New
#1
Virtualized HTPC
I recently, around W7 RC1 release, was having problems with the reliability of my MCXs (WAF was pretty low) so I decided to see if a virtual HTPC dedicated to the MCXs would work out well. I've been using this setup for almost 2 months now and have not had a single issue.
My basic setup is: primary HTPC in the living room, 3 extenders for each bedroom and my server. There are laptops and my development machines as well but those are my core HTPC components.
I created a W7 virtual on my W2K8 R2 server under Hyper-V and optimized it for background applications. All my media was on my server but instead of sharing and accessing it over the network stack (well a virtual stack) I tool the drive offline and attached it directly the virtual. I then setup each extender to use the virtual HTPC instead of my primary. What I really liked about doing this is that I can now setup my HTPC to sleep. We tend to watch movies from the bedroom so the HTPC is rarely on now.
HTPC (Living Room)
Server
- W7 x64
- Antec Fusion Max
- Corsair HX520w
- ASUS P5E-VM
- Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
- Corsair DDR-800 4GB RAM
- Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD (engineering sample..a little buggy)
- Gigabyte NVidia 8600GTS (I'm trying to get a "free" CUDA based card, no luck so far....)
- OCZ Vertex 60GB (C:\D: System\Apps)
- WD 1TB (G: Data, for Live TV and temporary storage)
- LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD
- Nexus Real Silent Case Fans
- Passive Thermalright HR-1 CPU Heatsink
I'd like to update this system soon (low on memory and disk space) but I need to get more side-work first
The server has the below virtuals running
- W2K8 R2 x64
- Antec Mini P180 (great case but I did have to mod a little to fit the extra drives)
- Corsair HX620W
- ASUS P5E-VM (Newegg sent me two, otherwise would have gone w/ another board)
- Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
- Corsair DDR-800 8GB RAM
- OCZ Vertex 60GB (C:\D: System\Apps)
- 3ware 9650SE-8LPML (SATA II Controller)
- WD 2TB x8 (broken into 2 arrays, 1 for media and another for data)
- Nexus Real Silent Case Fans
- Intel Dual Port Gigabit PCI-e NIC (dedicate to pfSense)
Network
- 2x W2K8 R2 Core (Domain Controllers)
- 1x W2K8 R2 Core for SQL2K8 R2
- 1x W2K8 Web Edition
- 2x Gentoo
- 1x W7 x64 (HTPC and Home Automation)
- 1x pfSense (pfSense Rocks!)
Note: Most SOHO switches will not be able to handle HD streaming using the base NIC settings.
- HP J9078A 10/100/1000Mbps ProCurve Switch 1400-24G
- pfSense Router (this replaced a Cisco 831 Series Router)
- Apple Time Capsule 1TB (What a worthless device but free)
- Apple Airport Extreme (802.11N)
- Apple Airport Express (802.11N) x2
Other
- MacBook x2
- Primary Computer (used to be my gaming rig....pre-marriage)
- HDHomeRun x2 (shared between HTPC01 and HTPC02)
- XBox 360
- Linksys DMA-2200 x3
- DirecTV Integration w/ custom app for launching DirecTV2PC
PowerDVD9- Slysoft AnyDVD HD
- Yammm
- Full Home Automation
Last edited by mikinho; 16 Jul 2009 at 11:13.