Combining HomeSeer server and SageTV Server

[simonk1969]

I'm looking to change my existing setup which comprises of :

Intel P4 2.8GHz machine running WHS for HomeSeer, HSTouch, Speech, JRiver media center for music in 3 zones, file server.

Intel P4 2.8GHz machine running XP for SageTV Server and Comskip during the early hours.

I'm thinking of combining them into one machine with a Quad core processor such as this motherboard/cpu/memory bundle that I saw at my local maplin store. Hoping to cut down on power consumption by combining them but still have enough power to do all the work. Budget is quiet tight at about £200 but I have already everything else needed, HD's, Case, etc. Or do you know of a better deal ? I do need a couple of PCI slots on the motherboard.

Do you think this type of setup would handle all of the above ok ?

What would be the best way to set this up ? Just install WHS on machine and install all software ? Or should I set up virtual machines and set up a SageTV server on XP or Windows 7, a HomeSeer server on XP or Windows 7 and have the base OS as WHS ?

I'm also a bit confused as to whether there is a 64 bit WHS version available ?

Your views and assistance on this would be gratefully appreciated

Thanks
Simon

[sic0048]

Ive gone through a similar situation recently myself. I run CQC automation software, WHS, SageTV, Playon, SQL Server, etc, etc, all on a new quad core machine. Previously, I was running SageTV and CQC on a P4 3.0 ghz machine, but I could not run Playon or Comskip, etc so I upgraded. It runs just fine (well it took a while to get stability on my HD-PVRs again after making the change - but even that has gone back to being stable).

I thought about going to a virtual machine for some of the programs, but in the end I did not. Sage is designed for WHS, so the only system that might give better stability via a virtual machine is the automation system. I had already been running CQC and Sage together on my old machine, so I knew the two would be fine together.

You can always dedicate a processor to a specific application if you find it neccessary, but I doubt you will.

WHS is built on Server 2003 and is very stable. While I am certainly using it outside of it's design, it is still very stable.