AMD 785G/240e V Intel i3

[GaryRW]

At the moment, the (very simple) plan is just staying with win7 and sharing individual folders, probably mirroring some partitions within windows, leaving the boot partition as un-raided. (H55 doesn't allow raid, so software only)

Although my original plan and purpose with the build was a low power NAS, when I saw the figures showing a core i3 530 was pretty similar to a C2Q Q6600, I thought it was pointless sticking it in the loft doing nothing but file serving! So it will be pulling double duty as my wife's desktop as well. (even Farmville was stressing out the old p4 she has been using...). And so far, the Mini P180 seems quiet enough to be on 24/7 in a habitable part of the house.

Anyway, I take my hat off to Intel for producing a processor (and chipset for that matter) that idles at such low rates for the average consumer at stock rates. I like AMD, and I like competition even more, but credit where credit is due

[gsmithsa]

truckid:

Here's another option re lowish power H55 boards:

ASUS P7H55-M PRO

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index. ... 4#msg49964

[ziphnor]

I just ordered parts for a Core i3 530 / Intel DH55TC based home server.

As to the Core i3 being more expensive, it should also be noted that its alot faster.

The Core i3 530 has a passmark score of 2662.
The AMD 240e has a passmark score of 1739.

The Core i3 530 costs ~50% more than the AMD (830DKK vs 540DKK here in Denmark), and its also ~50% faster so overall i think its fair enough (the motherboards dont seem to have a significant price difference).

Of course the 240e still makes sense if you dont need the extra power (or you get different prices than here in Denmark), but personally my current home server spends alot of time muxing and demuxing video files and compressing/uncompressing files. The less i have to wait, the better