1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Sitting the basement serving files and otherwise acting as a centralized backup
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Not interested in spending a ton so tentatively "sub $500US"
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Lean towards Intel but not anti AMD.
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Will reuse the HDDs (3 x 1TB WD Black + some WD 80gig boot drive)
PERC 6i
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have skimmed the forums and seen more stuff geared towards HTPC.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
May underclock it.
8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
Might be headless
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Undefined, within 2-3 months
10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
-----
I am looking to replace my power sucking Dell P690 with an older Dempsey Xeon 3.2ghz with something much lower power. I already removed the second processor and 4 of the DIMMs to reduce it almost 200watts (!). It seems that the BIOS won't turn on speed step so the procs stay running 100% of the time.
I am interested in:
Lowering the power usage but not to the point where I am worried about getting to "20 watts" or anything.
I was thinking about a smaller ITX board mounted in a midsized ATX case with room for the disk drives. A side thought is having on board video that I would patch up to the TV upstairs via a Video extender / USB extender. (Basically it might be used for HTPC but it would be in the basement below the HT.)
I was looking at a cheap Antec "100 with window" case. An ITX board with enough onboard video to play 1080i (undefined) and maybe an i3 / i5 proc. At least 1 16x PCIE slot is required to mount the PERC6i. The machine runs Windows 2008R2 server now for no reason other than I have a technet license for it but if I went the media center route it might end up Windows 7.
It looks like this Gigabyte board meets all this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128526
What is your opinion on the board / proc? Is there a smaller board that would work as well (IE say Atom vs I3 in a perf / cost?) Any extra thoughts?
I know this is vague, I am still in the planning stages. I figure dropping from 130tdp proc running full tilt to a speedstepped proc in the 45-65tdp range and removing the power hungry FB-DIMMs (35 watts per pair @ the wall...) will save some power and $$$, I am just not sure which approach I want to take. I am open to ideas. I have not picked a PSU out yet.
Sitting the basement serving files and otherwise acting as a centralized backup
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Not interested in spending a ton so tentatively "sub $500US"
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Lean towards Intel but not anti AMD.
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Will reuse the HDDs (3 x 1TB WD Black + some WD 80gig boot drive)
PERC 6i
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have skimmed the forums and seen more stuff geared towards HTPC.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
May underclock it.
8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
Might be headless
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Undefined, within 2-3 months
10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
-----
I am looking to replace my power sucking Dell P690 with an older Dempsey Xeon 3.2ghz with something much lower power. I already removed the second processor and 4 of the DIMMs to reduce it almost 200watts (!). It seems that the BIOS won't turn on speed step so the procs stay running 100% of the time.
I am interested in:
Lowering the power usage but not to the point where I am worried about getting to "20 watts" or anything.
I was thinking about a smaller ITX board mounted in a midsized ATX case with room for the disk drives. A side thought is having on board video that I would patch up to the TV upstairs via a Video extender / USB extender. (Basically it might be used for HTPC but it would be in the basement below the HT.)
I was looking at a cheap Antec "100 with window" case. An ITX board with enough onboard video to play 1080i (undefined) and maybe an i3 / i5 proc. At least 1 16x PCIE slot is required to mount the PERC6i. The machine runs Windows 2008R2 server now for no reason other than I have a technet license for it but if I went the media center route it might end up Windows 7.
It looks like this Gigabyte board meets all this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128526
What is your opinion on the board / proc? Is there a smaller board that would work as well (IE say Atom vs I3 in a perf / cost?) Any extra thoughts?
I know this is vague, I am still in the planning stages. I figure dropping from 130tdp proc running full tilt to a speedstepped proc in the 45-65tdp range and removing the power hungry FB-DIMMs (35 watts per pair @ the wall...) will save some power and $$$, I am just not sure which approach I want to take. I am open to ideas. I have not picked a PSU out yet.
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