the_beast

WHS is probably the best way to go.

As for storage - run your OS from a laptop drive, and get a 1.5TB green drive for storage.

To be honest, your power requirements are not hard to get. 45W is low power, but not especially so - a single core AMD cpu + 7-series mobo will match the Atom for power draw but be more powerful, more expandable, and costs about the same. It will be bigger though.

Your initial request of an 85W idle can be done with a C2D cpu and 4-6 HDDs...

e_dogg

Agreed - a WHS box with an AMD Sempron LE or other 45w CPU, an AMD 7x0G motherboard, and a couple of "green" drives will definitely fit the bill.

And if you want super teeny tiny form factor, check out the HP Mediasmart servers.

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ELmo1989

sorry not up with the WHS (Windows home server)???

Size is not the issue just power.

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e_dogg

Windows Home Server is based on Windows Server 2003. It allows you to do automated backups, file sharing, and web hosting (can access your files remotely with a few clicks). It's very slick and easy to use. After installation, it literally takes like 5 minutes to set up.

We Got Served is a community dedicated to WHS. They have an add-in library and forum there.

http://www.wegotserved.com/

And this newsletter has a great column about WHS: http://enews.penton.com/enews/soundv...edhome/current

And here's the WHS Team's blog: http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/

Edit: I should mention that it requires very little resources as well. It runs perfectly on a low power system. It's been estimated that mine takes about 50w or so and less while idle.

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the_beast

See above for great description of WHS.

If size is not an issue, don't use Atom. It has really limited expansion possibilities. Build an AMD box - a cheap 740G board plus a low power Sempron is much faster than even a Dual-core Atom, but you get a decent number of onboard ports for extra HDDs when you need them, and you can also add in a decent NIC if required (all the NICs on the desktop Atom boards are garbage). The power consumption is almost the same (within a watt or too - this is due to the stupid choice of an old & power hungry chipset that is paired with Atom).

e_dogg

Yep - the AMD 45w CPUs are where it's at. And if you need a dual core for some reason, some of the AMD CPUs have a 2nd core that can sometimes be unlocked. But, a low power single core CPU will do just fine for WHS purposes.

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DuckieHo

A Sempron 140 + 740G mobo will idle at about the same as a Atom build. Under load, it will use maybe 10-20w more power. However, you need to consider the load times. While the AMD consumes more peak power, the CPU performance is 2-3 times better so the server can return to idle faster.

Also, 740G mobos often come with 6 SATA ports while Atoms come with 2.

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ELmo1989

Thanks for all the help it looks like that be my choice of server.
I have thread waiting on those 45 watt quads if they will ever come out.

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DuckieHo

Why do you need a 45w quad for a home server?

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To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular

e_dogg

Seriously...a single core is plenty for WHS.

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