Recently I came into a little bit of money and like usual my inner geek came out trying to persuade me to buy a multitude of different things. While many things came to mind one thing leaped out and that was a jaw dropping home media network. I’ve never taken on a task of this size but it seems like no other time is better than now. Sure I’ve done the occasional networking or PC build but this was a different beast. I’ll be returning from my deployment soon and have ample time to plan. This thread will document things I’ve learned to hopefully help others and maybe get a few pointers from the community myself.

First step of anything was to plan it all out. What do I want out of my network? A few requirements are:
1. Have a dedicated HTPC
2. To stream content from online directly to my HTPC
3. Locally stream HD content
4. Easy to manage and install

After scouring the internet a few hours and doing some research I was amazed at the options out there. One could do all these things just with an Xbox 360 and a computer running WMC but I have been less than impressed with this option. I wanted the ability to customize and do things my way which led me to building my own network from the ground up. I have two machines right now running Windows 7 so that is covered but I still need an HTPC. Along with an HTPC I decided to go with a dedicated media server running Windows Home server 2011.

First lets get started with the HTPC itself. Again this is new territory for me but with my experience I think I have a decent plan laid out. The Gigabyte GA-H67 will provide a good motherboard and for the price is a good deal. As for a CPU I’m going with the Intel i3 2100 as it should be more than enough for video playback. I also decided to skip out on a dedicated video card for now. A lot of builders have had good success streaming HD with nothing more than a mid range CPU. The case is also important and probably more so than in your normal PC build. You want a case that will cool well but also isn’t an eye sore since all your guests will be able to plainly see it. This case had all that and a good price point. The other more standard parts are listed below.

BD Player/DVD Burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151232
RAM - 4GB ADATA
Hard Drive - 500 GB Western Digital
Power Supply - OCZ 500w

Once the HTPC is all nice and built I’ll be installing Windows 7 Home Premium for the OS and XBMC for some amazing looking HTPC goodness. You could just run XBMC off a live CD and do it that way but I have an extra Win7 license so I may as well use it. I went with XBMC just because I love the price of FREE and its interface is a lot better than WMC. Check out the XBMC website for more info.

Now that our HTPC is up and going its time to get this server up and running. I’ll be running Windows Home Server 2011 for my server. Really isn’t no need to go into the specs here. Essentially its just a tower with six 1.5TB of storage in a Raid 1 configuration. If you have used a computer much you know that bad things happen sometimes so I want to make sure all my media is safely backed up. Server 2011 makes managing shares easy as ever with the addition of Homegroups. All you do is just setup and join the home group and all your media is shared from the server to all Win7 clients. You can also create a public share for your guests separate to your usual home network. This would let you share media if your friends have a compatible wifi device (which is just about any phone these days).

Since the server will be tucked away out of sight I’ll be managing the media on it with my usual PC. Server 2011 has a neat function to seamlessly upload media to the server. You can set your PC to “contribute” whatever folders you decide to the server. This isn’t a simple folder duplication. If you delete the file on your PC later it will remain on the server for later use.

I’ll have my server backing up my computers daily during an off time. One thing I would suggest is on your HTPC don’t apply Windows updates or software updates too often. Every few weeks set aside a little time for this task. Sometimes these updates can change settings and that is a bad thing. The whole point of an entertainment PC is to provide entertainment. Having to manage an HTPC constantly is not my idea of fun after coming home from work.

Now that our server, HTPC and user clients have been configured its time to set up this network in a more media friendly manner. I haven’t done enough homework yet on specific hardware but in a nutshell I’m going to set up a Gigabit network. The first major decision you have to make is if you want to go totally wireless or not. This largely depends on what you will be doing on your network and how you have it set up. For me I will be doing a lot of things on my network at once. The HTPC could be streaming an HD movie while one of my other machines is playing music and the laptop is showing some video’s from Youtube. Could I go all wireless? Perhaps but I prefer the reliable connection of a physical cable. The cables are relatively small and can be hidden via a number of less than creative ways. Plus the Gigabit network will provide me plenty of overhead for the future. Setting this up is nothing more than a Cable modem connected to a Wifi router which is connected to a gigabit switch. Too easy right?

I’ll continue to build this thread up as much as possible as I learn more and I get new ideas. Hopefully I was able to point someone in the right direction.