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MacMiniServer

Using Apple OS X Lion Server as a Home Server (Part 2 – Choosing Your Hardware)

Before we dive into the Apple OS X Lion Server software, it’s worth pausing to consider your hardware setup – Mac hardware doesn’t come cheap, so you should carefully consider your options – both for the server hardware itself, and any additional storage you require.

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ASRock-ION-330-BD

How To: Speed Up Your PC With a Solid State Drive (SSD)

The venerable 3.5” hard disk (or 2.5” on your mobile PC)  has been around for some time, and offers huge amounts of storage at ever decreasing prices. But with a number of moving parts, these drives can fail and need defragmenting regularly to maintain at optimal performance. Upgrading your hard drive, especially the drive from which your PC boots from, with a solid state drive (SSD) can dramatically increase its performance.

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MiniHTPC450

Build a Mini HTPC to Play Music, Video and Photos From Your Home Server

Owning a home server for backup, centralising your files and folders and remote access is one thing but life in the digital home really comes alive when you can stream music, video and photos around the home. There are a plethora of digital media receivers now on the market that make streaming media a snip, but for a really rich media experience, a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) is the way to go.

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selfbuild450

Build Your Own Windows Home Server From Scratch

Our Summer of Home Server continues with Project 3: Build Your Own Home Server. Researching and building any computer is fun, and there are great benefits to building rather than buying. You can tailor the computer exactly to your needs, have greater choice over the size, scale and components selected and ensure you future proof the design for future upgrades. If you have never built a PC before, it may seem a little daunting from the outside looking in. In reality, with a little bit of research, and the right components, it’s actually really easy to build a home server and you’ll get a lot more satisfaction the first time you boot it compared to one bought off the shelf!

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IMG_1991

Walkthrough: Fitting the Xtreamer Cooler

The Xtreamer’s a great little DMR, but that fan is really annoying. Let’s switch it off and cool things a little more passively with the XSC side cooler.

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silex-11

How To: A DIY Remote Motion Detector Webcam

I was perusing the ‘net today looking for news of interest.  I happened on to the Microsoft PressPass site and I saw an article about a new 720p HD Widescreen webcam.  Nice, but not really WGS article material.  Then the light bulb popped, lit up, turned on, went off.

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Cutting the Cord: Make a Crystalfontz LCD Display a Wireless Device

How do you create a wireless Ethernet device from a wired USB device?  I show you how to “cut the cord” using a Crystalfontz display so that you can display WHS stats on the other side of the house.

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How to: Protect Bare Hot Swappable Hard Drives

Got some bare hard drives laying around gathering dust?  Here’s a simple, yet elegant, storage idea to try out.

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How To: Build a Maxed Out Home Server

A number of websites have run articles featuring ways to build the cheapest, and greenest home servers – we thought it would be fun to pull together a guide on building a hardcore, maxed out home server, that would blow everything else away in terms of power. Intel’s Stephen Murha rolls up his sleeves, sharpens his screwdriver and shows us how.

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Build a Home Server for Just $400

One of the criticisms I hear a lot regarding Windows Home Server is that its an expensive option compared to a Linux-based NAS box. However, if you select the right components, and hunt around for deals, you can build a Windows Home Server machine much more cheaply than buying one off the shelf. I bumped into [...]

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