Looking at building a home server - mostly will be a NAS, but may sometimes use it to offload some processing tasks (nothing terribly heavy - and I don't care if it takes a while to run). It's just going to sit in the corner of my office, hardwired in via gigabit to my network and will be running 24/7 - there won't be a dedicated monitor on it, but I intend to get an HDMI enabled mobo so I can run a 25ft HDMI cable from the server to my main PC's center monitor if I need to.
I've settled on a microATX form factor and am trying to determine what platform would be best. I intend to use a laptop HDD as the primary drive for power/noise reasons and 3.5" SATA II/III drives for storage. Maybe in RAID. Here are my considerations (in order):
1.) Hard Drive Capacity - would like at least 6 SATA ports (4 storage, 1 for the lappy HDD, 1 for the DVD drive)
2.) Power Usage - since it's running 24x7, I want something that is efficient
3.) Noise - again, running 24x7 - quiet is important
4.) Stability/reliability (will be running Win Home Server 2011)
5.) Processing ability - I know I could consider something in the e-350 or Atom range...but they are super limited in capabilities and I don't know that I want to limit myself that much for little additional power/noise savings.
6.) Cost - I have plenty of budget for either platform - but don't want to spend more than I actually need to.
So that said, I'm torn between an AMD APU in the dual-core range (either Llano or Trinity when it arrives in a couple months) and a Core i3 (either SB or IB). I know the Intel chips are better gamers (and overall better chips) but are they worth the price premium for both chip and mobo when I won't be using the power? I can get a Llano A4-3400 and A75/FM1 mobo (HDMI, 6 SATA III ports and USB3 for connecting my external drive) for $129.99, which is just a a couple dollars more than the cost of the Core i3 2120 by itself!
I don't mind paying the extra - but does anyone know if Core i3 at standard clocks w/ power savings enabled in Windows is that much quieter/lower wattage than the A4's at standard clocks w/ cool and quiet enabled? They're both 65W parts...and I won't be stressing either one. Maybe I could go for the Core i3 2120T which is 35W? But then
is it slower than the A4 (i.e., what does the "T" do to performance)?
Any thoughts are appreciated!
I've settled on a microATX form factor and am trying to determine what platform would be best. I intend to use a laptop HDD as the primary drive for power/noise reasons and 3.5" SATA II/III drives for storage. Maybe in RAID. Here are my considerations (in order):
1.) Hard Drive Capacity - would like at least 6 SATA ports (4 storage, 1 for the lappy HDD, 1 for the DVD drive)
2.) Power Usage - since it's running 24x7, I want something that is efficient
3.) Noise - again, running 24x7 - quiet is important
4.) Stability/reliability (will be running Win Home Server 2011)
5.) Processing ability - I know I could consider something in the e-350 or Atom range...but they are super limited in capabilities and I don't know that I want to limit myself that much for little additional power/noise savings.
6.) Cost - I have plenty of budget for either platform - but don't want to spend more than I actually need to.
So that said, I'm torn between an AMD APU in the dual-core range (either Llano or Trinity when it arrives in a couple months) and a Core i3 (either SB or IB). I know the Intel chips are better gamers (and overall better chips) but are they worth the price premium for both chip and mobo when I won't be using the power? I can get a Llano A4-3400 and A75/FM1 mobo (HDMI, 6 SATA III ports and USB3 for connecting my external drive) for $129.99, which is just a a couple dollars more than the cost of the Core i3 2120 by itself!
I don't mind paying the extra - but does anyone know if Core i3 at standard clocks w/ power savings enabled in Windows is that much quieter/lower wattage than the A4's at standard clocks w/ cool and quiet enabled? They're both 65W parts...and I won't be stressing either one. Maybe I could go for the Core i3 2120T which is 35W? But then
is it slower than the A4 (i.e., what does the "T" do to performance)?
Any thoughts are appreciated!