I’m such a geek…

I had a revelation today and it has simultaneously brought me great relief and the somber realization that I am a total geek. For a few weeks/months now I’ve been wondering just what the hell my computer situation was going to be. What would be my media center, what would be on it, which hardware was going in what system, etc. etc. I think today I’ve finally figured out how everything is going to work, and I’ve been really excited about it ever since.

Read on if you’re actually interested in the gory details

I’m mostly going to write it down here so I can remember just what the hell I’m planning to do. I’m only listing components that are relevant or will change. The motherboard/ram/cpu combos are staying as-is:

Matt’s Computers:

I think that pretty much sums it up nicely. I’ve decided the video card and cpu from my current desktop are plenty for a decent little HTPC. It runs 1920×1080 video without an issue so I think I’ll be all right. If I have an issue I’ll pick up a Radeon HD 3650 for $65 and call it good. I’m also more comfortable with the older hardware in an HTPC than as my file server.

The drives on the file server will be slowly cycled through. I’ll use the 200gb mirrors for work and music, and for now the 1tb and the 750 will store all the rest of my junk with a bit of room (not much) to spare. I don’t want to do Raid 5 on the 200s because I don’t want to replace any if they die. Eventually I want to work up to 4x1tbs in raid 5, but that’s a few months off