Mico Tower Home Server

[cagarner]

Hi. Basically I want to create a Windows Home Server PC that will backup files from 2 PCs and 2 Laptops and also contain all my music, films and photos to be accessible over the network. I want to keep it in the living room so I want it to be a small form factor and for it to as quiet as possible. Also I'm on a rather tight budget.

I have an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ CPU and 2 GB RAM already from an old PC and wanted to re-use them, therefore I have come up with the following spec:

AMD Athlon X2 4400+
2x 1GB PC 3200
ASUS A8V-MX MICRO ATX SOCKET 939
Hitachi Deskstar 2 TB HDD
Nu-1290 Black Slimline MicroATX Case (includes PSU)

Would it work well with passive CPU cooling;
Akasa AK390
or will it overheat and I should just stick with a fan? ;
Akasa AK-392

Also do you think it will perform well generally?

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Do you already have all of that stuff? The CPU you're talking about is worth over $100 on ebay because it's one of the few CPU's that is a dual core for that socket.

It would perform fine, but is way overkill. My (linux) server is a 3200+ single core and it does all of that and it even controls the printer so that the printer is now available always.

As long as you don't mind missing the printing feature I'd suggest looking up FreeNAS. It can do what you want, doesn't cost anything and literally takes about 10 min to install/setup. I tried it first.

you could get a mini-ITX of some kind for this and it should do fine. (besides of course the likely diminished space for hard drives, but it sounds like you only want the one)