Does this exist?
Discussion
Currently run a home built ugly standard size desktop case hidden in a corner for a media player (pushes to Fire TV) and general storage device. I'd like something faster, able to stream HDMI 4k direct to TV (as opposed to bandwidth limited homeplug to Fire TV), Windows and RAID.
Requirements:
Look good enough to sit alongside Xbox, Denon Amp, Sky Q. Quiet, ideally fanless
Min 2TB RAID 1, SSD OS disk
Able to run VPN, P2P
GUI remote control software (Eg VNC, RDP etc)
Able to push 4k to Fire TV or run Kodi itself direct to Amp
Some gaming capability, not essential. Older games at decent FPS, got Xbox for new stuff
I don't stream anything, so not interested in a "loaded" box or dubious Kodi addons
RELIABLE, this will be a kid facing device, reboots should be non-existent, current setup just works, must be the same.
Had no luck running Kodi reliably on Windows, too many shutdown, hibernate recovery issues, hence right now my setup is a separate Windows device for storage, downloads and a Fire TV for playing to TV via Kodi.
Requirements:
Look good enough to sit alongside Xbox, Denon Amp, Sky Q. Quiet, ideally fanless
Min 2TB RAID 1, SSD OS disk
Able to run VPN, P2P
GUI remote control software (Eg VNC, RDP etc)
Able to push 4k to Fire TV or run Kodi itself direct to Amp
Some gaming capability, not essential. Older games at decent FPS, got Xbox for new stuff
I don't stream anything, so not interested in a "loaded" box or dubious Kodi addons
RELIABLE, this will be a kid facing device, reboots should be non-existent, current setup just works, must be the same.
Had no luck running Kodi reliably on Windows, too many shutdown, hibernate recovery issues, hence right now my setup is a separate Windows device for storage, downloads and a Fire TV for playing to TV via Kodi.
Try an Intel Nuc. Celeron versions are fanless. I3/i5s will have fans, but may still be pretty quiet. I run a celeron Nuc with Win 7 and Media Center (MCE) and MCE remote and its great. Use M2 storage for the OS and connected to a NAS for the media.
These will cost £10-15 per annum on electricity compared to £120+ for a larger desktop.
These will cost £10-15 per annum on electricity compared to £120+ for a larger desktop.
I think the difficult bit with your wishlist is the gaming, you're essentially asking for a server that'll play games, which is very niche. There are a few ways of doing it, but how well the user interface then works for you is likely to be a compromise.
If you're comfortable tinkering I'd recommend taking a look at UnRaid? It will do everything you've asked for and a lot more, but you also get enough control over every element that you should be able to get it doing what you need.
If you need it to look really good, then I would find the right case and build from there. Install UnRaid for storage and media serving, choose your preferred method - I Use Plex, but there are lots of ways to do that bit. Setup a Virtual Machine to run your old games from (No experience of this, but it should work)
Once you have everything setup you can open the VM and get that on your TV, then use something else to connect to the Media Server on a different input and you'll have the games and the media on your TV in a way that works. UnRaid is really a headless system, you do all your tinkering remotely via the web interface, so you should never need to stop the VM using the graphics output.
Not sure you can do this with a single box well because all the server OSs are designed to serve to other devices rather than be the media player, so you'll struggle to get them to play nicely with your games. But the second device, which can be quite simple, might be the best compromise.
The main drawback is that you're then streaming large resolution stuff over the network, which might cause problems.
Has anyone seen a streaming thing like Plex where you can pre-cache a film to avoid this? Ie rather than streaming it, have the file copied to the player, played and auto-deleted? There must be lots of setups that can't play hi-res these days because of network issues? I know you can do this manually, but the ability to one-click play that way, or even have the system identify where that will be necessary, would be great. I have a few things where my massively underpoered server and original RPi can't cope and I use a network share on my PC to then send it to Chromecast instead, but it's a faff working that way!
If you're comfortable tinkering I'd recommend taking a look at UnRaid? It will do everything you've asked for and a lot more, but you also get enough control over every element that you should be able to get it doing what you need.
If you need it to look really good, then I would find the right case and build from there. Install UnRaid for storage and media serving, choose your preferred method - I Use Plex, but there are lots of ways to do that bit. Setup a Virtual Machine to run your old games from (No experience of this, but it should work)
Once you have everything setup you can open the VM and get that on your TV, then use something else to connect to the Media Server on a different input and you'll have the games and the media on your TV in a way that works. UnRaid is really a headless system, you do all your tinkering remotely via the web interface, so you should never need to stop the VM using the graphics output.
Not sure you can do this with a single box well because all the server OSs are designed to serve to other devices rather than be the media player, so you'll struggle to get them to play nicely with your games. But the second device, which can be quite simple, might be the best compromise.
The main drawback is that you're then streaming large resolution stuff over the network, which might cause problems.
Has anyone seen a streaming thing like Plex where you can pre-cache a film to avoid this? Ie rather than streaming it, have the file copied to the player, played and auto-deleted? There must be lots of setups that can't play hi-res these days because of network issues? I know you can do this manually, but the ability to one-click play that way, or even have the system identify where that will be necessary, would be great. I have a few things where my massively underpoered server and original RPi can't cope and I use a network share on my PC to then send it to Chromecast instead, but it's a faff working that way!
Thanks all, some food for thought, (except the Mac idea!). We've used Nuc's at work for some proprietry network analysis, then moved that onto OnLogic hardware which fits the some of my requirements but is a) Expensive and b) Ugly.
I'll explore self build in a decent case and see what I can come up with.
I'll explore self build in a decent case and see what I can come up with.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff