iTunes server question

[iowamensan]

I currently have my iTunes library stored on two external drives hooked up to my Core Duo iMac. I am going to be losing my office this summer (to become a nursery) and rather than move my iMac to the basement, I was thinking about selling it and getting a laptop so I can keep it in the living room. The problem is that I need an iTunes server for my 300 or so movies for the Apple TV. I can get a G4 PowerMac for a good price (free), and was wondering if it would be able to handle the task of being my iTunes server. It is a 533Mhz machine with 1GB RAM, and it would be plugged into my router with ethernet instead of wireless like my iMac is currently. I would keep my movies on the externals, and just plug them into the G4.
TIA,
Geoff

(OK, I just noticed that the G4 has USB 1.0, and one of my externals is USB. I'm pretty sure that USB won't keep up with video streaming, do they make a USB 2.0 card for the G4? Or am I better off getting a different (FireWire) external?)

 

[MikieMikie]

If the G4 is wired (ethernet) or is g or n capable, you should have no problem. Just don't look to the G4 for encoding, unless you're a very very very patient person.

 

[mallbritton]

Honestly, I would bag the USB 1.0 idea. You'll definitely want a USB 2.0 card for video streaming, even over ethernet.

Regards,
Michael

 

[MikieMikie]

Yep. Sorry I missed the whole section on USB 1.0.

Forget it.

What about a mini mac?

 

[mallbritton]

That's what I'm going to get. I'm going to put a Mac min along with my multiple external HDDs in a little closet so I can "unwire" MBP again.

Regards,
Michael

 

[f(A)t'kId]

I second the mac mini idea

I second the mac mini idea. That should work great for your iTunes movie collection. Also its not to pricey.

 

[iowamensan]

all of my encoding is done... I just need the G4 to serve the iTunes content. I was just thinking of throwing something like this in:
http://www.amazon.com/ADS-Technolog...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207771964&sr=1-1
to add USB 2.0 capabilities.

 

[mallbritton]

That should work just fine.

Regards,
Michael

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Leopard will load on that, right?

I can't see any reason this wouldn't work. Computers/Drives have been faster than 100mbs for quite some time. If you're external drives are 7200rpm, I don't think there will be any hiccups at all.

 

[hotzenplotz]

If you're talking about this unit http://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_533.html, you may have to deal with total addressable hd space (not 100% sure).

 

[iowamensan]

If you're talking about this unit http://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_533.html, you may have to deal with total addressable hd space (not 100% sure).

Yeah, that's the exact one. Was there a maximum amount of hard drive space that it would recognize? Even on external drives?

 

[andypress]

The only downside to using that computer is that it will increase the time it takes to load your library on client computers / apple tv's. (The iTunes process utilizes 100% cpu on my dual 1ghz xserve)