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SFF Server - Antec ISK300

S

sydneypob

n00b
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
5
Hi all

I am building a number of small servers to run Windows Server 2008, and would very much like to build something compact and low power. I already use a little ASROCK ION 330 as a linux server to great effect, but the Windows Server need a little more grunt.

I have been looking at an Antec ISK300 (150w version), with either a Zotac 9300 Wifi board and a Pentium Dual Core E5400, or a M4A88T-I Deluxe with one of the 65w AMDs and wondered if anyone had any experience of this kind of setup in terms of stability? I have seen lots of posts with people using graphics cards and adding pico-psu's, but haven't found anything definitive running a relatively plain setup.

I have filled in the template below:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Running test applications on Windows Server 2008. The applications won't generally be high-cpu load, although occasionally a test might require this for short periods of time.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600-$700
3) Where do you live?
Sydney, Australia
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word
"Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case
PSU if not included in case
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Seagate 2.5" 500GB drive (if relevant)
Seagate 3.5" 500GB drive (if relevant)
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
None, will be accessed using remote desktop
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Integrated graphics. Graphics/RAID are not important.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows Server 2008 32 bit

Any thoughts would be much appreciated....
 
I think the isk300-150 would be fine. Of the CPU/Mobo Options I would personally go with the Asus AM3 board & grab the 45w Athlon II triple or quad (were about 110 & 140 us when newegg had them)
 
My Zotac 9300 and E5200 only pulls ~35-40 watts when watching 1080p movies, I use it as an HTPC... this was measured with a Kill-A-Watt so I'm not sure how accurate it would be...

I could put both the GPU and CPU on full-load and see how much it pulls then if you wanted?

That's with the 65watt version. It actually has a 135watt PSU (DC-DC) inside, and I bought a 120watt (AC-DC) brick for it... turns out it wasn't really needed. So you could get away with much smaller PSU if you wanted, no need for the 150watt.

Although I'm only running a single 2.5" SSD you might need a bit more a few drives...
 
thanks for the details.

Running it full-load and seeing whether it remains stable would be really useful. Interesting thought on the smaller PSU - although locally (Australia) the 150 seems to be more available.

I would probably run one 2.5" drive, although the option to run 2 would be nice....
 
Well when I built mine, a 150 watt version wasn't even available. I probably would have bought that and found out it wasn't necessary. I like the DC-DC PSU because it's silent, along with the brick being silent means my little HTPC is damn near silent with the 80mm fan's at 5v

I'll hook it up to the kill-a-watt in a little bit and let you know the results.

GPU Temp - Max - 72c
CPU Temp - Max - 60c

Idle - 32w
GPU 100% - 56w ( FurMark 1.8.2 )
CPU 100% - 65w ( Prime95 In-Place Large FFT )
Both 100% - 80w

CPU Heatsink - here
2 x 80mm Fans - here

Dunno how much you care about silence, but I undervolted those, and set the fan settings in the BIOS to as quiet as possible and it's as silence as I've seen a PC.
 
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really appreciate your time, thank you.

The machine will be running in an office, so the background aircon drowns most PC noise out. Perhaps I should get a similar setup to yours as a home server to replace my aging VIA setup though....
 
I have the isk300-150. I do not find the PSU to loud, but I do find it to be rather warm. I believe a review said it is 75% efficient.

Also, the case does support 2 2.5" hard drives, but 3.5" drives will not fit normally. I suppose if you did some rearranging you could maybe get a 3.5" drive mounted somewhere, but I wouldn't count on it.

Also, the setup is:

isk300-150
Core i3 550
2x2GB DDR1333
320GB 7200.4 Seagate 2.5" hard drive
MSI low profile 5670 (I need to change the heatsink to something else as it pushes against the side of the case, it is like 2mm too tall).
 
thanks for the reply.

2.5" drives are fine for me, and I won't need a graphics card which should help with the power draw.
 
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