Best setup for file server/download box

[jammir]

Main goals are stable os to run general file serving of media e.g. mp3’s, xvid, 1080p mkv’s etc. The box will be my main archive as well. Will have to do all my downloading, FTP, Usenet, emule (for those hard to find stuff), IRC and BT but Usenet and BT are most important.

I would prefer to be able to access the BT, Usenet client via IE browser over the network rather than going via VNC for day to day downloading so apps with web interface would be great.

List of my hardware and soft im using so you have an idea what to work with (software is just listing so you know what im using now)

Hardware: ITX C7 1.2Ghz, 256mb DDR2 (16mb shared with VGA), 100GB 2.5” sata boot drive, 6x 500gb Sammy 3.5” sata on a adaptec raid controller not in raid setup atm (controller has its own 64mb memory and on 32bit PCI), running on a 1gigabit network, Morex 668 itx case, 200w psu.

Software: FreeNAS

I was planning to go down the Linux route but with so many different ones im not sure where to start.

Jammi

 

[skanky]

not sure if you'll get away with 1080p mkv's with that processor. i can just about do 720p mkv's on a 1.7ghz Pentium M/1gb laptop so doubt you'll have any joy with that.

should do everything else but 1080p i reckon.

 

[Netvyper]

Main goals are stable os to run general file serving of media e.g. mp3’s, xvid, 1080p mkv’s etc. The box will be my main archive as well. Will have to do all my downloading, FTP, Usenet, emule (for those hard to find stuff), IRC and BT but Usenet and BT are most important.

I would prefer to be able to access the BT, Usenet client via IE browser over the network rather than going via VNC for day to day downloading so apps with web interface would be great.

List of my hardware and soft im using so you have an idea what to work with (software is just listing so you know what im using now)

Hardware: ITX C7 1.2Ghz, 256mb DDR2 (16mb shared with VGA), 100GB 2.5” sata boot drive, 6x 500gb Sammy 3.5” sata on a adaptec raid controller not in raid setup atm (controller has its own 64mb memory and on 32bit PCI), running on a 1gigabit network, Morex 668 itx case, 200w psu.

Software: FreeNAS

I was planning to go down the Linux route but with so many different ones im not sure where to start.

Jammi

I have a similar server setup.

Its running Windows however. Serves all media content for my network. Also does BT Downloads using uTorrent, with web interface beta. I dont know about a usenet client with a web interface however.

When doing anything interesting, I simply pull up a remote desktop connection to the box, faster & more functional than vnc