Dedicated Media Server Suggestions Wanted

I have been experimenting with Serviio and it's a keeper. None of the others stream like Serviio or it would cost too much to try them out properly. It's well worth the cash.

I want to move Serviio to a NAS or dedicated media server.

The NAS would have to do minor transcoding into a player for hulu streams at a minimum. The Synology 213 or 213+ may or may not have the power to do this. I'm hoping someone in another topic can tell me what readers, if any, can understand hulu and the others via Serviio / Synology before I lay out the cash. My current player is a Sony Blu-Ray.

On the other hand, my transcoding PC is an old 2GHz intel core 2 duo XP Pro machine and it works pretty good. It's also bulky and inconvenient. I could rebuilt it into a smaller form or replace it with a media oriented computer that is designed for programs such as Serviio. It could also function as a file server if I upgrade properly. Does anyone know of a suitable media PC to replace this one? Or can anyone recommend a case and motherboard that has the proper specs to ultimately function as a media server? I would like a wake on lan feature if possible. Zotac makes several small form factor machines but I don't know if any are powerful enough to transcode. Most are Atom or equivalent based.

I would be grateful for any insights. Thank you.

Edit: a few minutes later: I just googled the mac mini. It's a little expensive but looks like a possibility. Anyone know anything about it?

Well, that was fast. I have a laptop sitting around the house that is old, underpowered, but currently being used to test Windows 8 pro out. It has a passmark rating of about 775, which places it at the level of the newest Atom processors. In it's day it was a respectable workhorse.

Now it is a Serviio host.

I loaded my configuration from my main PC / Serviio and, after a glitch or two, got it working, and completely wirelessly. I had just assumed a low powered machine like this couldn't work. Wrong. It's not as slick as a dedicated media pc with a remote control on/off. But it works and is paid for and a re-purposed a machine that was nearly considered to be junk.

[atc98092]

I like running Serviio on a dedicated computer, but that's just my preference for the operating system. Easier to work on a system if I can log into it. I think you'll like it running on the laptop. The only issue might be enough hard drive space to store movies. I have 5 hard drives in my server, since I have Blu-ray rips that get quite large.