Sure. You seem to need a CPU socket, a couple of RAM slots, 2-3 SATA ports and maybe a PCIe 16x slot for future graphics ... that's covered by like every H67 Mini-ITX board out there. Are there all that many "mini" H67 boards out there? I haven't seen that many - I believe Zotac has one - the H67IT...

I am looking for suggestion for a CPU cooler for an i5 2500K system. I will likely use the onboard GPU, an SSD (at least for the system drive) and I am also considering the Seasonic X-400 Fanless. The mobo will likley be an Asus P8H67-M EVO or something similar. Therefore the CPU cooler would be the...

Once you plug in a dedicated GPU, it deactivates the integrated GPU. Since SNB is power gated I'm assuming it shuts down the GPU completely. Why does the integrated GPU shut down? I would be interested in using the integrated GPU and a discrete video card to drive 3 monitors but it looks like you c...

I understand the reason for wanting quiet PCs but does it really make sense to build a server in an HTPC case with six or more hard drives? Why not build a server that you hide away somewhere in your abode and use something like a media extender of a thin client type of PC at your TV(s)? This especi...

Why does the setup described in this article have a floppy? For what purpose would you need a floppy in 2009, certainly your mobo can boot from a USB stick, can it not?

And since it does have a floppy it does have moving parts so isn't the title inaccurate?

Did you try replacing the fans with better/quieter fans?

No big need to run the OS on a separate drive. It won't make the data storage more reliable. A USB flash drive might work well if you want separate data drives. It shouldn't impact performance I wouldn't suppose. A single HDD can give 1TB storage which is a lot for most people. Storage requirements...

I first read about WHS last year and since then I wanted one, it started quite buggie but it has come a long way. I had a couple of servers running a demo but I was never able to run it on the hardware I chose for it. I believe that a extra computer at home is a overkill, so I tried to find a hardw...

Which card is faster - the HD 3850 or HD 4670? 4670 most of the time it seems, but the 3850 could be faster in some situations since it has more memory bandwidth. Thanks, I get somewhat confused by the numbering of video cards. One advantage right now is that you can buy a passively cooled 3850 - i...

Which card is faster - the HD 3850 or HD 4670?

In searching for motherboards, I have trouble finding one that would make an ideal home server board. I would like an energy efficient board with onboard video, gigabit onboard nic and lots of SATA connections. How powerful of a processor is really needed for a setup like this? Is it worth it to ma...

...I was thinking of using a CPU like an Intel E8400... I prefere having the SATA ports on the mobo... This is going to be an overkill build, but there's nothing truly wrong with that. But I may be using my WHS box as a Sage Media server (note that you can run the Sage PVR software on WHS, unlike W...

740g/780g chipsets have on-board Radeon graphics and six SATA ports. 8 is a bit of a stretch, but you can get a PCI SATA card for £5. AM2 CPUs are cheap and low power too. I guess you're right but I was thinking of using a CPU like an Intel E8400 which rules out the 740g/780g chipsets as they are ...

I have been running WHS since it was in beta about 1.5 years ago. I am using an old Dell machine that I had but I want to move to some better hardware. Anyone have any advice on what mobo to use for WHS? The main spec that I want is 8 SATA ports, Gigabit LAN and (nice but not required) some type of ...

Antec doesn't cater to the silentPC-er they cater to the designer PC-er. I for one, feel lucky that Antec decided to use the Tricool fans in their cases as they are light-years beyond what other OEM case fans are. At least these fans on LOW will be reasonably quiet to all but SPCR-veterans. Well I ...

I have repurposed an old Dell Optiplex to serve as a Windows Home Server box. This drive currently has 5 hard drives with a total of a little over 2TB of storage. The hard drives were running really hot - from 51-70C and this is with the case open. I hung a 120mm fan with a tie wrap so that it blows...

hey thanks for the advice anybody have my comments or experience about the ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP ATX motherboard? i like it cause it has onboard wifi, and its not too expensive either. I just put together a quiet system with this mobo, E8400, an Antec Solo case, Enermax Modu82+ 425PS and a Xigmatek CP...

If you want to go a little higher end then the 3450 you can get a passive HD 3650 from Sapphire for about $165. Much cheaper than buying the card + an aftermarket heatsink and less work. The only downside is the space that this card takes up but I don't imagine it would be different then your origin...

No matter what you buy you will have to be ready to change fans, tape up ventilation holes, undervolt and all that to get the thing just the way you like it. I don't know that you have to go that far. I have just put together a new system and the only changes I will have to make is to replace the T...

But the Antec cases that I am talking about are specifically marketed as being quiet. Here are two quotes from the Antec web site: Performance One The Performance One series of cases is functional, efficient and silent. The pinnacle of performance and style, these cases feature the latest in Quiet C...

[rant on] Antec has done a pretty good job coming out with quiet PC cases and they have developed a bit of a following. I have purchased two Antec cases myself and will likely stongly consider them in the future. But why do they include relatively noisy fans with their cases? Why not include a Nexus...

That is a good advice, after reading all the reviews, the Xigmatek looks like a winner. However, Xigmatek is not available in Canada. The only thing close to Xigmatek that is available is OCZ vendetta 2. Anyway, the cheapest I can get for OCZ vendetta 2 is $50 include shipping, not a bad price but ...

Sapphire also makes a passive 3850 which I am running - the cost was about Canadian$175. It is cool to the touch when idle - very impressive.

What all this talk about eSATA? Would you not have the PC on a LAN? If so then if you need mass storage you just access a network drive on a file server or another client on the LAN. It's not like you would be using such a system for transcoding DVDs!

Unless you had a specific need for it, you should have gone with a board with an integrated GPU. The AMD G690-780 chipsets offer dual heads and you can pick up one of those board for little more than a low-end graphics card. Doesn't this limit you to using AMD CPUs? That may be an issue if you want...

Right now my WHS box has a 320GB Seagate IDE fan for the system drive plus the following data drives: 320GB Seagate IDE 500GB Maxtor SATA 2X 500GB WD SATA This gives me a total of 1.95 TB. I duplicate all of my photos, music and videos. Therefore I have effective storage of around 1 TB. This is in a...

Spend the money and buy a hardware RAID card. I'm sure they exist for SATA, and the connections are on the card. An all hardware solution beats Windows every time. If it was effective, the corporate shops would use software RAID. They don't. My SATA card(s) do have RAID but I have it turned off. Co...

Why wouldn't they make this PC with the P5-VM HDMI mobo? Wouldn't that make a lot more sense giving you HDMI plus dual video outputs?

You mentioned in the article that the 640GB drives haven't made it to Canada yet but according to Canada Computers' web site they have lots of the 640GB drives (WD6400AAKS) - an average of 5 or so per shop. Maybe they just haven't made it to the left coast yet - they flew straight over Vancouver!

If you are using the digital out from your sound card is there really any difference? I plug the spdif from my mobo into my stereo receiver. Would there be any difference in a 5.1 channel setup with just using the onboard audio or buying a very high end sound card? Isn't it just a case of sending 1s...