Wow, that was a generic title if any.

Ok, here goes, I'm planning on building my own WHS (was going for an EX490 but it just has too few expansion possibilities) and I'd like some input on which add-ins to look at. I'm going to run through a bunch of lists, I'm sure, but for now I'd just put this information out for some kind soul to respond to.

Primary duties: Backup with folder duplication, access to Shares for the people connected (4 people, 6+ PC's) and movie/music streaming.
Secondary duties: Be my own shiny geek-toy basically I'm sure I will find more duties for it, but for now this will suffice.

There will be atleast 2 HTPC's connected to it via a Netgear WNDR3700 (one via N-WiFi and one via Cat6) and both of those might stream things from the server at the same time. As it stands now both of the HTPC's will use Windows Vista/7 and XBMC for the playback. The rest of the PC's are personal workstations.

1. Are there any good add-ins that can take a ripped DVD-iso and turn it into a full quality mkv-file possibly with a queing system, or is this too much to ask?
2. What good will MyMovies do for me if I use XBMC on the HTPC's if XBMC already has the function to grab information and fan-art for every movie I have in my collection?
3. HP adds some nice touches to the "WHS console" application running on computers connected to it, is there anything like that for the standard WHS OS?
4. Is LightsOut *the* energy-add-in to use or are there any others?
5. HP has it's Media Collector add-in, is there anything like this available to standard WHS? (And if I know which folders to tell WHS to backup and check for new files and I have a major OCD about organizing everyone's files/movies/music/whatnot, is there really any use for this function? )
6. Does anyone know how WHS handles two 1080p movies being streamed at the same time from the server? Anything in particular I should look for hardware-wise? The mobo has an onboard Gigabit NIC and there will probably be a good SSD for the system drive and all WD Green's for the storage pool.

Ok, that's it for now. I look forward to your replies.

Greetings! Looking at your post and I see a laundry list of the same thoughts/concerns that I have had. Also, I share your thoughts on controlling media info (cover-art, naming conventions, etc...)

The one thing I will say about MyMovies is that it stores a back-end database (I beleive its SQL Express) on your WHS and then each of your HTPCs can pull the same info. This means the work is done by your WHS, and all data resides in one and only one place. If you want to change something you can edit the DB from any front end and it will apply everywhere. I have been using MyMovies for awhile and while I really like, I have had some ups and downs in a mixed OS environment. At my house I had XP Media Center, Vista Media Center as well as macs running Front Row, etc...

Currently, I dont really see any problems running concurrent streams, BUT, sometimes I see problems once the WHS starts to do other things... I hope this can be avoided in my new multi-core build, DIY WHS... Good Luck!

_________________
DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!