Thanks for the info DrJ, I'll take it all onboard as I do some more research over the next few days.

Thanks for your thoughts. Personally I think this is *way* overkill. You just don't need much grunt for a file server unless you want it to do transcoding on the fly. I am actually planning on having some transcoding on the fly out to the PS3, so a bit of grunt is necessary. I'd also do it a bit dif...

FYI, I can only see 4 x SATA ports on that particular Asus mobo... Weird, the specs I was reading said 5 x internal SATA ports but looking closely at the picture I also can only see 4... Thanks for pointing that out! Ok, based on the feedback I've received so far I've adjusted my shopping list: Cas...

Is there a reason you need 1066 DDR2 RAM? No reason, last I looked it was only a couple of dollars more expensive than slightly slower RAM so I figured why not since it's compatible. Is there really that much difference in terms of power usage and heat? Would I be better off going with something el...

I actually have one of the original Antec P180's for my desktop machine and I'm quite happy with it, I just hadn't considered that range for my server as I wasn't planning on spending that much on the case. I now realise that it's probably worth it spending that little bit extra so I may actually go...

Thanks for your input. First up, I'm quite happy to look at alternatives for any and all of these parts. Regarding the Antec Solo, is there anything similar which you would recommend which has more HDD bays? I'm also trying to futureproof this build to some extent on the assumption that I'll probabl...

At this point I wasn't considering getting a 3rd party CPU cooler - I was planning on trying it out with the included one and seeing how that went as I've had good experiences in the past. That said, I haven't bought a new CPU for a couple of years now so I don't know how good the manufacturer's fan...

I'm hoping to get some advice on putting together a reasonably quiet file/web server. It doesn't have to be completely quiet, but I'd like it to be quiet enough that you don't notice it's on unless you're within a couple of metres. Low power usage would be a plus too. Here are the parts I'm currentl...