cheapest MCE server?

[richard plumb]

I have an xbox 360, and would like to see whether it'd be a viable alternative to my xbox with XBMC for video streaming (plus the bonus of HD)

I have a PC already which should be up to it, but its XP home and I don't fancy risking a media center install.


What would you suggest as the cheapest option for an MCE machine that probably wouldn't be used as a PC day to day? it'd need to serve and stream to the X360, and perform transcoding duties if needed for SD divxes. HD stuff would most likely be in .ts format (so would just be served?)

Can the X360 do wake-on-lan? I'd like the PC to be unattended as much as possible, and tucked away upstairs.

Also, I have a network drive with my videos on. Woudl the MCE machine be able to stream from that, or would I need to put them in a HDD inside the MCE PC? No biggie, as if it can wake up when necessary I'll just use the NAS as a back up only drive.

[BrianC]

Have you considered dual booting your PC? Thats what I did with my main server, just installed MCE into a different directory and played with it that way. I've only gone back into my original install once to extract out my data held in my old profile.

[richard plumb]

Originally Posted by BrianC

Have you considered dual booting your PC? Thats what I did with my main server, just installed MCE into a different directory and played with it that way. I've only gone back into my original install once to extract out my data held in my old profile.

all my data (docs ,pictures etc) are on a separate HDD.

What does dual booting entail? Can I install onto the C drive (I have 180GB free as its just for the OS)

[BrianC]

There is nothing to it really, when prompted for the location where you want to install to make sure its different from your current windows install.

Obviously you'll need to copy out any data from within your profile (use the File Settings and Transfer Agent) and when you are happy its working you'll need to reinstall any programs you use.