Reuse overpowered rig for NAS? Or buy AM1 based board?

[Freowin]

Hi all!

I have been planning to build a JBOD NAS or file server for me and my dorm mates. It will mostly contain media files and we have this really old LGA 1366 based rig, but I am not sure I would want to fire that thing up 24/7. The alternative, though, is that I would buy a new CPU/MOBO, the AMD Kabini-based Sempron 3850, and an ASrock AM1B-ITX motherboard. I would likely be buying parts tonight, as I want the build to be here on friday. And if its something to consider, Electricity is not really expensive here, so my concern is more of a heat/safety issue on running an old machine 24/7. Also, I would start with one new 3TB HDD first, and add some more later on.

Long story short, should I buy a new, cheap build and have a low power, cool system? Or reuse what I have now and save about 80usd on parts?

[Monkeypeas]

well if electricity isnt expensive, the cost of buying a new cpu motherboard would take an age to become worth it (in other words you could run the power hungry rig for a really long time before it cost you more in electricity than buying a new cpu/mobo, making buying new components a false economy)

 

can you underclock the 1366 rig?, thats what i'd do if possible

[Freowin]

1 minute ago, Monkeypeas said:

well if electricity isnt expensive, the cost of buying a new cpu motherboard would take an age to become worth it, can you underclock the 1366 rig?

It's a non-unlocked processor, an intel i7 960. I don't think it can be down clocked, though if I remember correctly, it does support the intel speedstep feature.

[Monkeypeas]

4 minutes ago, Freowin said:

It's a non-unlocked processor, an intel i7 960. I don't think it can be down clocked, though if I remember correctly, it does support the intel speedstep feature.

you can drop multipliers on some locked cpu's (the g1610t celeron i have in my 1U for example), if you can, do that, drop the multi and the voltage to the lowest you can with it still being stable, and obviously usable.

 

Might not be possible, but its worth a try, isnt going to cost you anything to give it a go~

 

you could also search the bios and see if you can disable cores, hyperthreading and turbo mode

[Freowin]

1 minute ago, Monkeypeas said:

you can drop multipliers on some locked cpu's (the g1610t celeron i have in my 1U for example), if you can, do that, drop the multi and the voltage to the lowest you can with it still being stable, and obviously usable.

 

Might not be possible, but its worth a try, isnt going to cost you anything to give it a go~

Thanks!