.

Update on my Home Network

     - Sunday, July 27, 2008

A few years ago I gave a rundown of what I'm running on my local network. Back then it was barely a network with only two machines and a since router. These days it's expanded to 3 computers, three routers, a printer, an external hard drive, and an iPhone. Still small, I know, but it's a lot to have in the living room, for sure.

Here's the rundown....

Compaq Presario C700 Laptop
Got this Vista Pro machine a few months ago for about $500 and couldn't be happier. With it's dual core processor (I know, so 2007!) and 2 GB of RAM, it's by far the fastest hardware I have. Really enjoyable to use.

Sony Viao pcvrx462ds Desktop
Purchased in August 2001, one month before the launch of XP and therefore originally installed with Windows ME, this machine is now 7 years old, and it's the machine I'm typing on right now. With an upgrade to Windows XP PRO, it's still my main desktop, and I use it daily for email and surfing. Can't do much more with just 384 MB of RAM. I'm still using the same hard drive it was purchased with (plus 2 additional ones). Which reminds me, I need to run SpinRite on this baby this week.

eMachines T3085 Server (sort of)
If you thought my main desktop was crazy, wait till you hear this! Bought this Windows XP Home badboy just about 4 years ago for about $650 off the shelf at Best Buy. When I told the guy that I was going to use it as a server, he thought I was nuts. Now it acts as my main media and file server, backup machine, Apache web server (hosting 10 sites), and mail server (hosting 100+ email addresses). If that wasn't enough, it also can record 4 TV shows at a time with 2 dual-head cable-tv capture cards. I recently installed a 3rd capture card to record over-the-air high definition TV. A sub-$200 video card drives the dual monitor setup to push video to the TV full screen and a desktop to a flatscreen LG monitor. Oh, and of course it's where I use iTunes for syncing my iPhone.

Even with it's whopping 2.17 Ghz Athlon XP 3000+ single-core (so sad) processor and 1 full GB of RAM, it's beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. It has some stuttering when I'm watching TV, ripping CD's in iTunes, and recording a couple other shows all at the same time.


Just reading this as I'm writing it makes me think maybe that guy at Best Buy was sorta right about me. I might just be a little nuts to have all this going on a single machine. But so far it's been working for me.

The next moves are going to be significant though. It's time to start thinking about separating some of the functions of my server, and the desktop machine is really beginning to show it's age.

Here's a few items on my wishlist if you're interesting in sending anything :

New dual-core desktop to take over most of the responsibilities of the media and file server, leaving the current machine to continue displaying the TV (streaming files over the network) and running the web and mail services. Maybe I'll add a DNS server function too. I mean, if the machines down you can't surf to the sites anyway!

A new dual-core laptop to take over as the main desktop for email and surfing. The current machine would make a great web and email services machine, and free up the existing emachine to move to a small living-room friendly case.

Not really sure about that change though, is it's still probably 6 months to a year away. Hopefully I'll post again before then. Some comments would help. What do you say, am I nuts or just making the most of some pretty basic equipement?

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |