The Mac Mini I've been using for a music server since ~2010 or so is dying - perhaps the waves of hatred I've been sending it ever since it arrived has finally gotten to it. I loved my iPhone so much that I had high hopes for it - I've always been a PC guy - but the hardware is slower than the specs suggest it should be, and the Mac OS really pissed me off. I installed Windows 7 on it and it was much improved, but now it's HDD is on the way out. I'd replace it but of course it's not just a matter of opening it up and slapping a new one it, it's complicated and not worth the effort.

So does anyone have a suggested setup for a Windows 7 machine who's purpose is simply to host a music server, and hold all our photos? It doesn't need to be fast, but I want general Windows navigation, etc to be snappy. On board video and sound will be fine. Quiet would be nice and it needs to be a proper PC so that I can upgrade / replace bits as required.

It doesn't need to look pretty, or be small for that matter. So I'll just grab whatever ATX case I can find that's cheap.

If anyone has some suggestions around the mainboard / CPU / RAM specs then that would be much appreciated.