Clueless Home Server Build

S

Setan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2004
Messages
217
Hey Everyone,

Looking to replace an old crappy home server (HP DC7900 desktop, don't ask, free from work). I don't have a clue where to go with the hardware and was hoping for some guidance. I'm looking for something that will last years.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Will only be used as a home server. Housing our documents, pictures, home video, music and downloaded movies/TV. Currently only running Serviio for the media serving, and periodically connect to it remotely over FTP and VPN. I'd probably screw around with other basic stuff, like backups of other PCs on the network, but nothing major.​

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$500-$600 Ignore the tax.​

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

USA - Rochester, NY​

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

Motherboard - ?? This seems to be recommended around here: GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3
CPU - ??
RAM - ??
PSU - ??
​
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Case - Fractal Design Define R4
GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD5450
HDD - Taking from old server for now. Basic WD Black drive for OS and another 2TB drive for Storage (probably upgrade these in the future. Is SSD worth looking at for the OS?)
NIC - Some Intel card if onboard doesn't work out well.​

6) Will you be overclocking?

No​

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

None​

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

ASAP - Got the damn bug!​

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

Nothing in particular, just a bit future proof.​

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 Essentials or Windows Home Server 2011. Haven't decided yet.​

Thanks in advance for any and all help!
 
Last edited:
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I recommend the following setup instead:
$104 - A8 A8-6600K APU
$95 - Asus F2A85-M PRO AMD A85X
$70 - Kingston HyperX Blu KHX1600C10D3B1/8G 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$86 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W Modular PSU
----
Total: $355 shipped

You really don't need a SSD for the OS. The above mobo has 7 SATA ports and will allow you to use the onboard video found in that A8-6600K.
 
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Dangman said:
I recommend the following setup instead:
$104 - A8 A8-6600K APU
$95 - Asus F2A85-M PRO AMD A85X
$70 - Kingston HyperX Blu KHX1600C10D3B1/8G 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$86 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W Modular PSU
----
Total: $355 shipped

You really don't need a SSD for the OS. The above mobo has 7 SATA ports and will allow you to use the onboard video found in that A8-6600K.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! I've put the order in.
 
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For Linux users, there may be a problem getting lm-sensors info with this mb. Just a heads up to examine. Not a problem for the OP.
 
Setan said:
Thank you very much! I've put the order in.
Click to expand...

That's not a bad build but I would have went for something cheaper. I have a QNAP NAS which is slower than an iPhone 3. It has 4x2TB hard drives in it and it streams movies (the hardest thing you'll be doing) just fine. It maxes at about 50mb/s internal network transfer because the CPU is maxed. Needless to say it will stream any movie (even the 40gb Avatar movie) just fine.

My point being is you could go way cheaper on parts. Granted you'll have to consider the QNAP is running an light OS and on top of that it's designed for the hardware. Even some cheap dual core with 2gb of RAM will be more than sufficient.

With that being said, his build was under your budget and exceeds your needs so I guess that's all you should really care about.
 
Setan said:
Thank you very much! I've put the order in.
Click to expand...
Good luck with the build!


MrHood22 said:
That's not a bad build but I would have went for something cheaper. I have a QNAP NAS which is slower than an iPhone 3. It has 4x2TB hard drives in it and it streams movies (the hardest thing you'll be doing) just fine. It maxes at about 50mb/s internal network transfer because the CPU is maxed. Needless to say it will stream any movie (even the 40gb Avatar movie) just fine.

My point being is you could go way cheaper on parts. Granted you'll have to consider the QNAP is running an light OS and on top of that it's designed for the hardware. Even some cheap dual core with 2gb of RAM will be more than sufficient.

With that being said, his build was under your budget and exceeds your needs so I guess that's all you should really care about.
Click to expand...
The RAM would have been the one part that he would have gotten a bad deal on. From what I can see of RAM pricing for RAM below 8GB, they're really crappy. So in terms of price to performance, he's better off with 8GB of RAM than 4GB or 2GB of RAM.

Also, note that the OP is planning on using Windows. So that's going to require a bit more hardware power than the O.S used in those QNAPs.
 
Why not consider a Microserver? Nothing to re-use, and the older ones are dirt cheap.
 
iroc409 said:
Why not consider a Microserver? Nothing to re-use, and the older ones are dirt cheap.
Click to expand...

Well the OP already has a Fractal Design R4 case that's quiet and can hold up to 8 hard drives. If he wants room for future expansion, that Microserver isn't the way to to go.
 
I now have the server built with the hardware above. Thanks again for the help!

I tried installing Windows Server 2012 Essentials R2 first, but when I tried to install the motherboard drivers from the packaged driver DVD, they wouldn't even attempt to install. I just get an error about the OS not being supported.

Has anyone run into this problem with this board or others? The server booted up fine and into the OS and I was able to get the NIC card driver installed, but I'm concerned about the drivers for the chipset and other features of the board. Can I just ignore the drivers?

Right now I'm going back to Windows Home Server 2011 to see if I have the same problems there.
 
Same problem in WHS 2011.

I tried installing the drivers from their site, but they have the same problem:

"Does not support this Operating System : WNT_6.11_64".

Am I really screwing myself is I use the drivers from Windows update? Apparently ASUS won't support any server OS's with a desktop motherboard.
 
Check device manager. If no yellow warning signs are there, then you should be ok. The semi-generic drivers should work.
 
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