Starbuck13

Thanks for the tip. I've swapped out the Arctic heatsink for a Dynatron K618, which ought to do a better job.

Switched up the part list a bit again as I switched to an Arctic Alpine 11 passive cooler. The website says it handles any Intel CPU up to 47 watts, so it should be good with my 25 W chip. Does anyone have experience with this brand/setup?

I have looked at some pre-owned equipment, but most of the time the power consumption and/or noise has been the deterrent. I didn't know Servermonkey.com existed though, so I'll definitely have to browse that! What you've got there is pretty decent, however the power/noise thing comes up again. The other thing is, when you compare my initial part list with this, they're very similar (when you don't count the hard drives) in price and capabilities, with the exception of being able to handle eight 3.5" drives with my build instead of six 2.5" with the 810. The 810's got more horsepower as well, but it may be more than I need right now. Of course, future proofing is always nice.... I'll look through some other builds on Servermonkey and see what they've got, but so far I'm not sure it'd work out better. Good point about the server hardware being very powerful for consumer use. Easy to forget that sometimes!

The Noctua looks good, though it's too large for my 2U chassis. The NH-L12 looks good, though. Very glad to hear FreeNAS is working well for you. I've heard about it here and there, but this is the first time I've actually looked at using it myself, so I was a little hesitant. ZFS is a huge selling point for me there, as well. 3 streams would probably be higher than average usage, so that's right in the sweet spot of what I'm looking to be able to do. I have looked a little bit at older server gear, but the power consumption has been the killer there so far. I'll keep poking around though and see what comes up. I've got plenty of time to save up for this.

Hello! I'm looking into building my own NAS. I looked at QNAP and Synology and other pre-built units, but they get on the pricey side for what I'm looking for (usually before adding in the drives!). So I'm fairly settled on this parts list and am planning on running FreeNAS on it, but I'm wondering what thoughts you all might have - especially in regards to what kind of cooling would be best for this setup. EDIT: I threw a Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet cooler onto the list, but I'm not entirely certain if that'll be best. The lower power CPU shouldn't require a ton of cooling, right? 1. Budget & Location I'd like to not go over $2500, and the further below that the better. I'm in the US. 2. Aim This is intended to be a fairly straightforward large NAS, with enough horsepower to be able to transcode video files for Plex if needed. Having the quietest, lowest power draw possible without sacrificing that capability is my primary concern. I'd like to be able to build this thing and not worry about running out of space for several years. I may also flip this for SMB storage of VMs or other data (likely via SFP+) at some point in the future. 3. Monitors None planned. 4. Peripherals Potentially adding in SFP+ card in the future, but none initially. 5. Why are you upgrading? I'm using a WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra right now, primarily for Plex, but also other file storage. This gets the job done, but doesn't really have the ability to transcode very well. It's also limited to two drives, which I'm using two 4TB drives mirrored, and upgrading beyond 4TB drives right now starts to get crazy. I'd like for this to be a machine I don't have to touch beyond software updates for several years. Apart from deciding what cooling solution to use, I think this is pretty decent for a NAS. I had thought water cooling might work, but I'm thinking that's overkill for a chip that draws 25W. Fanless would be great, but I don't want to burn it out either. What are your thoughts?

Can you do a Tech Quickie video about Windows Storage Spaces? And maybe how well it compares to traditional RAID?

I hadn't thought about multiple streams benefiting from the additional threads, thanks for pointing that out. May well be worth the upgrade!

I guess to LTT? I'm thinking of a video comparing Windows Storage Spaces and RAID for various scenarios.

My search of the forums did not turn up anything concrete, so I was just wondering if there was a way for folks to suggest LTT take a look at a specific topic for a video?

I was thinking some of these things after re-evaluating things a bit. While it is more expensive, I really like this motherboard because it allows me to connect up to six drives for storage in addition to my boot drive and optical (you're right there, a 5.25" is appropriate, and I'm not sure I even need the BD burner). It also has Thunderbolt 3, which is something the H170s and B150s don't have, as far as I can tell. You mention it a few times, so I'm wondering if the i7 really is that much more powerful than the i5? The model number (6500 or 6600 -> 6700) would indicate a modest bump at best, but I don't know how accurate that is. And if I'm not planning on overclocking it, would the stock cooler be enough for an i7?

Interesting. Not sure I want to go all the way to a 1080 just yet, but is that Corsair PSU a good one? I like the modularity, just want to make sure it's quiet enough.

I hadn't thought about the noise of the switches and UPS, good point. As long as the stock cooler will keep things cool enough while gaming, I'm all for that. No need for extra stuff if it won't make a difference. As for Raid, I had planned on using the built-in Raid 10 support on the motherboard. Does that have issues? I'd imagine a dedicated card could have better performance, but the drives are pretty standard 5400 rpm, so I didn't think it would make a difference unless I swapped in some 10k/15k drives. Never been a fan of software raid (although I've been reading interesting things about Storage Spaces in Windows 10), so what card would you recommend?

Hello folks, I am looking to build a new computer. I've put together a parts list, but I'd love to get your feedback and thoughts, since this is a pretty unique build in my (limited) experience. Before I go further: 1. Budget & Location I'd like to not go over $2500, and cheaper would be better, but budget isn't a huge concern, as this is something that I'm going to be saving up for over a fair amount of time, and I imagine parts will become cheaper as we go. I'm in the US. 2. Aim My aim for this machine is two-fold. I'd like to use it for gaming, and as a media/storage server. I don't need absolute top-of-the-line performance, as I plan to hook it up to a standard HDTV and use a controller of some kind for those PC-only games (I'm not averse to using M/KB, but my TV is large, and my couch is comfortable....). Eventually I'll probably upgrade to a 4K/HDR TV, but that's a little further out at this point. As for the media/storage aspect, I've got a fairly sizable Plex media library that I'm currently streaming from a WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra (two 4TB WD RED drives in Raid 1), but I'd like the extra horsepower of a PC for any real transcoding, as well as some additional storage expandability and performance with Raid 10. I'd like to build it in a rackmount case as I'm trying to consolidate all of my entertainment/networking equipment into a four post half rack. Finally, since this is intended for the living room, I'd like it to be as quiet as possible, while also keeping things cool during those heavier gaming loads.. 3. Monitors As mentioned above, the current plan is to connect it to an existing HDTV, upgrading to 4K/HDR in the future, so no new purchases here yet. 4. Peripherals I've already got a Steam controller and Xbox One controller, so just a little wireless mouse and keyboard combo for file management will be fine. I'm looking at Windows 10 for maximum gaming compatibility going forward, Pro edition for any potential server-oriented benefits that may provide. 5. Why are you upgrading? I've currently got a 2012 MacBook Pro (Bootcamped with Windows 10) for any gaming not on consoles, and the aforementioned WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra for streaming media. It works well enough, which is why I'm comfortable with saving up for this build over time, but neither have quite the performance that I'd like, and upgradeability is limited at best. My hope is that once I've got this thing put together, it'll last for a while and won't require much upkeep. I'm okay with upgrading it in the future, but I'd like for that to be minimal or several years down the road at least. Parts list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/ggVfpb Thanks for any feedback you have!

I would absolutely love to win the Razer Blade Stealth for a more portable computer. Hooking it up to a Razer Core for gaming would be sweet!