Home Media Server.

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Hey guys! So, my dad bought a new TV (Sony Bravia), to replace the old Samsung one. Now, he told me to keep that TV in my room. Now since that TV's sitting idle here, I'd like to use it for some reason! I'd like to make a Home Media Server for all my media stuff. My budget can go till 600/500$. I'll be using Ubuntu if I need to, (if I don't find a copy of windows. So, can you guys suggest me a good home media server, in which I can stream anything without any hiccups.

 

Thanks. And yes, I might even watch some stuff on NETFLIX though that TV

[Vitalius]

Well, for $500-$600, depending on a lot of things, you have lots of options. 

Options for OS:
FreeNAS - Very flexible, powerful, but potentially complicated. It's free.
Amahi - Flexible, good enough for a home media server, made to be simple, and free.
Ubuntu - Same as Amahi, but can be as complicated or simple as you want it to be.

WHS - Simple, not free, and handicapped in many places the other 3 aren't. However, will likely "Just work" with Windows machines.

Options for System:
Mini-ITX (as small as possible)
Desktop size

Server size (i.e. a rack or something similar)

I'm assuming you want Mini-ITX or as small and quiet as possible? Do these things matter?

Is the servers only purpose to stream media? If so, I highly recommend Plex Media Server plugin for FreeNAS, Amahi, and Ubuntu. It's pretty awesome.

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Well, for $500-$600, depending on a lot of things, you have lots of options. 

Options for OS:

FreeNAS - Very flexible, powerful, but potentially complicated. It's free.

Amahi - Flexible, good enough for a home media server, made to be simple, and free.

Ubuntu - Same as Amahi, but can be as complicated or simple as you want it to be.

WHS - Simple, not free, and handicapped in many places the other 3 aren't. However, will likely "Just work" with Windows machines.

Options for System:

Mini-ITX (as small as possible)

Desktop size

Server size (i.e. a rack or something similar)

I'm assuming you want Mini-ITX or as small and quiet as possible? Do these things matter?

Is the servers only purpose to stream media? If so, I highly recommend Plex Media Server plugin for FreeNAS, Amahi, and Ubuntu. It's pretty awesome.

Yep, I want a Mini-ITX. And yes, only streaming media

[Vitalius]

Yep, I want a Mini-ITX. And yes, only streaming media

Does the price include storage?

@ANUPLUCIFERGAMER

Assuming it does, here you go, imagine this to be the "premium" media server within your budget range:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($184.94 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($65.38 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($47.73 @ NCIX US) 

Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($66.76 @ Amazon) 

Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($84.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($129.99 @ Mwave) 

Other: Kingston Traveler Gen 4 8GB USB drive ($5.00 @ Newegg)

Total: $584.79

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-18 12:16 EDT-0400

In order of "Why?":

CPU: Because Plex transcodes media on-the-fly which is a very intensive process, especially for 1080p video. Four cores are needed here if you never want to hit a point where the server can't keep up and buffering occurs. If you know for a fact you will only ever stream to 1 device and at most 1080p video, you can probably get by with a dual core i3, but never expect to stream more than 1 video to anything. Buffering will be rampant if you do.

The Four cores aren't necessary. They are overhead.

Motherboard: Cheap, reliable (check the reviews) and tiny.

Memory: Same as motherboard.

Storage: I chose this specific HDD because energy saving models tend to underwhelm for media streaming in my experience. I own a 4TB Seagate Barracuda (5200RPM) and it can barely keep up with HD Video streaming. I hate it. I realllly recommend that if you decide not to get this drive, you get some other performance/data integrity type drive.

If you want more storage, get a bigger budget is my only recommendation, or lower expectations of performance and either get cheaper drives that are slower, or a dual core CPU. Or a less efficient/reliable PSU. Or a crappier M-ITX case with less drive bays.

Case: Small and good for adding storage (lots o' 3.5" drive bays).

Power Supply: Fully modular, tiny, high efficiency, and SeaSonic (reliable). Note that this is unnecessary but nice to have. You could swap this out for a cheaper similar PSU (like the Silverstone one in the below "Bare Minimum" build). It could save you a bit of money.

Other: This is for the OS. A USB drive is fine for anything but Windows Home Server.

Or here's a "Bare minimum" build, though expect it to be potentially slow and possibly unreliable (part-wise):

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-3250 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($114.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: ASRock H61MV-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard  ($54.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Kingston 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($22.85 @ Mwave) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.92 @ Amazon) 

Case: Silverstone SG05W-LITE Mini ITX Tower Case  ($41.22 @ NCIX US) 

Power Supply: Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Other: Kingston Traveler Gen 4 8GB USB drive ($5.00 @ Newegg)

Total: $351.95

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-18 12:30 EDT-0400

The "Why?" here is "Cheap. Cheap. Cheap."

I personally would save up the money to buy the first "premium" build because I like my stuff being high quality and bottlenecks being far far away. But that's just me. 

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Does the price include storage?

@ANUPLUCIFERGAMER

Assuming it does, here you go:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($184.94 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($65.38 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($47.73 @ NCIX US) 

Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($66.76 @ Amazon) 

Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($84.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($129.99 @ Mwave) 

Other: Kingston Traveler Gen 4 8GB USB drive ($5.00 @ Newegg)

Total: $584.79

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-18 12:16 EDT-0400

In order of "Why?":

CPU: Because Plex transcodes media on-the-fly which is a very intensive process, especially for 1080p video. Four cores are needed here if you never want to hit a point where the server can't keep up and buffering occurs. If you know for a fact you will only ever stream to 1 device and at most 1080p video, you can probably get by with a dual core i3, but never expect to stream more than 1 video to anything. Buffering will be rampant if you do. The Four cores aren't necessary. They are overhead.

Motherboard: Cheap, reliable (check the reviews) and tiny.

Memory: Same as motherboard.

Storage: I chose this specific HDD because energy saving models tend to underwhelm for media streaming in my experience. I own a 4TB Seagate Barracuda (5600RPM) and it can barely keep up with HD Video streaming. I hate it. I realllly recommend that if you decide not to get this drive, you get some other performance/data integrity type drive.

Case: Small and good for adding storage (lots o' 3.5" drive bays).

Power Supply: Fully modular, tiny, high efficiency, and SeaSonic (reliable).

Other: This is for the OS. A USB drive is fine for anything but Windows Home Server.

Thankyou very much!  

[Vitalius]

Thankyou very much!  

You're welcome. I updated that post with a bare minimum build. Feel free to mix and match to save money if you want.