Energy Efficient Server

A few months ago I posted that I was looking to build an energy efficient server. I was simply going to update it with my progress but it seems to have disappeared.

Anyways, I finished my system and I am quite happy with it. It took a lot longer to finally get the parts and put it together but it's not always a bad thing as the parts I chose are better (and cheaper) than I had originally planned.

Here are it's specs:
CPU - AMD Phenom 9500
RAM - Mushkin EM PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-18
HD - 4x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB SATA2 in RAID5
MB - Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Mothboard
Case - Coolermaster Cm 690 Mid Tower Black
PS - Seasonic S12II 430W
DVD - ASUS 16X DVD-ROM Drive IDE
FD - Sony Black 1.44MB 3.5IN Floppy Drive
UPS - Cyberpower CP1200AVR 1200VA/720W Avr Ups
RAID - Highpoint Rocketraid 2310 4 Channel SATA2
OS - Windows Vista Business Edition 64-bit

What I'm using this server for is for remote backup for my customers. I wanted it to be as efficient as possible as I will have it running basically 24x7 with the exception of weekends if there won't be any backups running. I chose a 64-bit OS too for increased reliability, future functionality and from my understanding 64-bit Vista Business Edition has a few extra security features that 32-bit doesn't.

The UPS software monitors the power consumption. When in power saving mode and idle, 70 - 80 watts. In High Power mode, 110 - 120 Watts. When being pushed with hard drives and CPU in power saving mode, roughly 100 Watts. In High power mode and high use, about 140 watts. Personally I think that this is pretty good considering a quad core processor, 4 hard drives, 3 120mm fans + cpu fan, etc.

The Coolermaster CM 690 tower is a very nice tower. It's got great ventilation and the front grill has dust filtering built in. The side panel has two slots for up to 140mm fans but comes with one 120mm. It simply mounted two 120mm dust filters over these ports as well for maximum dust protection. Overall, a very quiet system. It's on the other side of my desk from my main computer and you can't even hear it running compared to my main computer.

To conclude, I'm very happy thus far with this server. Been running it almost a week so far without a hiccup.