Any suggestion on first home server build (WHS 2011)?

First, I would like to say Hi to all of you. This is my first post. I have been following HardOCP since my first gaming PC in 2006. You guys have very impressive set ups and this community keeps driving my passion for computers Keep it up!

So on main topic. This is my first home server build that will be used mainly for file storage and media streaming. I have a relatively small home network (2 Towers, 1 HTPC, 1 laptop).
I was looking for a simple, efficient and very silent build. I'm starting off with 2x2tb storage but will upgrade eventually to another 2x2tb set of HDDs. I have a lot of movies to transfer and some database from my research at university.

Motherboard: ASRock H67M-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard (UPDATED ...Forgot I had a mini ITX case..)
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core G620 Processor LGA1155 2.6GHZ 3MB
DDR3: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 8GB 2X4GB PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit
Video card: integrated
PSU: Seasonic X-400FL ATX 12V 24PIN 400W Active PFC 80PLUS Gold Fanless Power Supply
Cooling: nothing
Case: Lian Li PC-Q08B Black Aluminum ITX Cube SFF Case 1X5.25 6X3.5INT USB3.0 Audio No PS
HD: 2xSeagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA3 64MB Cache 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive (will eventually buy two more)
O/S: WHS 2011

Thanks for helping out

Oh and I usually speak french since I live in Quebec city Canada. Sorry for bad english.

Welcome! Would love to see some pics when it's complete, especially given that this is mini ITX.

I would make sure you know how much storage you will need now and in the next year. I built my server, and have expand it drive capacity as I need more storage. With the price I paid on just the case and the 5x3 I could have gotten a Norco, but I was building as I Go. I went from 9 HDD to 12 HDD to 15 HDD.

Sure will provide pictures when I build it


As for my storage needs I'm pretty sure to max 4TB quite easily. After I don't really know. I'll expand when I need it.

Thx for feedback

Just to let you know guys that everything is ordered ! I switched the motherboard for the new ASROCK H77 m-ITX board. Can't wait to get started with my first server !


Build Pictures next week hopefully

Here is my stuff !! Only missing the power supply and WHS 2011.




I started to put some stuff in that nice case














So can't wait to get that PSU and OS !

I don't see anything.

Hey, Looks sweet. Is that case bigger than the Sug-05? Are you planning on running Raid for WHS?

The Lian Li Q08 is bigger, it's 13.58" x 8.94" x 10.71"
where as the Sugo-05 is 10.87" x 6.93" x 8.74"

I don't know if i'll use RAID with WHS. For now i'm only using 1x500gb for OS and 1x2Tb for data. I will expand on HDDs this summer. I don't know if RAID will be beneficial. I know for sure that there is a lot of debates in this forum about it.


SHould I aim for RAID 5 ?

Will update when getting PSU

Thx for feedback !

First off, I spent a lot of years using WHS, and I'm not impressed at all by WHS 2011, you may as well just get a full windows server OS and have active directory capabilities... the only tangible benefit I see in WHS is the backup handling... but Windows 7 already does full pc backups anyways, you just have to configure it from the client side... not a big deal in the home anyway with only a few computers.... so I say screw WHS 2011, just use a normal server OS. The dashboard is worthless anyways, I find myself just remote desktoping in anyways


With regard to your question on whether or not to implement RAID5, it just matters if extra layers of redundancy are important to you with your set of files, and if you are willing to trade disk space for that redundancy.
For a RAID5, you will need two additional 2TB disks minimum. giving you 6TB total, but in a RAID5, you have 2TB worth of parity data, giving you only 4TB usable space.
You lost usable space, but you gained redundancy... if one of those drives fails, your data will continue to exist, and you can put a replacement drive in its place and not skip a beat. Is this a feature that is worth the cost of the 1 extra drive? That is up for you to decide.

Also you can take into account points of failure:
Your current Setup:
Based on the hardware you stated you have right now for data, one 2TB drive, that is one point of failure, you are one point of failure away from losing 100% of your data.

Your RAID5 Proposed Setup:
If you implement a RAID5 using three disks, you are two points of failure away from losing 100% of your data. It takes two drives failing to lose 100% of your data.

A non RAID5 setup:
Say you just used 3 2TB drives independently, that means that if you lose 1 drive, you only lose the data on the 1 drive, effectively one point of failure loses 33% of your data instantly (the problem with this is usually people keep all there most important data in one folder anyways, so if the drive fails that has your important data on it, you lose 100% of your important data)


My Suggested setup:
I think that a RAID5 IS a good option! however, it should also be utilized in conjunction with an external backup method. RAID is no substitute for good backups.
Keep your data on the RAID5, which will give you 2 points of failure to data loss, and also use an external HDD that backups daily or weekly all your essential "cannot lose" data. (If you want some information on how to writes scripts to do this for you, I can help) This gives you 3 points of failure to data loss. It would take three drives failing including your external to lose 100% of your data. You can also store that external drive in a separate location in case of fire hazard.

Other Benefits of RAID:
A RAID5 swill also benefit from performance gains over a single drive. Although it does have overhead for parity calculations... the more drives in the RAID5 the higher the performance, not sure if a 3 drive RAID5 will be quicker than a single drive, although I would guess that it should be slightly quicker.

Also, if you do have drive failures, if you are using a RAID setup, you don't have to restore from backups.... you just replace the drive and it rebuilds the data by itself! you don't have to have a file copy session or write any scripts.... just pop the replacement drive in and check it the next day to make sure the rebuild completed.

Also to consider:
If you are intending to have a LOT of large drives in a RAID5, you will want to look into a RAID6 configuration.. however this requires a special raid controller card and may be way beyond the scope of your build... but a RAID6 uses two drives worth of parity instead of one drives worth of parity, so it takes 3 drives failing to lose data rather than 2 drives failing... also there are issues with URE (unrecoverable errors) during rebuilds that can corrupt your volume. RAID6 lowers this risk.