Hi gang, I've now lost my "den" to the newest family arrival and need some strategic advice please. Previously I had a nice PC in a study (den) with dual screens and whatnot - a perfect solitude for gaming and browsing... Also in the study was my home sever which feeds my music systems and TV via a raspberry pi. I don't really have a spare room to accomodate this lot so I need a new home for it all, hence I'm looking for a smart solution which might consolidate everything. Ther house is mostly cat 5'd and I can run extra points as necessary. My severholds around 3TB of film and around 2TB of music. I'd like to put the main PC out of the way and access it using a wireless kb and mouse, though the screen would end up being the main TV in the lounge - maybe I could run HDMI over cat 5 for this? In this case I'd put the PC in the shoe cupboard under the stairs with the server. Or maybe both in the garage or loft (though I doubt a bluetooth keyboard would handle this - any ideas - keyboard over ethernet anyone?). The server and PC are too noisy and bulky to put in the lounge hence my need to locate elsewhere. Or maybe ditch the powerful PC, put a pico PSU and a GFX card in my server then run it in the lounge? It'd be nice to game on the big telly for sure, hence keeping the big rig onlne would be cool... I dunno! Advice please!!!??!! Cleggy.
Unraid Server in your living room. - 3x HGST 4TB HDD for 1 Parity and 2 Data - Large 850 SSD for Cache / VM OS - Tiny Lian Li case that you can tuck away (with UPS) - Windows 8.1 KVM VM with gaming GPU in pass-through - Careful selection of components to optimize noise – any current-gen i7 on a dedicated liquid cooler + noctua quite fans will do wonders Splashtop/Limelight/Trinus VR, etc for streaming to 1080p+ Android Phone when not going direct to the TV. CMOAR for 2D viewer or any off the shelf VR viewer for SBS gaming.
Hide both machines (server + gaming rig) in the loft, use Gamestream/in-home streaming and a RasPi (or other tiny machine like a NUC or whatever) to run the output to any displays that can't be reached by a run of decent HDMI (or invest in a HDBaseT extender).
I was considering a similar problem myself a while ago, I thought about getting one of those desk Ikea sell (or used to, can't find it in their online catalogue) with a hinged top surface, opening up to reveal a useable workspace with some basic cable management. My idea was to use an adjustable vesa mount to attach a monitor to the underside of the top surface, so all I had to do was lift the lid and drop the monitor to the right pitch. If that sounds convenient, how about adding a cat5 KVM into the mix? Put all the computers in the loft, as previously suggested, just have keyboard/mouse/monitor downstairs. I don't know what the quality/restrictions/display lag are like on ethernet KVMs, but thought I'd put the idea out there.
