low power, low cost, home server cpu

[Fuergrissa]

I've more or less decided on a AMD E-350 APU for my home server project, but wanted some input before I move ahead.

The E-350 pre-soldiered to a gigabyte mini-ITX board is $75 and should be able to run FreeNAS 8 without any hiccups.

The Ivy Bridge based Celeron G1610 is another option, at around 100$ when paired with a bottom-of-the-heap mini-ITX MB it seams like a far more capable CPU for not a whole lot more $.

Finally I'm considering holding out for something of the kabini variety that promises to be both lower power and faster than the E-350.

My first thought is that any of these should be fine for a mundane file serving PC, but if I wanted to be able to do a little media trans-coding with plex or similar than it would probably be worth while to look at something with a bit more potency.

Any thoughts, have I missed anything I should be looking at?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't have a lot of experience here, but I would probably go with the G1610, or possibly even an i3-3220 or 3225 if you were going to run Plex.

Otherwise, the E-350 is a good idea.

I would consider waiting for Kabini, but the SoC variety may not have as many SATA ports as the E-350 + chipset does. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that issue.

 

[scannall]

The E-350 should be fine for a simple home server. Don't overthink it.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'd suggest picking up a used i3 (sb/ib) and a used (or new) itx motherboard.

The reason for this is a)will last longer than a e-350 b) you'll be able to do more "potent" stuff.

 

[pcunite]

Celeron G1610

 

[Ayah]

You should actually be able to grab an i3 3220 or something similar for 100$, (possibly less used with haswell out?)