-= Energy Efficient Build (need help with) =-

Any guidance on your total budget? Usually the smaller and more efficient you get the higher the costs go.
How big a HDD do you need for your network storage? 2.5" laptop HDDs are among the most power efficient. In fact an older, recycled laptop would do a pretty good job acting as an energy efficient file server.

What else do you need besides MB & IGP, PSU, CPU, RAM and HDD?
Case?
Have you looked at those Mini-ITX solutions? http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html

Might want to read up on the AMD 780g chipset boards with one of their 45W chips. Pretty cheap setup, and with a file server you don't need a ton of processor power.

Thanks I'll have to look into the 780g setup. Is there a good MoBo with video out on that chipset? Also I thought the AMD processors aren't as efficient as the intel Core 2 Duo processors? I thought there used to be a chart that showed energy efficiency for the processors on Tom's chart section but couldn't find it. Also figure with all the energy efficient computer parts being reviewed lately Tom's would've made a super energy efficient something article...

The mini-box is very interesting not exactly the application I'll be using it for but I'll be looking into that, I may have future use for that site.

I currently have an old PC that I use as a workstation and fileserver. But it's no longer good as a workstation and as a fileserver it simply doesn't have enough HDD space. I intend to donate my old PC to a friend that needs computer parts.

budget isn't that big of an issue, but i figure this wouldn't cost more than $2000 but price isn't an issue at the moment. From the little that I've found online and attempted to piece together on Newegg.com I didn't go beyond $2000.

HDD space is going be around 1TB for the main storage space, and some smaller RAID 1 setup for the system drive.


thanks this has been very helpful thus far... any more info would still help though! =)


darzon