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e-r-a-n

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2012
46
0
Hello everyone,
My question is quite simple, but hopefuly there's (even a complex) answer.
I have a regular home desktop running windows.
Other than that, two macbooks, external storage (HFS format) and would really like to have the dekstop act as a local server, for time machine backups, storage sharing and such.
I dont mind have it run windows or linux, but is it possible to have it act as a media center (xbmc with ati 5450/6450 video card with hdmi) and also have osx server abilities?
The idea is to have it connected to my living room TV, but also behave as a server.
 
You have a few options but you will if your willing to lose the ability to use it as a desktop windows machine.
One option is to run Amahi home server.
http://www.amahi.org
I use this setup before I set up a mini running OS X, I do not think it will do time machine.

Next you can try free has. or else you can use anyone of a few linux distress. There are time machine hacks out there that work OK, however you may need to change them as apple updates the software. I would use super duper as a backup also.
As far as media center options go I read about a few for linux but have no personal experience.
Good Luck and have fun.
Let us know what works out for you.
 
Well, Seems that Running Ubuntu or other linux distrib. will be the all-in-one package for me.
as It seems it can run amahi server and server files, do time machine backups..
and of course its easy to work with, I can run xbmc on it with no problem.
I'll give it a try

I tried installing tonymacx86 yesterday but it appears that the hardware isnt fully working - bad resolution and sound issues. I found other with similar setup complaining about it as well
 
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