Yet Another Media Server Build

[Mushkins]

Because this is clearly everyone's favorite question by now

I have an old core 2 duo Dell currently acting as my NAS/minecraft server/transcoder (serviio to the PS3, lots of MKVs with subtitles and stuff)/file backups.

Unfortunately, its not making the cut when it comes to real-time transcoding in 1080p, there's a ton of stuttering. 720p and anything in a format that the ps3 natively supports is great, it's only the real time transcoding where it chokes up. Everything is using wired Gigabit Ethernet. It's also this gigantic ugly dell tower sitting in my closet sucking power, so I figure it's time to trim things down.

I've got a pretty decent idea on what I need to buy, just looking for a once over from the people more familiar with this sort of thing. I can re-purpose most of the parts like the optical drive, the hard drives, OS, etc.

Here's what i'm looking at putting together, please tell me what i'm missing. Trying to keep the current round of purchases under $300-350 USD total:

CPU: Intel i3-3225 (~$130)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H (~$72)
RAM: 8GB of whatever decent ram is on sale (~$50)
Hard Drives: Seagate Barracuda 80GB (N/A)
WD Red 2TB (N/A)
DVD Drive: pulled from the dell (N/A)
Video Card: N/A, Intel 4000 from the CPU
PSU: ???
Case: APEX TX-381-C ($32)

Not sure how powerful of a PSU I really need for this. The PCpartpicker.com estimate is coming in around ~200w, but they also don't list any quality brand PSUs that low. Also could use some recommendations for Micro-ATX cases, looks don't really matter but quality does.

Thanks.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Build looks good. I'd suggest a PSU in the 400w range in the event that you want to throw in a gpu later down the road if you decide to do some light gaming on it. As for cases, if it's going to be sitting in the main room, I tend to match devices with my audio receiver so it doesn't look out of place. For quality, I'd recommend Silverstone. I've only worked on 1 case from them for my main room htpc, but it's solid and no problems with it so far. My other htpc is a foxconn barebone system.

 

[Mushkins]

Thanks for the tips. Definitely no gaming on this thing, i've got two dedicated high end gaming rigs for that This thing is literally going to be sitting in the closet under my patch panel, so the case can be as butt-ugly as it needs to be as long as it holds the parts.

 

[assassin24]

Not sure you need the i3-3225 as you don't need the HD4000 graphics. You could shave a few dollars by going with a i3-3220.

For the PSU I would look for something quality (take a look at my PSU recs. I like Seasonic). I agree with the 400-600w range. A slightly larger PSU is nice if you ever see yourself upgrading this to a 15+ TB server with multiple hard drives in the future. With that being said even 400w is enough in that scenario.

 

[Charlie98]

The Corsair CX430 is a solid PSU, you can find it sometimes on sale for as little as $20 AR (I actually got mine for $17!) In lieu of the Corsair, I would have gone with the Seasonic.

Having a 'quality case' that is 'buried in a closet' is sort of an oxymoron... you could put your hideous Dell tower in the closet. Discounting that, I would recommend the Fractal Design cases (if you are looking for a traditional PC tower like I was for my HTPC, ) the Define Mini is a mATX case that bleeds quality and is very quiet (probably not necessary for your application,) and the Arc Mini; but there are many more cases that will fit the bill...

 

[Mushkins]

Having a 'quality case' that is 'buried in a closet' is sort of an oxymoron... you could put your hideous Dell tower in the closet.

Its not about the looks, it's more about if an extra $5 gets me a case where the motherboard screws actually line up with the holes properly A lot of really low end cases tend to cut corners and are just a pain in the ass to work with.

 

[Charlie98]

Its not about the looks, it's more about if an extra $5 gets me a case where the motherboard screws actually line up with the holes properly A lot of really low end cases tend to cut corners and are just a pain in the ass to work with.

AH! Yes, you are correct. I tend to stick with mainstream higher-end cases ($100 +) because I think you get what you pay for. I like my HAF922... until I built my HTPC in that Fractal Define Mini... now I'm a Fractal moonie. :awe:

 

[Mushkins]

This exact combo of Mobo/CPU went on sale at Microcenter this week for nearly $90 off, and I found an old Corsair MX650 sitting in a box while unpacking

Guess I have plenty of room to pick a case I like and stay in budget!