Psssible major rebuild of servers and clients

[bbig119]

Hi,

I've been using Sage on an standalone server/client for years and used a linux file server to store media and other odds and ends. I've taken some time off before I start my next job, so I figured it would be a good idea to do some upgrades. I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how I should setup these computers and haven't come to a solid conclusion yet. Maybe I can get some ideas from the community.

First. Sage server.
Currently running V6.x on Vista. Its a Core2duo E6400 with 2 gig of ram and a ATI 3800 card. I've got an HDhomerun capturing locals and an HDPVR capturing everything else through fios. This system sits in under my TV in a origenX11 case that I've had for a long time. I've toyed around with the idea of getting an ATI 54xx or 55xx series card for HD audio bitstreaming, but haven't done that yet. This computer does commercial detection via show analyzer locally.

I've got two windows 7 licenses, and one has been intended for rebuilding this computer.

Second. Linux file server
I built an ubuntu linux file server that is also an ftp and webserver (which are rarely used). I've got a couple of software raid 5 arrays setup with many hard drives, but have been unhappy with the speed of these arrays. The computer is an old amd athlon 3800 X2 on an old asus a8n board (939) with I think 3-4 gig of ram. I enjoy toying with linux and this computer is rock stable, but everything I do seems like an epic battle to get setup. I want faster drive throughput, so will likely overhaul this system and am considering whs partially for simplicity. I also recently purchased two WD 2TB advanced format drives without realizing that they are a pain to deal with in linux, though not impossible.

Third. Desktop PC
Desktop PC and linux file server sit next to each other in the office. This computer is an amd phenom X2 550 on a 790 board with 4 gig of ram running windows 7 professional. This computer is mainly used for web browsing, torrents and VERY light gaming (I've been playing some starcraft II).

I am definitely going to rebuild the HTPC with windows 7 and it seems like a good time to move to sage v7 as well. This computer works pretty well, its slowed down substantially and I want to get away from vista.

I'm trying to decide whether I to redo everything as is. That being a dedicated sage server, a dedicated file server and a third desktop PC where at least 2 of these are running 24/7, or if I should take the opportunity to move my sage server to my file server which I've wanted to do for a while. This would make my HTPC a simple client that will be used for sage activities, bluray rip playback, pandora, boxee, mlbtv and a few other things, but it won't need to be on 24/7.

So there are two scenarios:

1. keep my existing file server as a media serve and keep my HTPC as a standalone Sage server/client and just upgrade it to windows 7 and likely sage v7. I would redo the raid setup on my fileserver, and possibly still switch it over to whs unraid or freenas.

or

2. install whs and run sage server from the file server. I could move tuners and necessary equipment to the office, so this isn't much of an issue. The big question here is whether or not to keep the existing hardware or swap the guts from one of my others servers to beef it up and/or consider a cheap upgrade to one of the computers.