Shuttle K45 - 4TB WHS Box with PicoPSU

Show off your quiet rig.

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aztec
Posts: 443
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:01 am
Location: Foster City, CA

Shuttle K45 - 4TB WHS Box with PicoPSU

Post by aztec » Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:11 pm

Shuttle K45 - $110 from eBay (sold all parts inside for $80)
Intel D510MO - $70
4GB OCZ DDR2 800 - $50 (used)
2x 2TB Samsung F3 Ecogreen - $110 each
120watt PicoPSU - $75 (used)
WHS PP3 - $75 (used)
92mm Nexus Silent

All for around $500. Should I have gotten an HP MediaSmart Server instead at the same cost? Probably...but it wouldn't have been as fun to build.

Have had the box up and running for about 2 months now, as a backup/file server and serving .mkv files across 2 WDTV Live players.

The board only has 2 SATA ports, but I only need 4Tb and when I need more, I will probably just spring for 2x 4Tb drives and upgrade to Vail. I tried Vail Beta and it was slow on the system. If I could get Vail installed on a small SSD and still use the 4Tb in a pool, that would be my path later on.

Not a single issue so far. Drives are quiet. Running fan at 50% RPM through BIOS. NO heat problems.

As you can see, lots of room in the K45. I can easily get 2 more HDs in there. 1 under the drive cage, and 1 vertically above the CPU side. All the space was created by removing the stock PSU.

Have to change the design on the faceplate. :)

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