Hey, I just wanted to show off a home server i built for 171$.
Specs: amd athlone II x4
asrock 970 extreme 3 r2.0
8 gb mushkin stiletto ram 1333mhz
amd 5450
os drives: 2X 160gb wd drives (one for backup)
areca 1210 raid card (in raid 5)
4x 1tb wd green drives
xfx 550w psu
noctua nh-c14
antec 300 (or 302, not sure)
the only things i paid for were the noctua heatsink at 60$ brand new from kijiji, the mobo new for 66$ from canada computers and the psu from ncix at 45$.
everything else i sourced from a repair shop i used to work for.
i think it was a pretty good deal! it was kind of a project to keep me busy for a while and also for convenience. now all the movies and music are stored on this server and whoever is at my place can help themselves to wtv i have and can also stream it (which is what my brother and i do). It is also connected to the tv so we can watch youtube or movies from the big screen using a k400 logitech keyboard/mouse combo. (fyi, the keyboard isnt all that great, at all actually, but it serves its purpose very well).
i replaced the areca's god awfully loud fan with a noctua nf-a4x10 flex fan and use only one of the fans included with the heatsink to keep things quiet. i have 2 coolermaster fans for intake (which i undervolted to 7v to keep things quiet and the same goes for the silverstone exhaust fan and it's basically silent.
i am planning of getting myself one of those silverstone htpc cases. i think they look great and would fit everything i have in there. That is also the reason why i went with that heatsink (for clearance).
btw, how do i embed pictures here?