miscthree wrote:Gotcha..I found the chenbro es-34169 mini itx..how does that differ from the one you suggested?
Wow, it seems that they upgraded their ES34069 with that new model. However, i can't find what was changed; it seems pretty the same as ES34069, except for that expansion backplane (maybe it means that you can install any low-profile PCI card with any number of ports in it).
Also I found what looks like a great deal on a Dell server..no hotswap bays and huge but dual xeon and everything else looks legit??
It looks like an ordinary tower with a Pentium-IV based Xeons and fast SCSI drives you won't need because of their low capacity. If you're looking at such towers, i'd suggest you to purchase a common desktop with a Core 2 Duo, at least it won't consume as much energy and won't emit as much heat and noise as that Dell PowerEdge will. There is no point in purchasing that PowerEdge for your goals.
However, even a common desktop will serve you much worse than ES34069 for your goals. The benefits of desktops are that they're cheap, they allow for more powerful CPUs (you cannot install a quad-core in ES34069 because of its weak power supply and the problems with heat sink) and they allow for discrete graphic cards (or even three f you like that SLI feature). I doubt you will need a quad-core or powerful NVidia GPU in your NAS, so the only advantage remaining is the price. If you can afford ES34069, then buy it.
As for the internals, if you're going to use it not only as NAS, i'd recommend you Zotac H55ITX motherboard. It has six SATA ports (which is quite rare on Mini-ITX motherboards) so you can connect all four 3.5" hdd plus a 2.5" boot HDD plus a optical drive (if you're going to install one) to it, it has LGA1156 socket for CPU (so that you can install e.g. Core i3-530 in it, as i did; note that you will need a CPU with GPU integrated), and it has a mini-PCI slot occupied by 802.11n card (and if you're lucky, it will be based on RaLink chip, which supports AP-mode - so that such a box will work as a WiFi access point). Cons are: weird port layout (SATA ports are located on the farthest edge so that SATA cables can hardly reach the ports, and you need to lay these so that they will avoid the CPU; and internal USB ports are located in the farthest corner, so that USB cable from card reader integrated in the case won't reach that ports at all) and wifi card is hit or miss (there was an AzureTech card in my first H55ITX, which did not support AP mode and did not support Vista very well; but card in my second H55ITX was based on a Ralink chip, it works great under Vista and does support AP mode in 802.11g).
Then, if you have a MSDN subscription or access to MSDNAA or to DreamSpark program, you can install Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 beta on it, enable Hyper-V, install Windows Home Server in a virtual machine, and after some configuration you will get NAS, gateway/router, WiFi access point (if you're lucky with wifi card) and HTPC in a single case.
Lifebook P1032 (1024*600 8.9") => Averatec AV1000 (WXGA 10.6") => Kohjinsha SH6 (1024*600 7.2") => Sharp M4000 (WXGA 13.3") => X200-AFFS, dead => X200s-AFFS, later -PVA => X220 4290RV5 + Intel 310 80GB, T420s 4173KSU + FHD IPS + Sandisk Z400s 128GB
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