Its tasks will be:
- Serving DVD and mkv files to my various HTPCs (no transcoding)
- Hosting web server so I can access electronic automobile service manuals from my tablet
- Downloading large files via HTTP and uTorrent
- Microsoft Exchange Server, to keep my Outlook Contacts and email in sync with all my machines and mobile devices
I would like to spend as little as possible because this machine really won't be doing much, so I don't think I need anything very powerful. My thoughts are Celeron G530+H67 chipset board, or an AMD E350 board like the MSI E350IA-E45. The E350 board is around $67 shipped after rebate, so it looks like going G530 would be about $50 more. I think they idle around the same, with the G530 having much power processing power, but the thing is I don't know that I need any more processing power just for what this server is going to be used for. So probably most important thing is low idle power consumption since it will be on 24/7 just doing nothing or maybe downloading files most of the time. Video performance is no concern at all, it will not even have a monitor.
Is G530 worth the extra dough for what I'll be using this for?
Should I be looking at something else, like Atom? Although from what I've seen, Atom isn't all that cheap and I haven't seen that it idles much better either.