New Computer and Network Configuration

[Bardock75]

Hi Everyone,

I am in need of a serious upgrade to my technical life. Nearly all of my technology is about 5 years old. I believe the best option for me is to build a new computer however I will consider any setup which makes sense and I am looking to technical experts such as yourselves to help me. Below is the high level overview of what I wish to accomplish with my new computer and home network.

I would like to:
-Computer must be able to run 24x7. I do not intend to power it down... ever
-Connect to a 4TB network shared storage drive for hosting all my home videos, music, and files.
-Run and install my Plex Media Server software
-Connect wireless to TV's in another room and have it stream whatever I like to that TV. I will start with 1 TV in the kitchen but I would like to expand to 3 TV's all in separate rooms.
-I need suggestions on what technology to use to do this as well. I believe Google Chromecast is what I need but not sure??
-I want to be able to access my Desktop computer from my laptop computer if needed. If I need to access the Plex media server, etc. I want to be able to do so from a laptop. I do not want to have to connect a mouse, keyboard, and monitor to the computer if I need to for example refresh my plex media server so that it locates and syncs videos I have recently uploaded.
-I want to be able to from my laptop or my desktop download a file directly to my storage device. (for example, from my iPad download a video file and have it save on a folder associated with my plex media server)
-I want to be able to access all my files and applications from my mobile devices and have this information synced. For example, if I modify a document from my iPad when I pull it up on my laptop I will be viewing that synced document.
-Eventually when I buy a home, I would like to run energy efficiency software on this server so I can control my thermostat, etc. I would also eventually like to be able to set up wireless cameras/security system in my home and be able to do so on this computer.

**If there is something else which is pretty cool that I should be considering for my home computer/network I am all years.

What I need from you:
-What are the computer requirements and network requirements I need? For example, I imagine I will need a processor of X strength in this computer.
-I would like recommendations for brands to consider
-I would like recommendations for other technology to use (For example, what shared storage should I get, what technology should I use to stream to my TV's, what software should I consider to manage my network, what software should I use to remote connect to my desktop etc. What else should I be considering.

-I appreciate the assistance of anyone who helps contribute to this Tech savy dream of mine.

Best,

Bardock

 

[Bardock75]

More Specific Questions

So I've had 75 views and no reply's which makes me feel that is request is a tall order and no one is interested in figuring all this out for me, which is completely fair. I guess I thought that some people might just easily know it. Instead, I'd like to ask a more specific question.

What kind of processor am I going to need to Stream a live feed wireless to a TV? Will an Intel i5 do the trick?

Secondly, I may want my server to pull a file from my Network Storage Drive and wireless stream to a TV in another room. Would the i5 work for this as well? Do I need to consider anything else for this? Such as additional RAM or Memory?

-Bardock

 

[beers]

I kind of numbered each of your hypens per post but this may or may not get you started:

IWLT:

1) Okay
2) Did you have any redundancy scheme in mind?
3) Plex is pretty awesome
4) Sounds good
5) The Amazon Fire TV is coming out with a Plex client that would be your best bet.
6) For remote access it depends on what you're running. On a Linux server you can use VNC or X-forwarding. For Windows you could also use VNC or just remote desktop assuming you installed either a variant of Server or used Windows 7/8 Professional or higher.
7) That's not bad with shared folders or a samba server/service (*nix).
8) I'm not too sure as far as syncrhonized documents, although you could probably pull something like that off by using Google Drive or similar.
9) Okay

WINFY:

1) Your requirements are pretty light, the only CPU intensive one possibly being transcoding from within Plex. The i5 you had in mind is plenty, though. Network-wise you don't really need anything fancy.
2) What kind of brand recommendation are you looking for specifically? What is your budget for this build? Depending on what you had in mind to allocate to this build would greatly influence the components within.
3) A lot of that is really personal preference and may take some research on your part. For the network managing portion, the vast majority of SOHO type of networks really have no requirement or capability. What were you hoping to manage? Generally the integrated router firmware can facilitate the functions you could come up with
4) Sure thing.

MSQ:

1) It's largely processor independent depending on what you're doing. If you're just streaming the file then it's up to the CPU connected to the TV to uncompress and display the video. If you're doing something like streaming Plex, the server has a larger task for the CPU to transcode into whatever settings you had defined. Which specific i5 were you considering?
2) Were you having this storage be independent from the server itself? CPU should have really no bearing for transfers over the network, you could easily mount the shared drive onto the server and access it as if it were a hard disk or folder from within Plex.