WHS Build

[notsane]

Hi All,

I am looking to do a windows home server build. I am a pro photographer and would like to have a central place for my pc to be backed up in addition to backing up my external drives with photos. Currently I just use 1 drive per 6 months or so of photos and clone them to another drive for backup. Each year I start a new drive. I feel like a central storage place with an online backup like carbonite would be the ticket. The core of this system needs to be a 4+ drive RAID 5,6 or 10 array with 2-3TB/Drive.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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

Windows Home Server, PC backups, External Drive backups, Cloud backups on onboard array. Possibly streaming to my x-box via homegroup. I have 3 other PCs

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

Not sure budget, under $1,000 less would be good

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

Seattle, WA USA

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.

CPU, MOBO, RAM, Case, PS, CD, Raid Controller (raid 5?), Boot Drive, Disks for array (4x2-3TB?)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

No - Could possibly re-use an old WD 640 as a boot drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

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

1920x1080 for my TV, but I don’t really have a monitor except my 30” (2560x1600). I will probably just set this up in the garage and let it run w/o monitor.

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

In the next week

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.

RAID (if not on an add in card. Would like raid 5,6 or 10), USB 3.0 if not add in card

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

No, need to buy WHS 64

 

[notsane]

a little sad I didn't get any responses. Was my budget too low? What did I do wrong?

 

[Dangman]

It was Cyber Monday yesterday and thus things was a bit hectic. As a result, your thread unfortunately fell through the cracks.

All right, generally when I see WHS 2011 server builds pop up here in the forum, I don't see that many builds using RAID. If they did, they usually use rather expensive RAID controllers ($300+). Considering your budget, I'd recommend taking a look at the route I usually see people take with WHS 2011: Drive Bender. It basically replicates WHS v1.1's drive pooling feature but more reliably. There's a free trial available for you to try out and it only costs $25 should you decide to buy. So that's something I would recommend checking out as that would save you potentially $275+ from not buying a RAID controller to increase the uptime of your data. That money that can be spent on more hard drives.

EDIT:
One question: just how many drives do you plan on putting inside this server?

 

[notsane]

Thanks so much Danny! I will check it out!

I would like to have 4-5 drives of 2-3TB each. I may just spring for a controller, just not sure. Depends on if the work keeps coming in.

 

[Dangman]

Here's a prelim build for you:
$105 - Intel Core i3-2105 CPU
$115 - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$25 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM Combo
$450 - 3 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
$90 - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$50 - Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011
$25 - Drive Bender
----
Total: $910 shipped

That mobo and case supports 8 hard drives right off the bat. However do note that if you plan on using the motherboard's onboard RAID, only six of its eight SATA ports can be in the same RAID array together. That PSU is overkill in terms of wattage but it's a fantastic deal for a quiet, reliable, and high quality PSU. The parts I would absolutely recommend buying today would be the PSU and RAM since those are on sale. Reuse your 640GB drive for the boot drive no matter what build you do.

As you can see, there's not enough room in the budget in the above build for a true hardware RAID controller. Not to mention that if you do go with a true hardware RAID controller, you may have to use the WD Red drives since there's no real guarantee that the above Seagates will work with true hardware RAID controllers. While the WD Red drives are designed for true hardware RAID controllers, the problem is that they're still relatively new and that they kinda have a poor storage per price ratio as seen in the price for a 2TB:
$130 - Western Digital Red WD20EFRX 2TB SATA Hard drive

 

[notsane]

This looks great Danny! I will pick up at least the PSU and RAM today like you said. You are awesome!

 

[Magnus042]

That PSU is a superstar, I use it on an overclocked x58 SLI and it has zero issues. Good Luck!