overview of what it will do: I will be using it as a server (domain controller/active directory, web/testing environment, file and print) and a media center connected to my home theater (play movies, music as well as record HDTV). A reminder is that all this is for local use as I have 4 different PCs and want everything the same and controlled via one location. So back to the hardware. I started piecing together a very nice and large machine. Intel Core i7-920, ASUS P6X58D, 6x2GB DDR3 RAM and I started to think I'm going way overkill. I obviously want a very nice desktop but do I REALLY need all that for my needs? One that's quick and can take the load of 2 HD Tuner cards recording while playing a movie. What are your thoughts and suggestions? I want to keep future upgrading limited however available. Sorry this post ended up being longer then I had anticipated, but wanted to be sure I hit all points to make it easier for replies.
