Building my first WHS (need opinions)

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|CMF|SoulAssassin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 3, 2008
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Hi everyone. I'm looking for my very first build on WHS, even though I've built so many systems i have never build a file server before and i think WHS will suit us perfectly for what we want it to do..

So here are my questions what hardware do i need to run a WHS 24/7 I need something very stable (Since Accounting dept. Sales Dept, Etc Would be accessing the drives) Can you guys list a few stuff like Mobo,CPU,Ram, this system will be holding 4TB Drives (4X1TB) Do I need a a dual core processor ? I heard 2 gigs of ram runs perfectly with WHS so that wouldn't be a problem. Any past experience or current build that you guys have would be greatly appreciated…

thanks in advance
 
Would WHS be the best choice in this situation? Windows "Home" Server... I've haven't seen anyone yet mention that they would even use this in a production environment... I would think a NAS or something like that would be more stable/appropriate for that wouldn't it?
 
Greatone123 said:
Would WHS be the best choice in this situation? Windows "Home" Server... I've haven't seen anyone yet mention that they would even use this in a production environment... I would think a NAS or something like that would be more stable/appropriate for that wouldn't it?
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well we had two NAS servers and both crapped on us in less then 6 months one was from BUFFALO and the other don't even remember the brand, That being sad. We don't really want to mess around with RAID1 or RAID5, We rather have some sort of Windows Base File Structure were we could pull off drives and plug them into a Windows Environment and be done with it, Plus the Accounting Dept Would be using the file server and they don't really want to learn about server stuff all they want it to do is "to Work" and something that doesn't have a big learning curve. Our office only holds about 6-7 Computers max and out of those 7 computers only 3-4 people would have access to the drives..
 
Get a G43/45 mobo, with an e5200 and 2-4gb of ram and you should be fine.

WHS will work fine, but you are limited to 10 computers.

Just make sure it has a good Intel NIC
You might even want to purchase a separate pci express intel NIC
 
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nitrobass24 said:
Get a G43/45 mobo, with an e5200 and 2-4gb of ram and you should be fine.
Click to expand...

Other than the Intel NIC, any other reasons to go with the E5200 + G43/45 mobo over a X2 240 + 740G/760G/770/780G/785G mobo?
 
nitrobass24 said:
No
I guess I just prefer Intel :)
Click to expand...

Ahh, gotcha :)

Personally, I'd go with this setup:
$120 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard

The X2 240 is faster than the E5200 and equal to the E6300 IIRC and the mobo has 5 SATA ports, just right for WHS. Plus the price is equal to that of that Gigabyte motherboard you linked to.

NIC wise, you can always add this Intel NIC for faster LAN transfer speeds:
$30 - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000Mbps PRO/1000 GT PCI NIC OEM w/ 1 x RJ45

So for the price of that E5200 + Intel G43 mobo you chose, you can get a faster CPU + better Gigabit NIC + a mobo with two additional RAM slots just in case you might need the extra RAM one day.
 
I'd go with WD green drives for storage if you don't already have the drives.
 
Wouldn't one of those 200-299 barebones kits from tigerdirect do fine?
I agree the WHS is the best choice so far, and the motherboards allow a possible future upgrade to Windows Server. The arcane interfaces, security, and file systems of most NAS boxes just aren't worth the low price.

I just converted an old Dell c840 laptop with a docking base to use as a file server, after connecting a PCMCIA usb2.0 card and 2 ext hard drives. It does fine until 6 computers want data at the same time (no large file streaming), then it starts showing it's limits as a converted laptop serving a large database of mostly word/excel/powerpoint files.

The User Quota manegement system of Windows Adv Server 2k has sofar, done just fine.
 
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jeremyshaw said:
Wouldn't one of those 200-299 barebones kits from tigerdirect do fine?
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Not really. Most, if not all, of those TD barebones comes with some of the shittiest PSUs out there. For a server that has to be reliable, safe, and running 24/7, it would be a very bad idea to power a server with those shitty PSUs included with the TD barebones. I mean, would you want all of your data lost due to some shitty ass power supply?
 
Not that it really matters in this setting, but from what I understand WHS only supports 10 users (ie: accounts + full backup capability), but that doesn't mean 100 users couldn't access the open shares on the network.
 
anonuser said:
Not that it really matters in this setting, but from what I understand WHS only supports 10 users (ie: accounts + full backup capability), but that doesn't mean 100 users couldn't access the open shares on the network.
Click to expand...

On my submarine's last underway I had a WHS box with movies that multiple (more than 10) users connected to and streamed movies from.
 
nitrobass24 said:
WHS will work fine, but you are limited to 10 computers.
Click to expand...

Try connecting more than 10 computers for backups, take a SS, and then tell me it works ;)

Yes more than 10 people can access it at at time......its a network share:)
 
Yoosh said:
On my submarine's last underway I had a WHS box with movies that multiple (more than 10) users connected to and streamed movies from.
Click to expand...

Wow!

Tell me more.

Better yes, start a new thread. That sounds like a cool project!

Do you have pictures of your WHS on board the sub?
 
we do not plan on having no more then 10 users backed up nor i don't think we would ever reach that…
as my office only has about 7 computers. Explain me this, I was under the impression that you could have more then 10 users connected where they cap the maximum 10 user is on the back up process only ? Either way shouldn't be a problem since we only have about 7 users.
 
|CMF|SoulAssassin said:
we do not plan on having no more then 10 users backed up nor i don't think we would ever reach that…
as my office only has about 7 computers. Explain me this, I was under the impression that you could have more then 10 users connected where they cap the maximum 10 user is on the back up process only ? Either way shouldn't be a problem since we only have about 7 users.
Click to expand...

I think you're confusing users connected with access to the shared files. Users in WHS are PC's connected to the WHS machine via the connector for purposes of backup and pc monitoring. If you have a WHS machine on your network and you have the guest account enabled for access to the shares, then any number of computers (100's if there's that many), on the network can access the shared files. The network shares should show up under your network places in windows explorer or you can map the shares. But only 10 PCs can be "connected" for purposes of backup and monitoring at a time.
 
Danny Bui said:
Not really. Most, if not all, of those TD barebones comes with some of the shittiest PSUs out there. For a server that has to be reliable, safe, and running 24/7, it would be a very bad idea to power a server with those shitty PSUs included with the TD barebones. I mean, would you want all of your data lost due to some shitty ass power supply?
Click to expand...

How would you round out that build with that mobo/cpu?

PS esp
 
Is there a reason you're not going the standard production environment way of running Windows Server with RAID + backup? I didn't see a mention of budget so if that's the case I could see why, plus it sounds like a small operation.

We run our office shares off a Dell 2550 2U running a SAS RAID 1 and it's been mostly fine, though it's running too much on its own and we're going to be splitting up file sharing / exchange / AD duties to separate servers pretty soon.
 
PinataUT said:
How would you round out that build with that mobo/cpu?

PS esp
Click to expand...

Well as you mentioned earlier, I'd start off with four 1TB Green drives. Then I'd go for the cheapest computer case with 120mm fans front (to cool the hard drives) and back and doesn't use a single 80mm fan. PSU wise, it really depends on how many drives you plan on having. But if you're only having a max of 8 drives + the CPU/mobo combo above, the $50 Corsair 400CX would be more than enough.

If you don't want to go the DIY route, check out the Acer Aspire Easystore:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859321013
 
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