Stealthbox suggestions?

[Zero1]

Hey guys.

I've decided to go completely the opposite way to my normal method of choosing and assembling computers, that would be no loud fans/water cooling, no fast RAID arrays, no crazy overclocking and no power guzzling.

The purpose of the soon to be Stealthbox is a low power machine that will be online 24/7. It will be an IRC bot/logger in one or two channels, a bit torrent seeder (only 2 or 3 torrents at any one time) and a very light duty FTP/HTTP server (just personal stuff like pics that I want to show my buddies etc). It will probably just use a standard install of XP Pro (SP1a). All of my current boxes are too noisy and power hungry to run all the time (and I don't want to comprimise the performance of those boxes ).

I have a good idea of what I want. Really I want complete silence, bar the HD (obviously) and the power consumption needs to be as low as possible. I would guess the CPU would be near idle most of the time, so if the load power consumption is high, I wouldn't mind that, so long as the idle was low.

Here's what I had in mind:
Casetronic Travla C156S case
VIA Epia M (600MHz fanless)
512MB Low Profile RAM
Western Digital Scorpio 40GB
Panasonic UJ845 Slim DVD-RW
Slimline CD adaptor

I believe that's everything, now onto my questions/considerations:

-This is all pretty much fanless so far, with the exception of the Travla case fan, which moves a whopping 1.5CFM. I guess I could disconnect that with little or no effect on system temps or stability?

-On the Travla cases web page, it lists: EPIA-M10000, EPIA-M6000, EPIA-MII12000 and EPIA-MII10000 as "compatible" boards. Now what does compatible mean in this instance, because I thought all mini-ITX boards should be interoperable (like standard ATX)? Perhaps they mean compatible with the supplied IO plates? If so I can get hold of IO plates for the other boards. What I basically want to know is are there any differences that would make other boards really incompatible, or is it just limited to the IO plates being different? (in which case you can generally fix that with a new one)

-I've seen threads here recently that suggest the CPU on these things aren't up to much (as expected, but it's got me worried a bit). Do these things have a standard BIOS and whatnot? I was considering buying a faster version of the board I listed (but will have a fan), and if I don't like the noise I can underclock it in the BIOS and disconnect the fan. I even wonder if the 1GHz version would run fanless, if a little hot?

-I will probably be getting my stuff from ITX-warehouse, they have generic DDR RAM. For this kind of system is it just a waste of money to get a good brand/stick of RAM? It's not as though I'm overclocking and I rely on quality RAM. Also I'm thinking 512MB is a sensible minimum for wanting to run XP Pro and a few apps 24/7.

The motherboard must have some form of ethernet connection (so I can transfer files between my main system and the Stealthbox), or if not must be able to take a low profile NIC (which it would seem it's able to). I'm actually thinking it would just be better to get a PCI NIC anyway and just disable the onboard one (if possible), to save on CPU a bit.

I think this ought to be a good choice of a system for low power consumption, small size and low noise. If anyone knows of better/more efficient components (maybe a lower power HD, or more efficient Epia), I'd like to hear it thanks.

Cheers guys. This ought to be a fun little project, but being a bit heavy handed, I don't look forward to assembling it

 

[DocNsane]

Yeah, I run a m10000 at home for the exact same purpose. (Torrents and Bots). The 1Ghz can handle XP pro without a problem, and works great with the built in RDP. I have ultraVNC loaded also as a backup incase RDP decides to be mean so I can fix it, but it's a lot slower and more resource hungry. I also run 512MB of ram, and yes, the built in NIC works just fine.

As for standard BIOS, yea, it's standard...so standard that I'm not sure if you can adjust clock frequencies. I don't know if I'd run the 1Ghz without a fan though, as the 600Mhz is hot enough as it is. I'm thinking VIA wouldn't put a fan on their board if they didn't need to. It's not that loud though, or at least not as loud as the case fan will be.

Generic ram works fine, but you have to be awake of the high restrictions, which leads me to the next point. This case ram hight is restricted to 1.000" I've not used this case, so I don't know if you can hack it to make it work with slightly taller ram, and that 1 inch requirment is very small for ram.

The 156S does have some backpane requirements. http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/23_85/products_id/465

It is cut for sepcific series boards, which the M6000 and M10000 are.

For an alternative, consider a different bigger case. http://www.logicsupply.com/default.php/cPath/23_85 The C138 is similar to what you have. I use the Morex 2699 myself. It comes with a stand and stands upright on it's end, which is nice. It is admittedly a very tight case though, probbaly moreso than the C138, but I can fit a 3inch drive into it, and since I don't use the CD-bay at all (who needs an internal cd-rom when you have USB enclosures?), I can use regular sized ram.

Yeah, you have a good build, but if you are thinking about using regular rams, consider getting the C138 instead since you'll have a little more room.

Sorry if it looks like I'm pimping logic supply...oh..wait I guess I'm not really. I'm not familiar with the UK retailers, but I've heard good things about both itx-warehouse and mini-itx for sales. I'd also KILL for some of the stuff ya'll get to play with over there.... like http://www.mini-itx.com/store/product.asp?sid=HUSH-MCE World standard DVB-T =( Stuipd American ATSC.

 

[Zero1]

Thanks for the info

You said that you don't think it's possible to change the FSB/clock speed via the BIOS, is there a 100/133MHz jumper on the motherboard? I believe the mini-itx board is based on a similar chipset as my old Duron 750's board (KM133 Apollo IIRC), so I wondered if it might have. If that's the case then it might be worth risking getting the 1GHz with a fan and running it at 100 FSB (750MHz) fanless...

I'd rather not go for a case, unless it's a similar size. I'm trying to keep this as small as possible. At first I wanted to go nano-itx, but there are no retail cases that take advantage of the size.

I did find something that gave me a little hope, and I was wondering if anyone can confirm or deny this (since it's possible that motherboards are released after the case was made, but will still be compatible with that case).

I learned of an Epia MS-10000E, which is a 1GHz fanless. Looking at the model number, it seems it's derived from the M series, so I wonder if it would fit in the Travla 156, or if not would it work if I had a different back plate (I believe Via supply backplates anyway).

It's tough choosing, and I don't feel confident with a CPU that's about as powerful as a Celeron 266 in this day and age (even if it is only FTP serving, BT seeding, IRC logging/botting and maybe some remote desktop).

Cheers guys, it's been a good help so far. So many variations of the mini-itx boards it's hard to weigh up which one is best for me, but I think the 1GHz fanless will be right up my street.