I've already been working on a new Vmware Esx Server fileserver for my house, so I thought to myself, why not use the "guts" of the mac pro workstation! That way, I can not only use it for all my media downloading, converting and storing, but I can use it for a nice high end workstation as soon as all the kinks (and drm) are worked out of Apple's plans to allow virtualization of OS X. Grin.
Since the Mac Pro uses an intel 5000 series dual 771 chipset, my choices were the 5100, 5400, or 5000x chipsets, I decided on the 5100 so that I could use the cheap DDR2 ram I already own in my other boxes.
It seems newegg has some open box boards for a little over $200!!
If I start with one 45nm harpertown Xeon for $220, I am still only up to $400, less than I can get for selling some of my other old junk! ;) (or at least that's what I'll tell my wife) And still be able to scale up to another processor later on as I spin up more VMs.
And if I use this ~ $320 case, and this Adaptec raid card I found used on eBay, I will be able to just use the dozen or so 500gig drives I have now but scale up to 20 or 30 terrabytes using 1 or 1.5TB drives!
Now get in the in the kitchen and fix your Aunt Esther a fish-head sandwich!
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