Gaming / HTPC / Home Server

[Gommly]

I've been looking into building a living room gaming / htpc computer and was planning on building another computer (possibly from used parts) to act as a home server. However, I got to thinking whether one computer can do all of this. Will the home server aspect eat into the gaming performance or will this only effect gaming performance if someone else is using files from the computer at the same time like on a laptop. Also, will it compromise the need for a quiet computer in the living room. 

[BrightCandle]

I have done it for years, I built a HTPC using a small NAS case with 4 drive bays and a quad core CPU. I wouldn't recommend doing it to others.

 

The primary reason not to do it this way is drive spinning noise, its a lot of whine in the living room and that is going to get in the way of the quiet moments in movies or just disturb the peace in the living room generally. If you do it with SSDs however it can work out quite differently.

[Gommly]

9 hours ago, BrightCandle said:

I have done it for years, I built a HTPC using a small NAS case with 4 drive bays and a quad core CPU. I wouldn't recommend doing it to others.

 

The primary reason not to do it this way is drive spinning noise, its a lot of whine in the living room and that is going to get in the way of the quiet moments in movies or just disturb the peace in the living room generally. If you do it with SSDs however it can work out quite differently.

Thanks Candle. SSD's are sort of out of my price range as mass storage!  That's what I was worried about with having HDD's in the living room pc. What do you think about those Synology NAS devices? Perhaps that is the best way to go, build the gaming / htpc and then have a seperate synology nas.

[AshleyAshes]

11 hours ago, BrightCandle said:

The primary reason not to do it this way is drive spinning noise, its a lot of whine in the living room and that is going to get in the way of the quiet moments in movies or just disturb the peace in the living room generally.

What awful HDDs have you been buying?  I have a large range of HDDs, primarily from Samsung, and they make almost no noise at all unless you put your ear within a few feet of them.  Any case fans are louder than the drives.