I've been planning to build a home server/NAS and settled on some basic specs:

Lian-Li PC-Q08 case
Asus P8H61-I
Be Quiet! 300W Pure Power L7 PSU
Pentium G620
2 GB DDR3-1333 RAM
WD Green 2TB

Unfortunately it looks like the Lian-Li is not available locally anymore (in Paris) so I need to consider alternatives. I'm hoping to get the components very soon since I need to get a backup/file server going. Any suggestions for an alternative case?

I'm looking for something small, stylish, quiet (i.e. large fans, good insulation) and not too expensive. Ideally it should be able to house 3-4+ HDs. The Lian-li was a great match...

There's more info on my original build goals on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63142

Thanks.

Hi again jebus_beler,

Sorry to hear you cant get Q08, thinking on the similar looks or functionality, check Lian Li Q25 (no optical drive, but one more 3.5 hdd and 5 of them are hotswapable), here is a review, TweakTown Lian Li PC-Q25 Mini-Q SFF Chassis Review





Depending on the OS you chose for the server 2gb might be fine, WHSv1 runs fine with 2gb, but some do benefit from more memory, so reseach this before, as memory is cheap this days. On the CPU, i would also consider the Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge, for a pure file server should be more than enough and you save some money over the G620.

Hi again abula,

Thanks a lot for the recommendation but unfortunately its not available at all (the Q08 was just out of stock). But I've just noticed that its only the Q08 red that's out of stock and the others are still available so I might just go for the black.

Thanks for all the help!

If you don't need a lot of CPU power (NAS, P2P, email, web and so on are fine with much less than a SB as long as you don't have too many users or large databases) and you're OK with a little noise (you haven't selected the quietest PSU, also consider HP's Mircoserver.
The 4 hotplug bays are nice if you don't plan to use more than 4 data drives (there's room for another drive and some people have put several more drives in it but it's not a good choice if you want more than 4 data drives in my opinion).

Hi HFat,

Well specing this thing out it doesn't seem like its going to be much more expensive than the HP microserver I found. But why do you say my PSU choice is not quiet. Do you have a better (budget) recommendation? The review here:

viewtopic.php?t=57573

Seems pretty positive about it.

I think I might go for a celeron to cut costs but was wondering if there are any cheapter mini-ATX motherboards (the P8H61-I is ~ 72 euros at rue-montgallet.com). Any recommendations?

thanks

The Microserver has ECC and hotswap caddies. If you don't care about those features and don't want to buy it in the UK where there's a £100 cashback, I don't recommend it.

edit:

The cheapest boards I buy are the ASRock ones.

I guess that PSU is OK. I'm not saying the Miroserver is any better. It's just that if you go to the trouble of building a custom server, you might as well pick a noiseless PSU. A noiseless PSU is either fanless like a pico or has a fan that spins very slowly or not at all at low-loads like the super-efficent Kingwin/Superflower or the more affordable Nexus Value. Check SPCR's list of recommended PSUs.

What makes you think the be quiet produces (significantly) more noise?

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