Thetownend.com

Who wants to help me build a PC? Requirements as follows;

- A cheap / low end Intel CPU that can be upgraded at a later date (I'm thinking i3 / LGA1155).
- 4 ram slots. 16Gb to begin with (4 x 4Gb now, 4 x 8Gb in future).
- 2 x 500Gb hard drive, mirrored with hardware RAID.
- 4 x Gb ethernet ports.
- Onboard sound and graphics (ie low end).
- Small / stylish case, no other future expansion required.
- No OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse, optical drive, floppy drive needed.
- Budget, as low as possible within reason (say £500).
- I can put it together.
- Will be used to run Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise.

I'm sure you have the know how to DIY jonny, otherwise i would suggest JJ

 :eek:I bet you bathed in dettol after writing that.

It's mainly the motherboard I don't have a clue about. Seems to be a million and one variations and I don't know what any of them mean let alone what I want. Think I've got the cpu and socket type sorted but could do with confirmation. Putting together isn't a problem, though I'll probably get someone at work to do it instead.


I'm not that big a fanboy. I use and support Windows all day long at work, which is the main reason I want the new box - run my own Exchange server at home and to help me get some Windows certs.

You want a socket 1155 for intel and with the Z68 chipset as this has more features than the H67 chipset but still has the graphics outs ports for integrated graphics. Avoid the P67 as it doesn't support onboard graphics.

Though I'm not sure the sandybridge version of that chipset is out yet. Talk to jjedmunds he'll know loads more

Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz - £110
Biostar T Series TZ68A - £93
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) 1333 DDR3 - £100
Western Digital WD5000AADS 500GB x2 £66
Corsair 500W CX Series PSU - £45
Coolermaster Silencio 550 Case - £65

Total £479 inc VAT

Not sure why you would want 4x GB Ethernet ports though but if you have to then they are £160 for the StarTech.com 4 Port PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet NIC Network Adapter Card.

Piece of piss to put together, will take around 30 mins, or even for a novice less than a couple of hours.

Thanks.

I want the network ports as I'll be running everything as virtual machines under Hyper-V, I want a separate port for each where possible and a dedicated port for the NAS - want to play with running the vm's from an external iSCSI attached NAS.

You'll need to run sp1 of windows server 2008 to get virtualization to work.

Running iSCSI and an Exchange server from home?

Jeez, I thought I was geeky with my setup!

Haven't read that before, maybe it's only for Server 2008. Not relevant though as I'll be running a fully patched Server 2008 R2.


It's for work purposes though, not like I'm doing it in my spare time for fun.

One more question....

If I fully loaded the case with 3.5" drives, how do you work out how much power is needed and if there is enough cooling?

Wouldn't it be better to get a NAS jonny?

iSCSI is the main requirement, stuck between a NAS and OpenFiler running on internal drives.

Though I've always wondered about the power and cooling when you fully load a case with drives.

Just get a couple of drive cages. Most have fans built in to them.

No offence intended.

You'll have to try harder than calling me a fanboy to cause offence.

OK, I'll try harder next time :)

Hard drive will consume 15w max usually.

Probably little more than 300-350 watts max but I always put in more than needed in case of upgrades in the future as its one thing you totaly rely on.