I'd like buy a new laptop to function as a wireless media server. The only criteria for this are:
- It would be nice for it to have a lot of hard drive space for films and music
- It should be able to connect to 5GHz WiFi, so that the playback isn't choppy over the network
Hadn't considered mini-PCs as a solution, thanks lads. One thing: I'll mainly want to connect to a wireless display (in my case, a projector). Would it be a hassle to set up using only a wireless display?
I only have other laptops, no monitors, knocking about at the moment.
Whatever you use as a server, you'll want to hook it up to your router with an ethernet cable. You'll get better performance that way. Wifi devices don't communicate directly, but via the router; if both devices are wireless, they're competing with each other for the same wifi bandwidth.
If you go for a desktop, you will need a keyboard, monitor and mouse to set it up. You can use your projector as a monitor, but you might need to buy a keyboard and mouse. You can get a cheap set for less than eight quid on eBay.
A laptop would work, but I'm always slightly iffy about using them as servers. IMO the fans just aren't up to 24/7 operation and tend to fail fairly quickly, and they can be quite fiddly to replace.
