Windows home server, add to a box that I own or buy new?

H

[H]ella|[H]ard

Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2001
Messages
526
Hi guys,
One quick question about your servers, are you running the HP server or did you build your own? Reason im wondering is I have a old PC Chips setup that was a folding box that has no Sata and would beed a ram upgrade and hard drive. After the OS, hard drive, Sata card and ram im at a little over $425 and for under $200 more I can just get the HP setup and have no worrys.

Any input guys?
 
WHS is the most futile invention ever. If you need a fileserver at home, get some cheap network hardware/NAS box to do the job. You'll save a lot of money on electricity as well.
 
I'm generally all for the do it yourself method. But if you can spare the $200, I see no reason to not go ahead and buy the HP solution. Having a higher spec, more modern system, and a warranty for less than $200 more seems a good deal to me.
Is there a F@H client that works under home server? If so you would have another folding box too.
 
I'm on this fence myself right now. I'm leaning more heavily towards going with the build yourself option, since I already have a server with a 3 drives. However, I am debating on selling it all and going with a prebuilt one. I'm not sure I like the idea of having something I may not be able to upgrade, but I'm going to have to dig futher into it for now and see what the HP has in terms of hardware.

Where are the HP Home Servers for sale for under $400? I'm seeing them as closer to $600.
 
The HP cases look nice and I really like the low profile size of them but that is also its biggest con. You can only stick 4 HDDs in there so once you have 4 in there your only options are to add external ones or get bigger HDDs. So I say go with a custom built PC that has the room to be expanded. And for the amount you spend on the HP you can get some pretty good parts for a server.
 
I took what used to be my moms previous desktop that was orignally purchased 5 years ago for $199 with 256MB of RAM to which I added 512 MB at that time for $40 (AMD Sempron 1800+, everything integrated into the MB, Fry's cheapy special). It was retired from desktop duty a little over 18 months ago.

Put in two new 300 GB PATA drives for right at $100 when Windows Home Server first became available in BETA. Moved to release OEM copy a couple of months ago. Plenty of horsepower for what it does.
 
I was debating on doing the same thing with an old emachine that was given to me. I ended up taking the plunge with Ubuntu server 7.10 and I'm glad I did. It's a steeper learning curve, but well worth it in the end.

Save the money and spend the time setting up a linux file server. I've got 800GB of storage accessible from all my desktops with only $130 in to the whole thing.
 
I used an old system for mine, 975x board, so it was decently modern, does the job though, personally I wouldn't go for the HP solution, you're better off building your own.
 
Thanks for the input so far guys. Now im looking at one of the all in one boards with a via cpu. If this thing is going to be running 24/7 I want it to be as low power as I can. With a maximum power draw of just 20 watts it will be a very small dent in my pocket every month.

Ill let you guys know how she handles when everything is running.
 
[H]ella|[H]ard;1031918584 said:
Thanks for the input so far guys. Now im looking at one of the all in one boards with a via cpu. If this thing is going to be running 24/7 I want it to be as low power as I can. With a maximum power draw of just 20 watts it will be a very small dent in my pocket every month.

Ill let you guys know how she handles when everything is running.
Click to expand...

Yes, please, let us know. Right now my home server is a P4 northwood 2.8 with 8 hard drives: if I can reduce power usage, that would be sweet. I was looking at the VIA systems recently, but I'm worried that they may not have enough performance.
 
It would really be great if we could get some sort of survey in terms of parts that would make an ideal home server. I'm currently in the initial phase of research, and any suggestions would be great.

I'm basically looking for the following:

1. Ideal case - enough room for expandability, and small enough to fit in the closet
2. Low-power consumption CPU and motherboard, while being fast enough at the same time
3. Ultra-quiet power supply
4. Ultra-quiet overall system (e.g., everything basically being passively cooled)

If all of these criteria can be met, while at the same time being cheaper than say the pre-built units that HP is selling, we'd have a great system.
 
Well, if I was building from the ground up, E2140 and the Gigabyte G33M-DS2R (6 Sata ports) would be the processor and board I would go with. Case is really personal preference, you just need to see what you like and how many hard drives you want to be able to stuff into it.
 
Fulgore said:
It would really be great if we could get some sort of survey in terms of parts that would make an ideal home server. I'm currently in the initial phase of research, and any suggestions would be great.

I'm basically looking for the following:

1. Ideal case - enough room for expandability, and small enough to fit in the closet
2. Low-power consumption CPU and motherboard, while being fast enough at the same time
3. Ultra-quiet power supply
4. Ultra-quiet overall system (e.g., everything basically being passively cooled)

If all of these criteria can be met, while at the same time being cheaper than say the pre-built units that HP is selling, we'd have a great system.
Click to expand...

I was doing that earlier today. Here is what I came up with:

MB: ASRock ConRoe1333-D667 R1.0 LGA 775 Intel 945GC A2 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157113
$49.99

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-SKN2-GP. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119104
$24.99 after $15 rebate

PSU: SeaSonic S12 II SS-330GB ATX12V 330W. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151035
$64.99

HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073
$104.99

CD Drive: ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135147
$14.99

Hot-Swap rack: KINGWIN KF-1000-BK 3.5" Internal hot swap rack. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990001
$17.99

Memory: SUPER TALENT 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609084
$10.99

WHS: Microsoft Windows Home Server 32 Bit. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116395&Tpk=Windows+Home+Server
$169.99

I have a spare Celeron D 326 CPU laying around, cost for a comparable is ~ $50.
Total: about $510, plus shipping.. I chose the “pricey” PSU because it is a Seasonic (quiet) and for the 80+ rating.

HP has their 500 GB WHS server on sale right now for $550, so by the time you add in the labor/install/etc. if you build it yourself, the saving do not seem to be justified. Of course, you might find a somewhat cheaper combination of components. About the most cost effective solution would be if you had an extra machine laying around that would be easy to convert. Assuming, that is, it has adequate USB ports, SATA ports, etc.
 
Hmmm If I was building a 1TB Server (Windows Home or Linux) from the ground up, I'd get the following setup:

Intel Desktop Board D201GLY2 - $67
Corsair Valueselect VS1GB667D2 1GB DDR2 667 RAM - $20
2 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $206 ($103 each)
Antec NSK4480 ATX Case With Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - $68
120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Case Fan - $3.50
----
Total: $364.50 PLus tax and shipping.

Add $200 and you get Windows Home Server. Or go the free route with Linux. The case can hold up to five hard drives and comes with an energy efficient 80+ PSU that should be enough to power the entire rig plus many more drives. If you need more room for more drives, just add one of these 4 in 3 bay modules which gives you a total of 9 hard drives:
Cooler Master STB-3T4-E1-GP 4 in 3 Device Module w/ 120MM Fan - $18

The Intel mobo/CPU/VGA combo draws about 40W at full load I believe. Here's a review of the board:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page3.html

However, the mobo only has two SATA ports and one IDE port, so if you do plan on getting more than two SATA drives, I recommend getting one of these SATA Controller cards:
Syba SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Controller Card - $20 (4 x SATA 150 ports)
Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card - $54 (4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s ports)

Not a bad build for a $365 Linux 1TB Server or $565 1TB Windows Home Server.
 
Danny Bui said:
Hmmm If I was building a 1TB Server (Windows Home or Linux) from the ground up, I'd get the following setup:

Intel Desktop Board D201GLY2 - $67
Corsair Valueselect VS1GB667D2 1GB DDR2 667 RAM - $20
2 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $206 ($103 each)
Antec NSK4480 ATX Case With Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU - $68
120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Case Fan - $3.50
----
Total: $364.50 PLus tax and shipping.

Add $200 and you get Windows Home Server. Or go the free route with Linux. The case can hold up to five hard drives and comes with an energy efficient 80+ PSU that should be enough to power the entire rig plus many more drives. If you need more room for more drives, just add one of these 4 in 3 bay modules which gives you a total of 9 hard drives:
Cooler Master STB-3T4-E1-GP 4 in 3 Device Module w/ 120MM Fan - $18

The Intel mobo/CPU/VGA combo draws about 40W at full load I believe. Here's a review of the board:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article780-page3.html

However, the mobo only has two SATA ports and one IDE port, so if you do plan on getting more than two SATA drives, I recommend getting one of these SATA Controller cards:
Syba SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Controller Card - $20 (4 x SATA 150 ports)
Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card - $54 (4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s ports)

Not a bad build for a $365 Linux 1TB Server or $565 1TB Windows Home Server.
Click to expand...


If you are going to go Linux, I'd stay away from the Promise card. I haven't used them in a while but their Linux support not only sucked it was almost non-existant. But things could have changed since I had a SX-6000.
 
I'm going with the HP 470 box, simply because I don't have any SFF parts lying around and I want this thing to just hide under a desk and do its thing. I've always built my own, but after piecing together everything but the CPU and the OS to make a WHS box, I scrapped those plans and set my sites on the HP 470 box.
I just wish the price were around $500 instead of $600. That extra $100 is annoyingly hard to come up with after Xmas.
 
I decided against paying for the HP box. Given that I have more powerful parts already, it will be much cheaper. I also want a standard computer in case I decide to switch to Server 2008 instead of using WHS down the road.
 
[H]ella|[H]ard;1031915194 said:
Hi guys,
One quick question about your servers, are you running the HP server or did you build your own? Reason im wondering is I have a old PC Chips setup that was a folding box that has no Sata and would beed a ram upgrade and hard drive. After the OS, hard drive, Sata card and ram im at a little over $425 and for under $200 more I can just get the HP setup and have no worrys.

Any input guys?
Click to expand...

I had an old Dell GX260 (P4 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, GIG NIC, 2x 250MB IDE) laying around that is dead quiet when operating, so that's what I used. Work bought my copy of WHS because "I need to stay current on all versions of Windows" and what better place to learn than to set it up for myself. The HP server is small and purpose built, but that isn't worth the price premium to me. As much screwing around as I do it would only hurt me to sink ~$550 into a proprietary PC with no optical drive or video out.

If I were you I would forget the SATA add-on card and just pick up a couple of big PATA drives.
 
Vette5885 said:
Yes, please, let us know. Right now my home server is a P4 northwood 2.8 with 8 hard drives: if I can reduce power usage, that would be sweet. I was looking at the VIA systems recently, but I'm worried that they may not have enough performance.
Click to expand...

Well, I couldn't wait. I saw details for the Power Pack 1 (hopefully "1" indicates that there'll be a "2" as well) and they added 64-bit support, so... I just ordered from the Egg:

Conroe-L 430 1.8Ghz
Foxconn 946GZ7MA
A-Data 2x1GB DDR2-800
Season S12 II 330
WHS

Total, w/ shipping: $371

I already have a PCI 4-Port SATA card, plus several drives:
2x 320GB
2x 400GB
3x 500GB
1x 750GB

It'll all be going into a CM Mystique that I already have.

I'll let u know how it turns out. While I wait, I'm going to clean up my files and see if I can remove one of the 320GB drives, maybe save a little power.
 
Great replies everyone, thanks.

I'm really considering getting an old Dell OptiPlex GX system (thanks for the suggestion Choder) as I know those are dead silent, and small enough to boot at the same time.

What I'm also strongly considering is getting some sort of external hard drive storage solution which can be connected to the main system via SATAII, so any further suggestions here would be great.

Also, anyone interested in starting a "Post Pics of your Windows Home Server" thread? :)
 
I built my own versus going the HP route. I am getting ready to replace the optical drive with a sata one to free up some more PATA space since I have a lot of old PATA drives laying around. Eventually I will probably add-in an esata card and an external enclosure.
 
i would love to see a "Post Pics of your Windows Home Server" thread. i am currently considering doing such a project, but had a question or 2. my girlfriend has a laptop that is connected to the network wirelessly, what would be the best option to have it connect to the server? i have been looking at gigabit switches, but that would be for my computer and the server, what could possibly get my close to gigabit speeds with wireless???
 
If her laptop connects using Wireless-G, that will be fine for doing backups and such.
 
You can get the base HP 500GB system for around $600, and it has I think 3 bays for further SATA drive expansion.

Considering the upgrades you are looking at, this may be a more viable option.

You'll need RAM, plus whatever else hardware, plus the OEM license kit from Newegg for around $175 (or whatever the current-minute prices is).

You're halfway there compared to the HP and would have no warranty, no support, nonthing.

I built my own, but I already had everything I needed. I just had to buy the server software OEM kit.



[H]ella|[H]ard;1031915194 said:
Hi guys,
One quick question about your servers, are you running the HP server or did you build your own? Reason im wondering is I have a old PC Chips setup that was a folding box that has no Sata and would beed a ram upgrade and hard drive. After the OS, hard drive, Sata card and ram im at a little over $425 and for under $200 more I can just get the HP setup and have no worrys.

Any input guys?
Click to expand...
 
That means you can have 3.5TB in that machine (at this time). The 500GB HP installed drive, and four 1TB drives you install.

If you need more than that, well, you got a lot more crap than I do LOL



SC385 said:
The HP cases look nice and I really like the low profile size of them but that is also its biggest con. You can only stick 4 HDDs in there so once you have 4 in there your only options are to add external ones or get bigger HDDs. So I say go with a custom built PC that has the room to be expanded. And for the amount you spend on the HP you can get some pretty good parts for a server.
Click to expand...
 
Same here. I just took my existing 2.53Ghz P4 with 512MB, 550w supply and 7 drives and cascaded it to the WHS system. No muss, no fuss. And it's a Lian-Li PC70 case that can hold like 14 drives total :)

Otherwise I would have gone with the HP.

DeaconFrost said:
I decided against paying for the HP box. Given that I have more powerful parts already, it will be much cheaper. I also want a standard computer in case I decide to switch to Server 2008 instead of using WHS down the road.
Click to expand...
 
I'm going to be using 3 250 GB WD drives for now, with another DG965WH and 1 GB of memory. I'm just debating, at this point, whether I want to use a Pentium D 820, or sell the 820 and use a Celeron D 356. Eventually, I'm going to switch these drives over to SATA drives, and add more. This board has 6 SATA ports.

I grabbed one of the Cooler Master CM 690 cases for $40 to house it all.
 
Well I just ordered some goods to start my server. I went with a Aia all in one board @ 1.5ghz, one gig of ram and one 750gig drive to start it out. I also have a 40gig that the os sill sit on. Max power draw on this board is 20 watts and idle is 2. Im guess with the drives at max ill never really go over 35-40 watts.

Ill upload pics when the goods get here.
 
[H]ella|[H]ard;1031939052 said:
Well I just ordered some goods to start my server. I went with a Aia all in one board @ 1.5ghz, one gig of ram and one 750gig drive to start it out. I also have a 40gig that the os sill sit on. Max power draw on this board is 20 watts and idle is 2. Im guess with the drives at max ill never really go over 35-40 watts.

Ill upload pics when the goods get here.
Click to expand...

You will want to use that 750GB drive as the primary drive. WHS uses the first drive as a "landing zone" for files that are then farmed out to the secondary drives as needed.
 
Choder said:
You will want to use that 750GB drive as the primary drive. WHS uses the first drive as a "landing zone" for files that are then farmed out to the secondary drives as needed.
Click to expand...

Yeah from what I've read you typically want your largest/fastest drive as the one the OS sits on.
 
I could be wrong but I think the minimum req. is an 80gb drive and you are STRONGLY discouraged against using RAID with WHS. Read that as it doesn't really work right and your install is going to be buggy as all hell if you try to do a RAID setup of any kind.
 
can WHS act as a print server if i install a printer on to the machine?? will it even let me install a printer ?
 
Well my Homeserver has been up and running for over a week now, and the Via 1.5 CPU can handle the task at hand just fine. Setup was easy and after about a hour I was up and running. Two of my three PCs backed up that night with out a hitch. My main PC that I really wanted backed up the most has a Via north bridge that I come to find out uses NVSTOR.SYS that makes Vista BSOD during backups. Np just grabed all my music and movies and put them on the shared folders on HS.

Total cost to me with shipping $401. Heres the breakdown.

M/B VIA C7-D 1.5G+CN700+gOS DDR2 mATX 1 $59.99
HDD WD 750G 7200RPM 16M SATA2 WD7500AAKS 1 $153.70
MS, WIN HOME SERVER CCQ-00015 DSP 1 $159.99
MEM CORSAIR DDR2-667 1GB VS1GB667D2 1 $19.95

I already had a case with PS.

This little server is great and helps me sleep a little better knowing that all my files, pics and home movies of the kids are safe.

If you guys need some pics lmk ill put some up.
 
I was looking at getting that gOS dev kit to use as a home server but wasn't sure if it would be up to the task. Nice to see that it's working well for you. Do you know if it comes with gigabit ethernet or should I get an ad on card.
 
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