Building a low-cost fileserver

I’m building a low-cost fileserver for a client. It needs to be under $1000. The case needs to be rack-mountable and the smaller the form-factor the better. Here’s what I came up with.

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz 65W
• MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital - ATX motherboards with integrated video are a tough find. Often I’ll opt for a cheap video card but this motherboard looks like it will suit my needs.
• pqi POWER Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - 4 1GB chips may have saved a couple of bucks but the expandability is nice.
• 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 32MB - I’ve been using WD drives a lot and thought these looked like they were worth trying.
• iStarUSA D-300-PFS - 3U is a nice size since you don’t have to resort to riser cards or extremely cramped cases.
• SeaSonic SS-500ES - I’ve always been pleased with Seasonic power supplies.
• Athena Power BP-SATA2131B

Total Cost: just under $800

Other parts considered:

• LOGISYS Computer PS650U12 650W Power Supply - A tad cheaper than the Seasonic for a 650W over a 500W. Still my satisfaction with Seasonic overrode my curiousity of possibly finding a better deal.
• SeaSonic SS-400ES - It was only $10 more to jump to 500W so I did but 400W would have been sufficient.
• hec RA251A3A 2U server case - A 2U case with 3 hot swap drive bays for $200 seemed like a good find. However, I found it difficult to deduce what kind of power supply was required. And since the 3U + SATA backplace was cheaper I went with that.
• Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB - I’ve been buying these consistently for low cost servers. Just thought it was time to see how the Seagate drives were these days.
• GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H - One of the only other ATX motherboards with integrated video. I chose the MSI mainly due to the on-board DVI connector.
• CODEGEN 4U-500-CA - I’ve been a fan of this case for situations when 4U isn’t a problem.

More Links

• Seagate 7200.11 Review