I just finished on these weekends my one-week project, which I would like to show here. It is a file and a print server, which is essentially, as expected to be relevant here, a small silent PC. It has no fans and no moving parts except of the storage hard drives. I have built it on the Intel D945GSEJT motherboard. Briefly, it is a half height mini-ITX board, which is just 20 mm height. It is equipped with a hard wired onto the board 2.5 W TDP Intel® Atom™ processor N270. As for me, the remarkable feature of this motherboard is that it requires only a single 12 V power supply and has a standard 3.5 mm plug for it. A 1 GBit LAN on this board is also an additional value for a file server.
So, my server is based on the Intel D945GSEJT MB, whose features are:
- 2 Gb RAM
- 4 Gb MMC card, which is configured as a primary master drive.
- It runs Windows XP, which is installed on this flash drive. The OS takes ~ 2 Gb, so for the server I consider it is just fine.
- For the storage space the server may hold up to 2 standard 3.5" hard drives. Currently, a low-power (and noise) Western Digital Green 1.5TB is installed.
- External 12 DC switching power supply (60 W max)
- A self-made aluminium case
- The power consumption with one 3.5" HDD is 14 W (no HDD operation) and ~16 W with HDD read/write
And of course, some images:
I spent some days for preparing the aluminium parts for the case, which are just simple rectangular aluminium plates joined via aluminium corner bars:

The essential electronic parts are laid down for comparison:

One of the Zen sides, which has only 2 LEDs and two buttons:

Assembled aluminium corner bars to the appropriate plates (everything is numbered


The MB is now firmly fitted to its place on the bottom plate:

The MB plugs-side plate is mounted (notice the protective sticking film on the outer sides, so it looks yet like an ugly duck):

The opposite side is added:

The hard drives have their frames, on which they are mounted on rubber rings:

... so mounted it looks like this:

Now, connect the HDD on its frame to one of the side plates:

Connect the plugs and fit all together:

Fit and tight all sides:

I, personally, found the size of the case incredibly small:

Add the final top plate:

So far the case recalled me car shows, when a new car is covered by fabric before being presented. So, the most intriguing moment:

And, voilà:

So, less important stuff, add some stands and check the corner fits (the aluminium plates are 1.5 mm thick)

And some more fancy views:



So, this is my new 12 W home server. Since I am very concerned about annoying noises and the power consumption (Germany prices), I am satisfied on the result.
P.S. Sorry guys if there are too many images or these are too big, I just could not resist to show them
