Can anyone recommend a good LGA 775 motherboard for low-power Windows Home Server duty?

I have an existing C2D E6400 and 2 x 2GB DDR2 that I'd like to reuse if possible, though I'm not averse to considering an AMD solution if it makes sense. Stable WHS drivers, excellent GigE performance, and plenty of hot-swappable AHCI SATA ports (6+) are a must. Ideally I'd like at least 1 PCI slot and 2-3 PCIe 1x slots. The fewer power consuming (and budget busting) frills the better. I don't need dual ethernet, 1394, n-phase power, high-end audio, high end IGP, crossfire, sli, etc. etc.

I'd be upgrading from a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 (P965/ICH8 non-R) which may be developing a flaky SATA port (not sure yet, I'm still testing it). This board is pretty decent, though the lack of AHCI is kind of a hindrance since I'm planning to install a 5-in-3 hotswap backplane.

I don't necessarily need onboard video, as I have an ATI Rage XL PCI card on order. That chip is supposed to idle around 1W and, as I understand it, was a popular no-frills chip for server motherboards, and so is well supported on WHS and Server 2003. So, integrated graphics are fine if they don't cost too much power, otherwise I'd rather stick with the PCI card (this includes NBs that might have a disabled GPU core in them, which I've heard may include the P965 and P45).

That hardware is fine, though a bit overkill for a WHS.

For you, I think any P43 chipset would do fine. Here's a cheap one, that might work. But I'd just use the filter feature on newegg to narrow the list based on the features that are important to you, then you can look up software support on just a few boards.

For WHS-specific questions, do check out http://www.wegotserved.co.uk.

Bad location for the 24pin power conector on that motherboard.

Maybe a g31 or g33 board would be enough?

Unfortunately the Asrock board has the ICH10, not the 10R. The price is right though, so I'll keep that one in mind. Newegg is also running rebates on some of the Gigabyte P45 boards which would put them in the ballpark of the Asrock. I have not looked into the G3x, but I think I've seen tests that show the G/P3x series having lower power consumption than the P4x, so that's a possibility too.

My system is a bit of overkill, though I do run virtual machines on it to play with various Linux distros, so the extra RAM and dual cores are nice

I didn't look at all your requirements, but the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L comes to mind.

edit - ICH10 not 10R, but look at some of the other Gigabyte boards. There are a few with plenty of slots.

lol! edit2. there is actually one called the UD3LR that had the RAID.

Yes the LR was the one I linked to (93USD after rebate).

Actually it turns out that I may be getting my hands on a GA-EP45-DS3R from an upgrade of another PC. This is more or less the same as the UD3L/LR/R boards, but apparently without the "Ultra Durable" features (whatever that is), so that would be perfect.

OOps! I missed the link.

I had the UD3L before I upgraded to i7, and it was an excellent board.

Just to follow up... I ended up going in a totally different direction. Plans fell through on getting hold of a DS3R, but I found someone who was interested in my current motherboard/CPU combo (I threw in some extras to compensate for the possibly flaky SATA controller)

So I decided to switch over to an AMD platform to take advantage of the very low power IGP chipsets available there. I got a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2HP motherboard and a 5050e. It was a bit of a bear getting Windows Home Server installed on it (long story) but at the moment, without any undervolt/underclocking, the system appears to be idling at somewhere around 75-85W, with 7 hard drives and 4GB of ram installed. Pretty amazing. The old system would idle at over 100W, and shoot up to 150 or more at moderate load.