So here is a quick brainstorm of a replacement of my server. It needs to be pretty functional (web hosting maybe ESXi) it also needs at least 4 hdd bays. I plan on doing a full review and article based on the build This is what i have found so far:
CASES:
Lian Li Q08B – 159
Needs standard atx psu, 6x hdd bay another 1 if you use the 5 1/4 bay
Factal Design Mini Nas Preffered – 300
Comes with its own PSU but is ATX if you want to replace it, looks good, has 6x 3.5 hdd bays* and 1x 2.5 hdd bay
MOTHERBOARDS:
ASUS AT5NM10-I mini-ITX – $130
Atom D510, DDR2, 2x SATA, Downside passive cooled.
Gigabyte GA-D525TUD (Prefer this Board) -$120
DDR3*, 4x Sata*, Fan cooled, D525 NM10
ISSUES:
Addonics 5 port SATA multiplier (link) $140
You may notice that most of these boards only have 2 sata ports which is bad mkay.. BUT… I have thought of that and found. This will allow JBOD and RAID5, dont expect blistering performance but for a low end file server it will do.
That is the basics of what I envisage to be a nice cheap and reliable system, it will be low power and I have stated I don’t expect blistering speed from it. I picture 6x 2Tb WD green drives running in JBOD (as it is just a media server and doesn’t have the real need for redundancy). Thats all I have for now.
14 Oct ’10 at 1:06 am
How you getting on with this mate?
I’ve made my way down this same route… not reached the end yet…
14 Oct ’10 at 5:01 am
Yes i am actually doing a full review right now will let you know when i complete it.
14 Oct ’10 at 9:59 am
You are aware of that the gigabyte motherboard has 4 sata ports and not just 2, right? 🙂
I’ve been looking at the exact same motherboard myself, now i have the 1st generation intel atom n330 motherboard with a thirsty 945gc chipset, so I’m hoping to save some electricity and gain some performance there.
In Denmark the price between the gigabyte and the asus motherboard is very high, the asus is almost twice the price as the gigabyte – but it is fanless and only 2 sata ;/
I’m looking forward to the review, hopefully with power consumption etc 🙂