After becoming increasingly frustrated with the Tranquil Home Server, I decided to de-commission it. The drivers required at install time didn’t work, and Tranquil technical support (online and via email) just didn’t work. #epicfail
There is a motherboard configuration called Mini-ITX where the dimensions are 170mm x 170mm. Intel have a great board with 1Gb Ethernet, 4 USB and a PCI connector. Adding memory, a SATA HD and case: and you have an instant Windows Home Server. I used the Windows Home Server media and serial number from the Tranquil.
What I purchased:
| Stuff | Price |
| Aywun A1-8989 Cube Mini-ITX Case with 150W PSU | 67.10 |
| Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS, 1TB SATA HD | 180.40 |
| Intel D945GCLF2 Motherboard, Integrated Intel Atom 330 1.6GHz | 128.30 |
| Kingston 2GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 240-pin DIMM | 39.99 |
| Total | 415.79 |
The case:
Building the hardware took less than 10 minutes, and the software install time (fresh) was less than an hour, including formatting the drive.
Now installed at home, repopulating the data and getting on with life. I feel way better having built this myself.
Oh, and the kittehs like the box the case arrived in:
Nice build. Got a recommendation for HDMI output with that one?
Luke
Maybe one of these?
http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/Motherboards/DG45FC/DG45FC-overview.htm
Other mobo vendors also make these size boards. The Form factor is a major win
Nick
Very cool, we’ll have to show this off at the next Sydney Windows User Group
Yep, Mini-ITX is the new black 🙂
Project suspended waiting for ready availability of this one:
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjEwMg==
Did you get all these parts from AusPCMarket? Thinking of building mine in the next week or so
actually, purchased from mwave.com.au … staticice.com.au is your friend 🙂