BUILD Use spare hardware or start from scratch

[Jayos]

Hi, first post so please bare with me.

I have been reading lots of the FAQ's, checked out the great PPT from cyberjock and I am now starting to trawl through the guide.
Mind you nothing beats a bit of hands on to learn so I am tempted to use some old hardware I have knocking about to get a server up and running, but I'm worried this may just cause me more problems than it's worth.

Ideally I would like to replace my synology 209 and buy Fractal node 304 case and fill it with the relevant h/w. nothing too fancy as I want to use as little power as possible. Mainly for storing hdtv, movies, mp3's, photos to share on different devices around the house.

I have got an old Asus P7P55D Pro mobo & i7-860 CPU which I am tempted to use in an old case to get started, but I think they would be overkill for a simple server & wouldn't be that efficient. Or I could sell these and put the money towards the right hardware.

Advice & opinions please

 

[Raven]

I use the node 304 currently with a atom cpu. Been working great for me. Doing what you want too.

One thing i would suggest is getting a better CPU than my atom, as its kinda slow. Any I3 would be fine. Also make sure you get plenty of RAM. This is the most crucial thing...I have 8Gb now.