NAS or Home server?

[BryceBooth]

In terms of hardware, that core-i3 processor should handle streaming quite well and will probably be as energy efficient as you can get without dropping to an Atom CPU.
For silence, consider an aftermarket cooler if possible, and perhaps the largest capacity drives that you can afford allowing you to use fewer hard disks for your desired capacity. Sound-dampening material can work wonders, but it will make your server run slightly warmer.
If you happen to be a MaximumPC subscriber, they recently did a FreeNAS build a few issues ago, although they have just recently posted it to their site. If nothing else, it'll give you an idea on the workings of FreeNAS and what it may offer.

[Mena]

That would be awesome.

As for HDD's I am a WD only user so I am thinking WD Reds for the durability and quality.

[Dzzope]

Just a point on the parts you have, 8GB is way overkill for a streaming server.. I would either use it elsewhere or sell and stick in 2 - 4 gb cheapo ram (not that ram is expensive anyway)

[tangrisser]

It really depends on what you use the computer for and what OS you are running:

You mentioned that you want to rip movies from DVDs then I would recommend at least Core i3 but if just need a CPU then even a Pentium would work for streaming data from WHS.

[BlueByte]

If your are ripping just dvds or blurays then the i3 will work fine. If you re-encode then the i3 would be fine for dvds, but painful on blurays. My particular settings in handbrake for blurays gives me an avg of 18-24fps on my 8350, would hate to see what an i3 would do on the same settings.

[Mena]

Sorry but no AMD chips. Hate them. Want this to be as power efficient and cool. If I need more I can just upgrade to a i5 when funds permit.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Keep em coming.

[BlueByte]

I was not suggesting amd over Intel, just anything with more umph for bluray encoding. Or be willing to wait a long time. Handbrake scales to 8 cores last time I checked so the closer you get to that on any platform the better.

[Mena]

Fair enough. Sorry I misread your last post and recognized the AMD model and thought that you were recommending it. LOL!!!!!!

I see your point though.

[Mena]

Hmm....should I stick with the Asus Z77 mITX or go with a H77 mITX.......

Choices choices........

[Mena]

ANyone?