Quiet and Low-power Home Media Server/Nas build advice

[geekman92]

Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to read this. I was hoping you can offer me all your expert advise on a new HMS/NAS I'm planning on building. I have done a lot of looking around for the best components for this build and already chosen a few items but would like some help choosing some of the others. Following FinneousPJ's sticky here is my requirements and initial ideas. Thanks in advance for any help.

Location: Cheshire, UK

Main Requirements: (I'm not asking for much )
• Quality - Rather spend a bit more on quality components for the task.
• Low Power - Will be on 24/7 so low power is key.
• Silent - Quiet as possible, will be in bedroom at times.
• Small & Subtle - Don't want anything too intrusive for when in the living room.
• Easy access to HDDs - Don't want to be fiddling around too much in mini-ITX cases when changing HDDs.

Main Use:
• Home Media Server using Plex to stream throughout the house and across the net.
• BitTorrent Client.
• NAS for backup and file sharing.
• Small web server for personal use.
• Home Theatre (Pug hdmi into back of TV)
• OS will be Linux - Ubuntu Server with LXDE installed (subject to change as I tinker and find what suits my needs best but will always be a Linux distro)

Already own:
• SanDisk Extreme SSD - 120GB
• 2 x Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
• 2 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1333

Approximate Purchase Date: This week.
Parts to Buy: Case, CPU, Motherboard, PSU and Heatsink.
Budget Range: £300-£550 GBP (Budget just for the parts I'm looking to buy now not of the whole system to be with all the HDDs etc)

Case
Lian Li PC-Q25 - 5 Hot-swap bays + 2x3.5" + 1x2.5"
£99.95 - Amazon

Pretty much made my mind up on the case after lots of looking around but please do recommend anything which you may think suits my needs (Quite/Small) better. From what I have read it is well designed and has good airflow for such a small case with all those HDDs.

NOTES: The depth for the PSU is 160mm that's INCLUDING wiring space. Most people say no more than a 140mm deep PSU but a 150mm may fit?
EDIT: The CPU heatsink can't be taller than 80mm with ATX PSUs and 100mm with PFX PSUs.

EDIT: [strike]It uses 3 molex plugs to supply power to the 5 Hot-swap bays.[/strike] Think they have molex AND sata power connections now.

CPU
Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor
£85.99 - Ebuyer

Like because of lower power - Max TDP 35W

Motherboard
Would like the mobo to have:
• 6 SATA III ports but will accept a mobo with 4/5 ports and a 4-port PCIe SATA III expansion card if it is a better choice.
• At least HDMI port, preferable DVI as well.
• At least two 4-pin PWM fan headers (Want the fans to run super quiet when system idle)
• PCIe slot for adding SATA expansion card later.
• WiFi+Bluetooth Card (Most of the time will be using Gigabit LAN but just for the times that's not possible. Bluetooth for wireless keyboard)

(Most of them are pretty common on most boards now but thought I would specify just to be anal!)

Some motherboards I had looked at in no particular order (Going cross-eyed looking back and forth between the different specs!)

Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
£95.84 - Ebuyer

GA-Z97N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
£110.49 - Ebuyer

Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
£99.99 - Amazon

ASRock Z87E-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
£103.81 - Amazon

PSU
No idea what PSU to get, will have at least 7x3.5 HDDs, 1x2.5 SSD and PCIe SATA III Expansion card in the case in time. Would like the PSU to be as quiet and energy efficient as possible (80PLUS Silver or better) without going bankrupt . I calculated that I would be using <250W MAXED out with an online PSU Calculator. But you should obviously buy more than you need.

I read that PSUs are more energy efficient at ~50% load but guessing they will also need more cooling so the louder the fan will be. I'll have to balance efficiency and noise. Maybe get one of those semi-fanless PSUs that turns the fan off when possible? Don't know how well fully fanless would get on in such a small case so close to the mobo and I doubt I could find one small enough to fit.

Things to note:
• PSU can be ATX but can only have a depth of 140mm (150 x 86 x 140)
• The PSU position is right above the motherboard with the intake fan facing it.
• EDIT:[strike]The 5 hot-swap bays in the case use 3 molex to power them all so molex is more important than loads of SATA plugs. Semi-Modular or Modular might make this easier?[/strike] No longer the case has both mole AND SATA.

CPU Heatsink
Don't know whether to replace this or not, the stock intel fan should be fine at keeping the 35W intel i3 cool and the case has good airflow but in terms of keeping the system quiet I was thinking of getting a super quiet 120/140mm PWM fan. Thoughts?

Would I be able to get away with a fanless heatsink? I don't think I could get one that is less than 80mm tall and doesn't interfere with the PCIe slot on the mobo but thought I would ask your opinion on the matter.

Maybe I can get a fanless PSU and a really good quiet heatsink with fan (quiet heatsink is quieter than a quiet PSU right?) that could keep both the CPU and PSU cool as CPU is only Max TDP of 35W?

NOTE: EDIT: Heatsink can only be 80mm tall with an ATX PSU or I think 100mm with an SFX PSU.

One last question: Do PWM fans turn off if they aren't needed or do they just spin very slowly?

I'm using pcpartpicker to help me with this build, here is the link to my build so far, might help you guys, don't know if you can sort of copy and edit it or not, I'll keep updating it as I decide on more parts though.

P.S Sorry for making you read such a long post but better to try and say it all once at the start than in little bits and bobs throughout the thread!

 

[Guest]

Well it seems like you've already made your mind up on most of the parts 'chum.

I would have personally recommended the Fractal Design Define R4 for the case despite it being standard ATX, it's designed for noise dampening and looks quite swish I must say.
With that's said I've heard good things from the case brand you have selected there.

I'm not sure if the processor you've chosen would be good for anything too demanding. It's ok, but you're most likely not going to gain much performance over something like a laptop CPU. I would strongly recommend investing in the desktop i3 or i5. Or even, this is one of the rare circumstances that I would suggest the A10 7850K APU from AMD, its processor side isn't brilliant, but it'll get the job done - Where it really shines is in low-cost GPU performance. It has quite a higher TDP however.
Imo it's ideal for HTPC's like yours.

With the motherboard I can't really help you out much there. I'm not clued up on mITX boards to be honest. What I will say though is always go for something quality. You don't need to be spending insane amounts on boards designed for overclocking, but don't go too cheap either. Remember that a board is one of those things that is a real pain in the arse to replace - In more ways than one (ahuehuehue puns). You'd want something stable enough to run 24/7.

You might find it worthwhile to invest in some new mechanical hard drives, something like the WD Red drives will be good for long-term stability at the cost of some performance. The ones you have now will probably be ok however.

The PSU is a tricky one, because it all depends on where you end up going with this build. Generally I will always, always suggest investing in a high quality supply, it's really worth the extra cost. But - when you consider this build probably isn't going to munch up more than 100w if that even, you could probably avoid going for the major high-end supplies and just settle for a half decent one. I'm a bit of a Corsair fanboy so I'd probably suggest the RM450. It's quiet and efficient - and I quite like those supplies even though a lot of people here don't.

As for CPU cooler, it depends. You're highly limited with the size of the case as you said, so I would suggest something like the H60 AIO CPU cooler, but, if you end up going for that i3 you're right also, the stock cooler is designed to cool much higher TDP chips and investing in something extreme really serves no benefit.
If you end up sticking with it, I say wipe off the stock thermal paste and buy a tube of decent stuff. Stock paste on those things is always a ton of crap.

Where I would pour the money personally is into case airflow. There are many companies out there that produce good/silent fans, such as Noctua. For such a low demanding build you won't need many, but more is always nicer.

Finally, no, PWM fans don't stop spinning when things are idle, even for a 35w CPU it would overheat pretty quickly if it did. It will instead spin very slowly and ramp up when it needs to. The less power something consumes, the less heat it's going to output, which means things should stay pretty silent even under load.

I still suggest the APU mind you. For which, that H60 would probably be a good idea.

Good luck!

 

[geekman92]

Hi Distello, Thanks for replying.

Well it seems like you've already made your mind up on most of the parts 'chum."
Haha yeah I have done quite a bit of research into this so I have a fairly good idea of what I want, it's questions like: "Can I get away with a fanless heatsink in the space I have?" (Obv depends on what CPU I go for) and "What are peoples recommendations on quiet and efficient PSUs that will fit in my case?" that I need a little help with!

"I would have personally recommended the Fractal Design Define R4"
I am really looking for a case no bigger than the Q25 I have chosen now 190mmx280mmx366mm. I haven't seemed to of found anything as functional and compact, but thanks

"I'm not sure if the processor you've chosen would be good for anything too demanding."
Hmm the CPU I had in my last build, which did everything I require apart from the watching of movies, was an Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual Core. Now I don't know much about CPUs so I'm only going off cpubenchmark.net but the i3-4130T is surely better than the G860? 4194 vs 2831 cpu score. The only time I will be logging in will be to watch a video on a TV via HDMI and that's about it, I mean the Raspberry Pi can handle that sort of graphics. Please do correct me if I'm barking up the wrong tree I just don't see why I need more graphics power?

Now I may still look at the desktop i3/i5s with maybe a 65W or less max TDP to handle more of the processing and do any transcoding that Plex needs it to do. Maybe something like the Intel Core i3 4150 3.50GHz (which is a little cheaper) or the Intel Core i3 4340 3.60GHz both at 54W TDP.

"With the motherboard I can't really help you out much there. I'm not clued up on mITX boards to be honest. What I will say though is always go for something quality."
Yes I definitely plan on getting a good quality mobo and I really DON'T want to skimp, I just don't know what is classed as "good quality" and don't know brand reputation or all this crazy abbreviated features they try and sell you on, as well as some of you other clever clogs! The most expensive mobo I saw was about £160 on ebuyer and I was looking in the £100 range for my board, would you say that was good enough quality? Maybe someone with more experience with ITX could help?

"You might find it worthwhile to invest in some new mechanical hard drives, something like the WD Red drives"
Haha, it is funny you should mention that, I was already planning on getting some WD Reds when I have this built and have sourced some more money, I was just using what I have lying around from old builds or what mates have given me for the time being. I plan on maxing out that case in time with 7x3TB WD Reds!

"The PSU is a tricky one, because it all depends on where you end up going with this build."
Well the only place I really see this going is just more hard drives and a SATA expansion PCIe card. I have no intention of putting in a graphics card, I have another build for the light gaming I do. So MAX out I would say 7xWD Reds, 2xSSDs, 1xPCIe SATA Card, 3xCase fans and the usual mobo etc. gave less than 250W with wiggle room but I was planning on getting a good quality, efficient 450W or so PSU. Just wanted to know noise level and efficiency. Every brand seems to say they have 120mm fans for noise reduction!

"I'm a bit of a Corsair fanboy so I'd probably suggest the RM450"
I did have a look at the RM450 and I was impressed with what I saw but unfortunately it is too deep to fit in the case! it's 160mm deep and I can only fit in 140mm.

" I would suggest something like the H60 AIO CPU cooler"
Unfortunately I can't fit any water cooling into my case but I was thinking maybe something more like the Noctua NH-L9i 95mm or Scythe Shuriken Big 2 Rev.B Low Profile CPU Cooler?

"If you end up sticking with it, I say wipe off the stock thermal paste and buy a tube of decent stuff."
If I do end up staying with the i3 then I still think I would upgrade the CPU Fan just to something quieter as the stock fan won't be.

"Where I would pour the money personally is into case airflow. There are many companies out there that produce good/silent fans, such as Noctua. For such a low demanding build you won't need many, but more is always nicer."
Yes I was looking at upgrading from the stock case fans to decrease noise, it comes with a 140mm fan at the front and a 120mm fan on the top. I could put one on the bottom too but I would lose out on hard drive space then so will see what temp is like when I get it.

"Finally, no, PWM fans don't stop spinning when things are idle"
Okay thanks.

From what I understood PWM fans are the only one that can be controlled to go different speeds right? I thought I read somewhere that the mobo can change the speed even without a PWM fan but that doesn't seem to make sense to me?

Thanks for your help so far!

 

[Guest]

Don't forget that the stated TDP of these processors is max load. I don't think you're going to be costing yourself too much on the 'leccy going for a desktop CPU tbh Especially one of the recent Intel ones that only use about 70w.

You're right though, you probably won't need all that much processing power, but it's always nice to have.

£100 is the perfect price range for a board. As for brand, my favourites are ASUS and Gigabyte, in that order. ASRock can make some decent boards too, but it's pretty hit and miss. Go for one that has the largest heatsink over the VRM area and the higher the power phase count the better (8+2 should be in range).
This will deliver cleaner power to the CPU and generally ensure longevity.

Passive heatsinks are absolutely huge and still only cool about 90w of heat.

Zalman do quite a few nice top-down heatsinks as well as Noctua that should cooler marginally better than the stock heatsink while using a larger fan for overall quieter operation.

Definitely look in to popping a 140mm Noctua fan in the front and a 120mm in the top. They're ugly as hell but they're quiet and efficient.
The Red drives are designed for NAS type stuff so they're quite reliable and cool-running, shouldn't be too much to worry about on the heat front.

PWM fans can be controlled by the board based on temperature. Fan controllers exist for 3-pin ones, sometimes boards have level-control for them too. Make sure the board uses 4-pin headers, most do. Personally I just run mine at full speed constantly, I hate the ramp-up sound. But then, they are relatively low-rpm fans. You should have no issues with the Noctua ones, they usually come with a 7v or 5v adapter to lower the speed further.

 

[geekman92]

Yes that's very true I should probably look more into the actual power ratings and not just their max.

Hmm you're right it is nice to have the extra power and it's not that much more expensive. I was probably paying more for the low TDP even if the others do run at lower power as well. Just had a bit more of a look and now thinking of using the i3-4360 3.7GHz

Okay great, thanks for the tips on the motherboard. I'll do some more research into that tomorrow.

Looking at Zalman and Noctua HSFs now that will definitely fit into my case. How much airflow would you say I required? I understand what it is just don't know whether 30CFM is "good" or not! (Subjectable to what build you put it in I guess but for my low-end needs?)

Yeah I'll be picking up two new case fans, looked at the Noctua fans as well as the Akasa and Enermax fans. The Akasa boast some of the quietest results on pcpartpicker but are dirt cheap so don't really believe it... would really like to see some noise/rpm comparison graphs.

Yeah have done my extensive research into HDDs as well and found the Reds to be best bet, now just got to decide on what setup I want them in!

Thanks for clearing up the PWM confusion for me, I'll make sure the mobo has PWM headers. You can get PWM splitters if you only have one header can't you? Any idea how well they work?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

The i3 will definitely be a good bet. It's got some pretty darn decent IPC performance.

Airflow is probably one of those menial things, especially in a small ITX case, the CFM stands for Cubic Feet Per-Minute which is basically a fancy way of saying how much air it pushes. Generally you want to go for the highest CFM possible, but another stat to look at is Static Pressure, measured in H20 by the mm.
(H20 being because the way it's rated is by how much water is can move using a specialised tool).

Arguably the more important one to look at imo. Static Pressure measures, naturally, the air pressure level - The greater the amount the more it can push through obstructed areas, such as drive cages or heatsink fins. You could spin an unoptimised fan at 10,000rpm and it will never generate as much as fans designed just for that - Which will usually feature wide fan blades for catching that air and keeping it.

Noctua are widely regarded as some of the best fans on the market, they have quite a variety but usually the likes of the NF-F12 are the most popular. They're quiet fans but still give amazing performance at low speeds. For a home media PC I'd be looking at getting just the right amount of airflow while maintaining silence as much as possible. They'd be perfect for that.

You can get splitters yes, but since they're being plugged into a single port that port only treats it as one fan. So, if you decided to set it to run at 60% of its maximum speed, both fans would run at that amount.
I'm not sure about ITX boards, but most of the time boards these days have about five 4-pin headers on the PCB which should be more than enough.

 

[geekman92]

Okay good I'll go with that i3 then only £20 more than what I was going to spend anyway so that's fine.

Cool I'll pick up a couple Noctua fans then.

So I've done a load of research into PSUs and narrowed it down to only two:

SilverStone Strider Gold 550W Full Modular Power Supply - £87.06 from Scan.co.uk
•80PLUS Gold Standard with 89-90% efficiency at 20-50% load (won't ever be using it at more than 50% load)
•Quiet 18dBA minimum noise with fan speed only increasing after 50% load (so won't be noisier than 18dBA)
•Fully modular, good for small case. Would get the short cable pack too.

be quiet! System Power 7 500w | 500W - £51.60 from ballicom.co.uk
•80PLUS Silver Standard - 88-90% efficiency
•Ultra Quiet - 13.90 dBA at 50+% load, 24.70dBA at 100% load.
•Not modular so will have unused cables to cram into case.

Now I'm guessing that the Strider Gold is the better PSU, and modular so fit in my case better and slightly more efficient but the System Power 7 is just so much quieter and £35 cheaper I am very much drawn to it. Has anyone had any experience with either of these PSUs? How reliable are they when on 24/7? What would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

You know, for the demand your system will ask for you could very much get away with one of those entirely fanless PSUs.
No worries about noise on those ones.

I believe SilverStone do them.

Both of those supplies are pretty decent however, there's a large part of me that wants to say the top one based on its efficiency and overall feature set, but at the same time you're probably never going to reach that level of efficiency under normal conditions with that system. Given that it's about £35 more it might not be worth it.

With that said, PSUs are pretty darn quiet tbh You're probably not ever going to hear them over regular case fans.
Increasing the efficiency further decreases heat output which means the fan will be doing less work.

In short then, both are good, go with whichever your budget allows.
Don't forget that you're not really going to be able to hear a system running at 20-30Db, or at least, not very much, so going less than that is fairly pointless.

Edit: Check out Tom Logan's recent video on the fanless PSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgooNU_Wfjk&list=UU_SN80_V2GymyCWM2oTYTeg

 

[geekman92]

I would love a fanless PSU but unfortunately al of them are over 140mm deep If the cables came out on a side that was adjacent to the power plug instead of on the opposite side then I could fit in a 150mm and possibly even a 160mm!

I have seen however the:
SilverStone ST30SF 300W Semi-Fanless SFX - £36.36 from Scan.co.uk
• It's a lower efficiency at on 80+ Bronze but that may be better than running a 80+ Gold at 20% load?
• Looks like the fan kicks in at about 40% so a 120W load which I doubt I will hit that very often
• When the fan does kick in it starts at only 18dBA
• Small SFX form factor possibly allowing for a slightly bigger HSF in my case.
• Not modular though

SilverStone SX600-G 600W Semi-Fanless SFX - not released yet?
• 80+ Gold
• Fan kicks in at 45°C which is at about 15% load, same 18dBA Fan as the 300W model
• Fully modular
• Rated at 40°C for 24/7 operation so fan should never kick in if I can stick to that

Do you reckon I can keep it at 40°C or below? It is an SFX so less space for heat dissipation and the HSF will be blowing right at it. There is a 140mm fan directly above them both.

There are other PSUs in the be quiet! System Power 7 range, I just chose the 500W one because it was 80+ Silver, slightly quieter and was a good price. There are 300W, 350W and 400W versions that are 80+ Bronze which may be more suitable?

There is also the Modular CX430M ATX Power Supply which is 20dBA to about 40% load. There alternate cables are bloody expensive though! :/

 

[Guest]

CX is known for being pants in the quality department.

I say get the ST30SF 300w and bob's your uncle. The Bronze rating may well offer slightly better efficiency versus the 600w version because it will be much closer to that 50% load margin.
I don't think the supply will reach 45c very willingly, but then I don't have much experience with these SFF supplies. Providing the parts are decent it should be alright, and it features all the same protections as a regular desktop supply.

Should be a perfect power supply for that system!

 

[geekman92]

Argh thanks for the heads up re th cx series.

Awesome I have eventually chosen a power supply! Shame it's not modular but with it being so much smaller than ATX I should have plenty of room to wrap the loose wires up and great price too at £36.36. The ST30F's fan does kick in till 55°C @ ~40% load so I should basically have a nice small fanless PSU!

All I need to do is decide on a motherboard, feel like I can see light at the end of the tunnel now!

Thanks for all your help so far Distello, couldn't of done it without you!

 

[Guest]

No worries dude.

Good luck with it!

 

[geekman92]

So after many days of research and endless help from Distello I have decided on my new build.

Ended up with the ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac motherboard, I know most people like to go with ASUS/Gigabyte but there was only two boards that had 6xSAT-III ports (which was one of the more important features) and the Gigabyte one had bad reviews about WiFi dropping out and the ASRock had all good reviews from what I could see. Only time will tell how I get on with it!

Ordered most of it from Amazon and a few things from scan, with Prime and Saturday delivery I should have it all by tomorrow!

Future plans/ideas for this build:
• Buy a load of WD Reds.
• Buy PCIe SATA-III Expansion card (To handle all the HDDs).
• Install M.2 SSD to free up space in the case.

Here is the PCPartPicker export if anyone is interested (edited a little for clarity):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£105.67 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 37.8 CFM CPU Cooler (£42.95 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£105.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Mini ITX Tower Case (£99.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply (£36.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan (£19.25 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 PWM 120mm Fan (£17.50 @ Amazon UK)

Total (Not Yet Purchased): £427.24

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (Purchased For £15.99)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (Purchased For £15.99)
Storage: Sandisk Extreme 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £77.98)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £48.48)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £48.48)

Total (Purchased): £206.92
Total: £634.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-08 13:36 BST+0100

 

[sora]

ASRock makes great motherboards. You may not be too fond of the BIOS but it is easy to get used to after a while. Enjoy the build.

 

[geekman92]

ASRock makes great motherboards. You may not be too fond of the BIOS but it is easy to get used to after a while. Enjoy the build.

Good to know ASRock are good. Thankfully I won't be spending much time in the bois, once it is set up I'll probably not have to teach it again if all goes well. I must say it's a very nice looking motherboard, almost a shame to hide it away in a case!

Thanks, I'm sure it will enjoy it alot

 

[Rama85]

You probably wont reply as this is so long ago but im wondering how you have go on with this server? And how noisey isit etc? Im looking to build one myself atm and im confused on what hardware to use, your specs are closet to what im after so im wondering how its working out for you

 

[geekman92]

Hey, really busy week atm but will try to do a little writeup at the weekend for you!

 

[bjurewicz21]

Hey, really busy week atm but will try to do a little writeup at the weekend for you!

I know its been a month since you have been on this thread, but wondering if you could still do a wrap up. Looking at building something similar and was wondering if you would have made any changes or any pro/cons of the build.

 

[geekman92]

Hey sorry, work is keeping me pretty busy atm! Had written half a writeup and then got distracted! I'll try to finish and post one later tonight or tomorrow depending on what time I get home.

I will quickly say that the WiFi/bluetooth module on the motherboard doesn't play nicely with Linux.

 

[geekman92]

Sorry this is so late but here it is!

If you’re looking at using Linux as the OS then I'll warn you now that you will have trouble with the WiFi/Bluetooth module on the ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac mobo. I have managed to get the WiFi it working on Ubuntu 14.04 but not on CentOS 7 and didn't manage to get the Bluetooth working on either distro. Link to the Ubuntu fix (see the edit at the bottom of the post). This never really bothered me too much as most of the time I have a wired internet connection but if you pay for a feature you want it to work!

I also wouldn't recommend the Noctua NH-L12 CPU Cooler in this case as even though it does fit it require taking the motherboard out at funny angles and slotting it in and is a right pain in the ass! It also hovered over the SATA ports making it very difficult to plug all the HDD bays in. Nothing wrong with the actual cooler just not the right choice for this build and is overkill anyway!

The PSU is great, not had any problems with it and is nice and quiet.

The Lian-Li case has a 140mm fan at the front and a 120mm fan at the top. The Noctua NF-A15 fan actually has 120mm mounting holes even though it is a 140mm fan so I didn't manage to swap the front fan out (I instead put the bigger 140mm fan with 130mm mounting holes at the top and left the original front fan). My bad for not reading the specs of the fan properly!

In a quiet room you can here a quiet whirring of fans spinning, doesn't bother me as I normally have the TV on when in the room it is located in. At the time of purchasing I thought it may end up in my room so I wanted it to be as quiet as possible. That is no longer the case so I have not tried as hard as I might of otherwise to keep the noise down (like trying to replace the original front 140mm case fan).

I am a fan of the case. It provides me with a lot of HDD/SSD space in a small form factor.

If I was to use the case again I would change the mobo and the CPU fan and buy the correct case fans.

You may also want to look into getting a basic HP microserver and upgrading the CPU, RAM and case fan. You can probably pick up a basic Gen 8 microserver fairly cheaply now (£100-£160 new on Ebay at time of writing) as I believe the Gen 9 will be released soon. It has dual nics, 4 HDD bays and room for other HDD/SSDs like in the ODD slot, HP iLO interface for remote management, small form factor, low power consumption, ESXi compatible and the advantage of all parts being tested together. I think I read some people found it slightly noisy but you can swap out the case fan for a quieter one. (Google is your friend!)

For me the HP Microserver is appealing because I would like to mess around with ESXi, something I've not done before, but you may have other requirements.

Do let me know if you would like me to answer any specific questions. I'll try and get back in a more timely manor!

I would be interested in what similar people have done so do post your final build when you have decided.

All the best creating your new build