Set up a new home media server today

[Hugo_za]

To give some background: Our home runs on Apple hardware. We have Airport hardware running the network, Apple TVs for entertainment, Macbook Pro and Air for computing, etc. We used a spare laptop to act as the server for all the iTunes media, running off of a USB hard drive connected to the Airport Extreme. This was working ok, but the spare laptop was an old Samsung Netbook and really did not stand up well to the challenge.

So...scouring Gumtree as I do I came across this beastie.

Mac Pro, dual Xeon dual core with 8gb FB-ECC Ram and 2TB hard drive space. I snapped it up for a song and a dance, and it is now installed as our home server. By computer terms it is ancient, but it absolutely flies!

I have ordered 2 quad core 3ghz Xeon to bump the total core count to 8, and also a GT760 graphics card to replace the POS 7300 in the machine at present.

Might seem a bit like overkill but nothing beats sever grade hardware

 

[RAArmstrong]

Aaaaand nerdgasm

 

[Rory]

What's the graphics card for?

 

[RAArmstrong]

What's the graphics card for?

Shits and giggles?

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[Hugo_za]

What's the graphics card for?

Its a combination of want and need.

Need to replace it to upgrade to Yosemite.
Want because its a decent card that will work well for work and play.


Sent from Tapatalk, iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

Good stuff this should do nicely for a media system! :coolShake:

 

[Hugo_za]

The only caveat is that the RAM is farking expensive to upgrade. So even though the system can handle 32gb of it I will probably just stick with 8gb.


Sent from Tapatalk, iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[peanut125i]

8gb is fine. Any more will just be a waste of money. System is perfect as you have it there.

 

[Sleepa]

Looks awesome.... I know you overkilling on the hardware just cause you can...

I run plex off a pos dual core laptop with 2gb ram and on board vga runs like a dream!

Love the look of the server tower looks Boss!

:clapper:

 

[Rory]

I'm running plex on an N54L which is like dual 1.5ghz and 2gb ram. It does the job running Windows 7, sickrage, couch potato, etc and plex. I actually have ram lying around for it but have never bothered.

 

[Hugo_za]

If anyone is interested I have another one of these systems available. Just pop me a PM for details.

 

[Hugo_za]

Upgraded the internals this evening. She now runs 2x Quad Core Xeon processors (thats 8 x 3ghz) and 12gb of RAM.

I ran benchmarks to compare multicore performance in both 64 and 32 bit between the Mac Pro and my (much newer) Macbook Pro 15" Retina...and the Mac Pro is only a couple of 100 points lower in the scores.

 

[DieselFan]

Do you still have the spare available? Can one run Windows on them?

 

[Karthik]

@Hugo_Zn
Nice system you have running there, I prefer the older Mac Pro to the new trash can one because of its added modification capabilities. I use a new Mac Pro at work and its a gem, but under no circumstances will I be able to change a graphics card, etc. Should be more than enough to run as a server too:clapper:

Do you still have the spare available? Can one run Windows on them?

Yes, you can. You can use Parallels or even Bootcamp or just take off Yosemite and run Windows as the main system.

 

[DieselFan]

What is Yosemite?

How much for the spare system?

 

[Hugo_za]

What is Yosemite?

How much for the spare system?

lol,

Yosemite is the name of the current version of Mac OS X (10.10).

Also, why would you want to run Windows. If you plan on using it as a plex server you can do so from OS X. It's a much safer, more stable environment anyway.

 

[VictorMike]

OS X. It's a much safer, more stable environment anyway.

Nope. Both OSes are about as stable and secure as each other. The biggest security risk is the bag of meat and bones sitting in front of the keyboard...

 

[DieselFan]

What is Yosemite?

How much for the spare system?

lol,

Yosemite is the name of the current version of Mac OS X (10.10).

Also, why would you want to run Windows. If you plan on using it as a plex server you can do so from OS X. It's a much safer, more stable environment anyway.

Ah I see I did Google it . I absolutely loathe Mac. I'd rather use DOS than Mac.

I'm familiar with Windows. So its best I just stick with what I know.

 

[Hugo_za]

Update:

Migrated the startup drive to a 120GB ssd and replaced the Nvidia GT730 with a GTX650.

System starts up in about 22 seconds start to finish and gaming performance has shot up significantly.

Elite: Dangerous plays at 1080i with high settings and a constant frame-rate of 30fps. Before the upgrades it could barely handle 720i on low settings.


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