Looking for Advice: three systems.

[Gigas-VII]

Currently, I have one rig which is filling three roles: media server, gaming box, and HTPC. I would like to split it into three boxes.

The current case is an Antec P182, which I love so long as it is sitting, but hate whenever I have to move it. I dislike bringing it to LAN parties because of the size and weight. I think I want to leave it at home where it can be a gaming+HTPC box.

So far as the media server portion is concerned, I really only need a way to connect 4+ SATA HDDs to a network. I've considered NAS / SAN solutions but they are terribly expensive. I also have considered tossing some inexpensive components into a low-profile case, but this solution consumes more power and does not likely have 4 bays available. I intend to mount 2x1TB drives when I construct the box, and will add 2 more 1TB drives over time.

Regarding the gaming box, what's the best small and light ATX mid-tower? I really prefer the pseudo-BTX design wherein the ATX motherboard tray is, basically, mounted upside down. I'm also okay with just placing the powersupply at the bottom of the case.

Suddenly, I wish I could just custom-fab some cases. That or get that mini-P180 in aluminum instead of steel.

 

[Reality]

Regarding the gaming box, what's the best small and light ATX mid-tower? I really prefer the pseudo-BTX design wherein the ATX motherboard tray is, basically, mounted upside down. I'm also okay with just placing the powersupply at the bottom of the case.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1133290

I have the A05 (Silver colored), but whichever your preference it's a very cozy mid-tower ATX. A friend of mine actually made the comment, after seeing my system at a LAN "I didn't know you went Micro ATX"

 

[djgizmo]

For your Media server, I'd recommend looking for a killer bare bones deal on Tiger Direct (i Know, its TD, but they do offer the best bare bones deals), and stuff it with as many harddrives as you can fit.

As for your gaming box / HTPC, I'd recommend splitting them as well.
Find a decent small ATX case with at least 120MM slot fan in front and at least 2 80mm fan slots in back. Move your gaming hardware to that box, with only 1 harddrive and 1 optical drive and call it a day.

Your HTPC, I'd recommend the route that was recommended to me...


APEVIA X-QPACK-NW-BK/420 Black MicroATX Case 420W Power Supply - (replace the PSU)

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2
Add memory / hardrives / Blueray drive to your hearts content.
This will have you be able to condense your HTPC into a very quiet machine.

 

[Dangman]

The Lian Li A05B is probably the smallest ATX case available and should be pretty light as well. If you want even more portability, consider a SFF case like the Sugo series (SG01B-F, SG02B-F, SG03-B) or Lanbox series.

As for your HTPC, just reuse your P180 case. It's a pretty quiet case and doesn't look too out of place in a Home theater setup. However if you don't want to reuse the P180 case, pick up the Antec NSK2480 case. It was designed as a HTPC case. Then go with djgizmo's CPU and mobo recommendation.

As for home server, I recommend this setup:
Chenbro ES34069 Mini-ITX Home Server/NAS Chassis - $165
Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 CPU Intel 945GC m-ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - $86
Kingston KVR800D2N5/2G 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $20
----
Total: $271 plus tax and shipping

The above case has four hotswappable bays and is a relatively small case. The Intel dual-core Atom CPU is more than enough for file serving duties, whether you use Windows Home Server or Linux.

 

[Gigas-VII]

Thanks for the advice guys.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1133290

I have the A05 (Silver colored), but whichever your preference it's a very cozy mid-tower ATX. A friend of mine actually made the comment, after seeing my system at a LAN "I didn't know you went Micro ATX"

This looks good. I can imagine using something like this at a LAN.

For your Media server, I'd recommend looking for a killer bare bones deal on Tiger Direct (i Know, its TD, but they do offer the best bare bones deals), and stuff it with as many harddrives as you can fit.

Can you link me to a particular variant? TD offers so many different deals, and so many are just mediocre. How about NewEgg's bare-bones machines? They offer some in small cases. My concern was just the number of 3.5" bays in any of the cases...

As for your gaming box / HTPC, I'd recommend splitting them as well.
Find a decent small ATX case with at least 120MM slot fan in front and at least 2 80mm fan slots in back. Move your gaming hardware to that box, with only 1 harddrive and 1 optical drive and call it a day.

We're on the same page on this one, though I prefer using only 120mm fans.

Your HTPC, I'd recommend the route that was recommended to me...

APEVIA X-QPACK-NW-BK/420 Black MicroATX Case 420W Power Supply - (replace the PSU)
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX
AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2
Add memory / hardrives / Blueray drive to your hearts content.

This will have you be able to condense your HTPC into a very quiet machine.

My concern with this is that the HTPC will never need to move, so reusing the P182 would be cheaper than going this route. I absolutely love the P182 but it is just too much a pain to move.

The only reason I was thinking gaming+HTPC for that workstation is because I enjoy playing games on my LCDTV about as much as I enjoy watching movies. Some HTPC designs use hardware that is just great for HTPC purposes but awful for gaming. This isn't acceptable to me for the above reason. I also keep this machine hooked up to a normal desktop keyboard, mouse, and monitor so that I can use it for writing papers.

The Lian Li A05B is probably the smallest ATX case available and should be pretty light as well. If you want even more portability, consider a SFF case like the Sugo series (SG01B-F, SG02B-F, SG03-B) or Lanbox series.

I've always liked Lian Li but the cheaper models are pretty old-school. I really like the LIAN LI PC-V1100APIIC but would prefer it in black. The closest thing I have found costs twice as much. I guess color doesn't matter that much.

As for your HTPC, just reuse your P180 case. It's a pretty quiet case and doesn't look too out of place in a Home theater setup. However if you don't want to reuse the P180 case, pick up the Antec NSK2480 case. It was designed as a HTPC case. Then go with djgizmo's CPU and mobo recommendation.

I fully intend to reuse the P182 in some manner or another. I can't afford to buy 3 cases at the same time, not right after christmas at least (I spent too much money on my family this year )

As for home server, I recommend this setup:
Chenbro ES34069 Mini-ITX Home Server/NAS Chassis - $165
Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 CPU Intel 945GC m-ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - $86
Kingston KVR800D2N5/2G 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $20
----
Total: $271 plus tax and shipping

The above case has four hotswappable bays and is a relatively small case. The Intel dual-core Atom CPU is more than enough for file serving duties, whether you use Windows Home Server or Linux.

Woooooow. That looks awesome. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to have you guys point out. Thanks so much, Danny Bui.
EDIT: Actually, now that I have looked at the motherboard more closely, I do not think this setup work work. The problem is that the motherboard only has 2 SATA ports. What good will 4 Hot-Swap bays be if the board only handles 2 drives? I could invest in a SATA controller card to add to that PCI slot, which is probably what you were thinking, but that increases the cost of the setup significantly, doesn't it?

EDIT: HP apparently has a new Home Media Server: MediaSmart ex485 / ex487. This could work as an alternative to the above, but would probably be more expensive. Still, it is relevant to the thread.

 

[Dangman]

Woooooow. That looks awesome. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to have you guys point out. Thanks so much, Danny Bui.
EDIT: Actually, now that I have looked at the motherboard more closely, I do not think this setup work work. The problem is that the motherboard only has 2 SATA ports. What good will 4 Hot-Swap bays be if the board only handles 2 drives? I could invest in a SATA controller card to add to that PCI slot, which is probably what you were thinking, but that increases the cost of the setup significantly, doesn't it?.

Depends on whether or not you consider an extra $60 significant:
Promise SATA 300 TX4 PCI 4 Port SATA II Controller Card - $60

That case has a PCI-riser card so yes that Promise card will work. Also, looking at this worklog with that very case, it looks like you have room for a fifth hard drive, albeit a 2.5" laptop drive, for just the OS itself. So that means you can use the 4 hot-swap bays for the pure storage.

EDIT: HP apparently has a new Home Media Server: MediaSmart ex485 / ex487. This could work as an alternative to the above, but would probably be more expensive. Still, it is relevant to the thread.

Yeah I saw that but didn't mention it since it would be coming out in February.

 

[Gigas-VII]

Depends on whether or not you consider an extra $60 significant:
Promise SATA 300 TX4 PCI 4 Port SATA II Controller Card - $60

That case has a PCI-riser card so yes that Promise card will work. Also, looking at this worklog with that very case, it looks like you have room for a fifth hard drive, albeit a 2.5" laptop drive, for just the OS itself. So that means you can use the 4 hot-swap bays for the pure storage.


Yeah I saw that but didn't mention it since it would be coming out in February.

I found that worklog while reading up on the case, along with another one from a guy who works for Sun in China. The latter build was pretty much exactly as you described, but with a different controller card. I think I prefer the controller card used in the former, that little PCI-E 1x thing, very cute.

The cost of a controller card isn't the problem. The problem is attempting to physically fit it inside the case.

 

[Dangman]

I found that worklog while reading up on the case, along with another one from a guy who works for Sun in China. The latter build was pretty much exactly as you described, but with a different controller card. I think I prefer the controller card used in the former, that little PCI-E 1x thing, very cute.

Only problem is that the iTX system I recommended only has PCI, not PCI-E x1.

I think the Promise card could fit, albeit a very tight fit.

 

[Gigas-VII]

I'm thinking about maybe going with the Lian Li PC-A05B for both the server and the gaming box. The case isn't too expensive right now, and I could afford to order a pair.

The downside is that if I want to use the Atom board we've discussed, any powersupply I put into the case would probably be overkill.

To get Hot-Swap SATA Bays, which I really don't need but sorta have a lust for, I am considering the ICY DOCK MB673SPF-B which takes 2 5.25" bays and gives 3 hot-swap SATA cages. Frankly, I would rather have 4 or 6 hot-swap bays, though. Also, I was considering a Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT as the boot drive, but this case doesn't have a 2.5" bay. I could move up to another 3.5" drive since the case does have 4 available bays. All in all, I'm looking at 7x 3.5" bays if I go with this configuration, which sounds pretty sweet to me. Is there a 6-drive SATA controller card, perchance?

EDIT: How about the Intel BOXDG45FC instead? I would need to stick a processor in it, but I think that it would work better since it already has 4x SATA ports inside, and 1 ESATA which I was looking for. I could then use the RocketRaid card for 4 more ports, which would let me make use of all 7 potential drives in the case, albeit not on the same array. Additionally, the box would have enough umph to handle running HD content over HDMI which would let me use the server as an additional media PC. Not the primary intention of the box but certainly not a foreign concept.

The whole thing would fit into the chenbro case but that case costs $220 before shipping and only nets me 4 hot-swap bays with a 2.5" internal.