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Home server - September 2008

hwi-h  PC Advice » Home server - September 2008

Author: Koen Crijns 09/19/2008

Home server

Configuration

Intel Atom 230 Intel Atom 230 Processors
It's not very fast. In fact, we might as well call it for what it is: pretty slow. Intel's new Atom processor however is extremely energy efficient and for a Home Server that is a lot more important than speed. This CPU is soldered onto the mainboard we picked. The good news: mainboard and processor combined will only set you back 50 euros. Efficent as well as ridiculously cheap, then.
Click here for the detailpage of this product.

1 GB (1x 1 GB) DDR2-667 1 GB (1x 1 GB) DDR2-667 Memory modules
1 GB of memory is more than enough for a home server. We recommend taking a single module rather than 2 seperate ones. After all, the performance is unimportant and a single module needs less power.

Intel D945GCLF Intel D945GCLF Mainboards
The Intel D945GCLF mainboard is tiny and based on an Atom 230 processor, combined with the 945GC chipset. Performance is not spectacular, but not important either for this purpose. Big advantages lie in the extremely low price and energy consumption. One major limitation is the presence of only two SATA connectors on this (or any other Atom) board. For a normal home server this should suffice, if not you can easily extend the number of connections with a simple PCI adapter card.
Click here for the detailpage of this product.

Integrated in motherboard chipset Integrated in motherboard chipset Graphics cards
The Intel 945GC chipset on the chosen motherboard has an integrated graphics card.

Western Digital Caviar GP 500GB SATA2 2x Western Digitial Caviar GP 500 GB Hard disks/SSD's
Since a home server is on 24 hours a day, you will want to have the harddisks with the least power consumption. The Caviar GP (Green Power) by Western Digital is a fine choice. We choose two 500 GB models. When using Windows Home Server you can use Microsofts Drive Extender technology, else we recommend using the disks in RAID 1.
Click here for the detailpage of this product.

Sweex LAN PCI Card Gigabit Sweex LAN PCI Card Gigabit Network adapters
One limitation of the chosen mainboard that needs fixing is the built in network adapter. These days 100 Mbps really is not sufficient for transferring large amounts of data. Hence, we add a Sweex PCI adapter, cheap and cheerful and giving us the throughput we want for backing up data fast.
Click here for the detailpage of this product.

- - Optical drives
An optical drive isn't used in a home server, but when installed does keep using power. Our advice: Leave it out entirely. When first installing the home server use an external USB device or the optical drive of another computer.

Antec NSK1380 Antec NSK1380 Cases
The Antec NSK1380 is a small but stylish Micro ATX case that is perfectly fit for a home server. Besides an optical drive this case offers room for three 3,5" drives. The NSK13870 comes with an efficient 350W power supply.
Click here for the detailpage of this product.

 

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