true at that, but i did mention that theres the option of software raid, which eliminates the need of buying a raid card though losing some performance.
@fohfoh
either is fine, but if you're planning on buying a much better system than the P4 then P4 to NAS and new one to HTPC is a much better move.
right now, according to the shops that i`ve been seeing around.
desktop:
intel's cheapest dual core is the pentium E5700 or the Celeron E3300, pricing under 60$.
Intel's cheapest single core is the Celeron 430, pricing under 40$.
AMD's cheapest dual core is the athlon II X2 240, pricing under 60$.
AMD's cheapest single core is the Sempron 140, pricing under 40$.
Intel's motherboard LGA775 averages to about 60$ at most.
AMD's AM3 motherboard averages to about 55$ at most.
low power desktop:
Intel's low power desktop, is the Atom D525+(ion)Motherboard, pricing under 150$
Intel's low power desktop, is the Atom D525+(non-ion)Motherboard, pricing under 100$
AMD's low power desktop, is the AMD E-350+Motherboard, pricing under 150$
theres alot to choose from, and theres the option of 2nd hand.
though the thing i`m concerned about the bobcat and atom is that most of them have limited slots to accommodate that much extensions. most of them only hosts 1PCIe(either a x16 or x1). and about 4sata slots.
ohh and to give some clues how slow USB 2.0 based HDD are, a 100GB file takes about an hour to transfer. though way better than usb flashdrive crap that takes a quarter of an hour just to transfer 4gbs of file.
