Noise-free computing - A Quiet PC build

I decided last year that it was time to upgrade my home PC system - as I’d been running on an laptop CPU based system which was originally intended as a HTPC system for over a year.

The design criteria for my new system was low noise, space for lots of HDs, a relatively fast processor, lots of memory and fast interfaces (USB3, and SATA3).

What I ended up with was this:-

• Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev2
• Processor i7 950 3.06 GHz
• Kingston ValueRAM 12 Gb DDR3-SDRAM PC3-10600 CL9 - KVR1333D3N9K3/12G
• 64GB Crucial RealSSD
• 2 x Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB 7200 RPM Internal Hard Disk Drive
• Zotac GT430 Zone Fanless Graphics Card (1GB DDR3)
• Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator and Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
• Case Fractal Design Define R3, Black Pearl
• Xilence Power ECO 550 Watt

Drobo - Bucket loads of storage

Updated on 09 Aug 2009 by Andy Bryant

Since I outgrew my 250MB Buffalo LinkStation, I’ve been running a low-power microATX Pentium mobile based system on Linux with a hardware RAID 5 array (4x250GB) as my home server and backup solution, however I’ve got somewhat tired of keeping the system up to date, and dealing with the cross-platform account permission issues. (Plus the proprietary power supply in the Antec case I was hosting it in just expired…)

My new solution is going to involve a Drobo device. When I saw the first gen Drobo released a couple of years ago, I was very tempted but the high price (especially in Europe) put me off. I love the concept of the Drobo - which provides RAID 5-like capabilities (or if you listen to Drobo - they describe it as BeyondRAID) without the need to keep all of the disks in the system at the same size, without the complexity of managing a RAID system.

• Amazon UK: Drobo v2 FW800/USB2
• Amazon US: Drobo v2 FW800/USB2

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