Spec me a tower server

Deep · 15 Nov 2012 at 17:41

Hi All,

I've got a HP Microserver and absolutely love the machine, however the lack of drive bays is a severe limitation.

My ideal plan is to purchase this case Fractal Design Define XL and just jam it full of HDDs as I go along.

My initial purchase will consist of case, motherboard, cpu, cooler, ram and 2 3TB hard drives.

I know which hard drives I want but I'm lost on the CPU & motherboard.
The main uses of the machine will be to stream 1080p to 1 Raspberry Pi and 1Acer Revo.

No real budget, but I don't want something that's going to draw loads of power on idle either. So no I7's I believe.

Thanks for any help!

GodAtum · 15 Nov 2012 at 19:36

Sounds a cool project! I would recommend a i5 or Xeon. You'll also need a MBA with enough SATA connections or if you want to push the boat out get a RAID card. What OS are you going to put on it?

Deep · 15 Nov 2012 at 19:39

OS will be Windows Home Server, I'm familiar with it so will continue with it

RimBlock · 16 Nov 2012 at 05:00

Drop a post in the SFF PC forum as the guys there are building HTPCs and units to stream to them. If you were just sharing out the movie files and having the decoding done on the player end then an i3 or even a G840/G620 would probably do. If you are transcoding on the fly to stream video in a different player friendly format then you may need a bit more oomph.

The fractal cases are pretty nice and it is a shame they are not making the Array R2 any more as it is a lovely mITX case with space for 6 (IIRC) 3.5" drives. Add in the ASUS P8H77-I board (6 sata connectors), cpu and ram and you are done.

Alternatives are units like the Lian-Li PC-Q08 which is also a mITX unit and takes 6 hard drvies.

Sharktoon / iCute T9 chassis are big favorites with fans of super big hard drive collections. Take 9 drives or more if you use XXX in XX5.25" bay modules.

Make sure you have some decent cooling for the hard drives but the cpu should be fine with the stock cooler.

RB