Media Server
 

Woo! So I'm finally on a stable PC (I hope), and I have an old...everything except HDD (which I will be getting later), and want to set up a media server. I'd love to set it up to be able to stream from, and for now, only use on my home network, and if possible/not horribly complicated, make it a small aid in rendering 3D (since I break 3DS Max trying to make a city :confused:). How would I go about doing this, and what are the best programs/software to use for doing it? I can't do it immediately, obviously, but I would like to have it done in a few weeks. Although, honestly, time isn't an obstacle, especially since school starts soon.

You have Win7 Pro? Media Center's already rockin', man.

If you want a Windows home media center version, you can look here for some suggestions (the comments may also be helpful):

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...digital_domain

For linux, you might want to look here:

http://www.buildmediacenterpc.com/

These dudes build one every 6 months or so. "Build a Media PC" They have kind of gone out of style since advanced blue ray players and DVRs are everywhere. However Alot of consumer gadgets support MS media extenders and since the media server is pretty slick now with Vista Ultimate and to a great extent Win7 which supports a lot of steaming options from the console. I think it's making a small comeback. Especially now that there are more over the air HDTV free channels and sites like Hulu. And if you own one, wherever you have an xbox 360 parked, you have full access to whatever is on your pc with just a couple of mouse clicks.

I use TVersity to stream to the rest of the house. Got it mainly because it's compatible with my PS3 and is very easy to set up.