Need to build new WHS Server

TechLarry

TechLarry

RIP [H] Brother - June 1, 2022
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Messages
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Ok, it's time to retire my old Windows Home Server. It's running on a 7 year old ABIT IT7-MAX2 with an Intel P4 2.53Mhz processor.

It's really been a wonderful board. No issues whatsoever it's entire life.

It also has a 3Ware 9500S-8 PCI card with 6 drives hanging off of it (six 300GB Barracuda's).

It's just time...

I've already got a bunch of replacement Western Digital 1GB Green Drives coming. Now for the machine itself.

Here's what I need:

Processor - probably an E8400 or something in that range.
1GB RAM - I can deal with this part myself.

Motherboard - here's where I need the most help. I need one that will hold the E8400. It also needs to have a LOT of SATA ports. No RAID is necessary. At least 8 ports. I prefer all the ports to be native (on the chipset) rather than broken up over two different controllers. Basic on-board video would be a plus, but I do have an old 7800GTX PCIe card I can use if necessary.

Power Supply geared towards providing a bunch of SATA power ports.

Case. I don't really want a server case. I'd like something small and compact, yet can hold around 8 internal 3.5" drives and keep them cooled properly, without spending a ton of money on it. The old server is currently housed in a huge Lian-Li PC-70 case. Easy drive access without having to rip both sides of the case apart is a must.

Thanks :)
 
Why build a new one if the current one is working fine?

If you are going to upgrade i'd just get the cheapest Core 2 Duo you can find. And even that would be overkill. But the reason I suggest it is the next version of WHS will be built on server 2008 and will be x64 only.

As far as the board you can just plug all your requests into newegg and narrow down your boards to just what you want. I have several sata cards myself. I don't see any reason to avoid them as they work well. But more ports on the board are always nice.

For a PSU I use the enermax liberty as it's rock solid but it's also modular. I bought several cables that are nothing but sata ports on them.
 
Good luck finding a mobo with more than 6 ports native to the chipset. In fact I've never seen one with more than 6 directly off the chipset. You could go the route I did and get the Asus P5BV/SAS. It's a sever mobo with the Intel 3200 NB and ICH7R SB. 4 SATA ports off the ICH7R with Intel Matrix Raid and 8 SAS ports off an embedded LSI1068E chip. Plus 2 64bit PCI-X slots that I'm using for Supermicro SAT2-MV8 cards. Even though the specs don't exactly specify it, the board will support C2D processors. I'm running an E5200. It also has dual gigabit lan and video on board.
 
Probably, but who knows what the future holds. I can probably go with a cheaper chip, I'm just most familiar with that one and used it as an example.



GJSNeptune said:
An E8400 for a WHS box? Pretty overkill, or am I wrong?
Click to expand...
 
I may just buy one of the HP boxes for $500. The small drive it comes with I can use as the boot, then plug three 1GB drives in the available bays.

Anyone have any experience with these?
 
BTW.... IF the new WD 1TB Drives that arrive today work ok with this old 9500S-8 3Ware controller, I'll probably back-burner all this until the machine actually dies. I have fears they will not, however. This board was EOL'd a few years ago and there hasn't been a firmware update since 2006.
 
TechLarry said:
I may just buy one of the HP boxes for $500. The small drive it comes with I can use as the boot, then plug three 1GB drives in the available bays.

Anyone have any experience with these?
Click to expand...

You mean TB not GB?

I know a few people have them.

There's a site out there that shows you the cheapest parts available to build a WHS. Let me look...

Edit:

Here. Some of those prices are a bit high since that is a little old. Good guidline. Cheaper than the HP Prebuilt, more storage, and looks better IMO.
 
The KPC looked promising at first, but do any of them ship with the ICE Genie yet?
 
I'd suggest 2gb of RAM instead of 1gb and lower power cpu as stated.

And if you go with an HP why too bad you didn't get one or two 2tb drives to start instead of 1tb drives. The price/gb isn't much different and you'll be more limited with the HP for expansion.
 
TechLarry:

Heres what I would do if you really think you need a new box(my opinion just swap out your drives for higher capacity ones and add some ram)

Anyways: I would go with an AMD setup, you can get plenty of power and the same features for half the price

GA-MA780G-UD3H
AMD 4850e
2gb DIMM Kingston DDR2 800

For a PSU I would get a PCP&C I saw a 750w for sale here in the forums for $80....a really good price for such a kick ass PSU.
But any PCP&C or Corsair HX series would be good.
As for a case Im gonna leave that up to you because that really depends on how much expandability you want/need, and looks.
 
For now I just decided to upgrade the storage since the WD 1TB Green drives are so cheap now (under $100).

A few weeks ago I replaced 3 of the old 300GB Barracuda's with 3 of the WD 1TB Green drives.

I just ordered 2 more @ $93 each and will put them in this weekend.

This will leave one 500GB Seagate in the storage bay, and the 120GB boot drive.

Next month I'll buy the last two 1TB drives (probably be $75 by then :)), and replace the last 2 of the Seagates.

I don't quite have my head wrapped around how I'm going to replace the Boot drive (the 120GB drive) yet. I still can't figure out if you can do this without loosing your entire server configuration and having to start from scratch.
 
TechLarry said:
I don't quite have my head wrapped around how I'm going to replace the Boot drive (the 120GB drive) yet. I still can't figure out if you can do this without loosing your entire server configuration and having to start from scratch.
Click to expand...

I haven't done it, but I don't see why you couldn't just use Acronis (or other image software) to copy the 120gb drive to a larger one (using another system to do this), resize the secondary partition, and put the new drive in the WHS box.
 
TechLarry said:
I don't quite have my head wrapped around how I'm going to replace the Boot drive (the 120GB drive) yet. I still can't figure out if you can do this without loosing your entire server configuration and having to start from scratch.
Click to expand...

[LYL]Homer;1033955472 said:
I haven't done it, but I don't see why you couldn't just use Acronis (or other image software) to copy the 120gb drive to a larger one (using another system to do this), resize the secondary partition, and put the new drive in the WHS box.
Click to expand...

Ive done it.
It works.

Personally the amount of time that it takes to image the old drive and make the new one. you could probably just reinstall it faster.
 
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