downloading rig

You don't need a keyboard, mouse or even a screen!!
My downloader is in the loft and I control it with XP's remote desktop, that way I saved money on not having to buy a mouse/keyboard/monitor and instead used this money more wisely on getting a decent (but cheap) spec as it is also used as a media server!

Asus Dual mobo..................................... = £75 (Ebay)
Mobile 2500's x 2................................... = £100 (Eached Clocked to 2.3Ghz :D )
64-Bit/66Mhz Intel Gigabit NIC...................= £15 (Ebay)
Adaptec 64-Bit/66Mhz U320 SCSI Card........= £75 (NEW Ebay)
Maxtor Atlas II 15k SCSI...........................= £85 (NEW Ebay)
4 x Seagate 250Gb IDE Hd's.......................= £240 (NEW from competitor)
Hiper 480W PSU.......................................= £40 (NEW from competitor)
1Gb (2x512Mb) Registered DDR...................= £40 (Ebay)
Old 4X ATI AGP GFX card...........................= FREE (From a customers old rig)

Total £680

Not bad for a DUAL 2.3Ghz Rig with TRUE gigabit, 15k SCSI and 1Tb of storage! But probably overkill for your needs..
 
Unfortunately, I don't have any cupboards under the stairs, I will be hiding it away in a draw which i've run a power cable into :P, should keep it reasonably silent.
 
Keep in mind that airflow through drawers isn't the best and the heat will build up in there fairly rapidly...
 
amx said:
Unfortunately, I don't have any cupboards under the stairs, I will be hiding it away in a draw which i've run a power cable into :P, should keep it reasonably silent.
Click to expand...

Nearly everyone has a loft!! Also be careful about smothering it away in a draw! Things could get very hot in the draw without adequate ventilation and this would cause a fire risk :eek:
 
I've updated the spec



AMD Sempron 64 2600+ 1.6GHz (Socket 754) CPU - OEM (CP-140-AM) £44.59

MSI K8MM-V (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-063-MS) £39.89

Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC CPU Cooler (Socket 754) (HS-000-AC) £6.46

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) £77.49

Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 (VS1GB400C3) (MY-062-CS) £58.69

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 9250SE 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (R9250-TDW128-64bit) (GX-026-HT) £24.62

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD) £35.19

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 120GB 1200JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-055-WD) £48.12

OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK) £6.99

OcUK Value L1562S 15" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-008-OK) £111.57

Belkin Cat5e Network Patch Cable 10m - Grey (CB-004-BE) £5.82
 
.SJ said:
Talk about overkill. :(

You could get a 2nd hand Pentium II system for about a tenner. Add a SATA or ATA100 controller card, a couple of hard drives and you'd be set.

And a screen for a download box? Are you mad? :) You could use an ssh terminal under linux, or VNC/remote desktop/pc anywhere/whatever under windows. Or just buy a KVM switch.

PII's can be passively cooled, get a couple of silent drives for the HD's, get a small psu that is quiet and you'll be set, put it in a decent acoustically lined case and you wont be able to hear it atall.

My download box used to be a PII 450, 250W PSU, 256MB RAM, 40G HD, 8MB Gfx Card and a 10/100 NIC all running under FreeBSD.

£600 is Mini ITX or Mac Mini material if you want something discrete. :/
Click to expand...

lol here here!
 
I built a download box running linux for under £100
dual PII 450Mhz system and a couple of decent size SCSI drives, i already had a KVM that it connects with, but if you dont have a KVM and use windows go with the remote desktop idea.
works fine for downloading and web browsing.
 
buy an old machine off ebay, stick plenty of ram in there, plenty of storage and forget monitor, keyboard etc just vnc into it.

why does it need to be all new bits and what on earth are you downloading that needs a dedicated machine for, really?


torrent-boy! :p
 
my dad has got a dell dimension 3100 and it is almost completly silent, cost £380 including vat + delivery

it came with a 17" flatscreen to so you could always sell that on and get a cheapo crt second hand, so you would only be spending £300


anythin over 400 imo is completly over the top


(ps i wasnt paying much attention to compatable parts when i posted that spec i was just firing something together to prove a point thats its pointless wasting money on a machine just to use on the net for downloading)
 
What I would do is buy a cheap laptop, it would be silent too and get an external HDD for more storage.
 
If I was you I'd make sure you had loads of storage and possibly upgrade to a gigabit network.

Why do you need an LCD? Can't you just remote desktop to it? Same goes for keyboard and mouse
 
Here we go again

AMD Sempron 64 2600+ 1.6GHz (Socket 754) CPU - OEM (CP-140-AM) £44.59

Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra CPU Cooler (Socket 754) (HS-015-AR) £5.82

Antec SLK1650 Beige Quiet Mini Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-024-AN) £46.94

MSI K8MM-V (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-063-MS) £39.89

OcUK Value Floppy Drive - White (HD-000-OK) £5.82

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD) £35.19

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 120GB 1200JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-055-WD) £48.12

Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 (VS1GB400C3) (MY-062-CS) £55.17

Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM (CD-027-PL) £19.92

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 9250SE 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (R9250-TDW128-64bit) (GX-026-HT) £24.62

Belkin Cat5e Network Patch Cable 10m - Grey (CB-004-BE) £5.82

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It's going to be used via remote desktop :)
 
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£600 for a download box good lord, my £30 compaq en PII 350 with built in video and net is more than enough. Stick in a laptop hd as mentioned if you want it to be quiter, fyi these machines are pretty quite already. Have a look on some Auction sites
 
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