tbris84

I'm looking into building either a standalone media server and a standalone HTPC for the living room, or a combo of the two in one box. How many of you have a dedicated media server and what does it consist of, hardware and software wise. Any pointers before I start piecing one together? I would like to atleast start off with 4x3TB drives in some sort of RAID configuration. Is unRAID a stable, worth while alternative? Any advice to get me going here would be appreciated.

Looking so far at an Intel based platform, using onboard HDMI. Probably Z77 chipset and 8GB RAM. The rest is entirely up in the air, especially the case. Just want a simple, black in/out case with ~12 bays.