Maximum PC

Hi All

I thought I would post this here as I am a avid reader of Maximum PC and feel the people on here can give the best advice.

I have been trying to cobble together a home server with using very little funds until I can afford to buy some newer parts. I am trying to build something that I can do the following:

Stream Music,
Stream regular DVD to a ps3 for now (build a HTPC) later.
Back Up Files and access them from home and when I am out.
more Later.

At the current moment the computer I am running is an older Athlon 64 3500+ running 2.5 gig of ddr ram. The motherboard does have gigabyte Ethernet as well. This will be upgraded not to long from now I hope.

What I am wondering is this. I have an extra copy of Win 7 64 and Windows Server 2008 R2(got from work) that I can use or i can buy Buy a copy of windows home server for around $55 can. Which would be better?

I currently have the copy of win 7 installed.

If i stay with with Windows 7 my question would be what would the best programs to install to do what I need?

If I install Server 2008 or Windows Home Server would I need to add anything to them?


One thing is that my music is already on the machine and using firefly server software because I stream it to an older rokku music device that is then attached to my stereo

I am much appreciative of any help and advice anyone could throw my way.

Go for the server software you have. It is a bit more advanced, but it is more powerful.
Of course, some people have had success with win7 and other software.

If you are an advanced software user, go with the server software, but be warned, its not as user friendly as using win7 pro or home server for the same task. Home server is stupid simple to setup and it would do most of that. There's also some linux distro's that can do the same thing but again the software is harder to setup, but realistically easy to use afterwards. I haven't tried this yet, but it'll be my next home project for my home server once I get it reformatted and updated a bit.