Looking for some advice on this Home server build!

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Not picky... within a month maybe

BUDGET RANGE: I am aiming at around 600-700

SYSTEM USAGE: Home Server - Media/File/Everything storage with different access rights, file repository for future HTPC, possible storge point for recorded TV, backup of all home computers(image/select file based), print server, download box, central monitoring station for anti-virus/firewall and other security software, educational purposes (not high priority), maybe run as a DHCP/DNS server?!, maybe use a RADIUS server with WPA2, a torrent box as well.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any good reputable sites such as newegg.ca, ncix, tigerdirect.ca, canadacomputers among others.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada

PARTS PREFERENCES: Looking for a combo that outputs low heat, uses less power and silent. Something along the lines of a Athlon X2 AM3 or a low-end Core 2 Duo. Dual Core is quite important for me as it will be flexible for any future endeavors. 2gb RAM again for flexibility.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: As this is a Home server it is important that it is silent, efficient, low heat output and low in the watts scale.

The HP home servers are awesome but the 4 internal drive limit is not working great
True I can use esata port replicators and such, but the extra cost for a multiple hdd enclosure and such is little too much. On top of that I love a DIY build and wouldn't mind spending on such a build.

I do understand Intel Atom is a viable option, but due to its mini-ITX design, chassis with enough hdd bays are not available. Aiming for atleast 6 hdd bays for future expandability.
After trying out Windows Home Server in Virtual PC on my main desktop, it does have the best of both worlds by being very easy to use and also the advanced option/facilities (using add-ons or remoting in). WHS is my choice OS atm.

A potential worry for me is the WD EARS version of hdds that use 4k sectors won't be compatible with WHS. However I do like the efficiency on storing large number of files. Based on this what would you guys recommend? Windows 7/Server R2 for now and Windows Home Server v2 when it releases. Am also planning on using Vail now till it reaches RTM and such. I have read quite a bit but no definite answer on how stable it is?, any ideas?

All computers are connected via wireless-n as they are a floor above the router. The future HTPC will most likely be next to the server and both of them will be connected to the router using a cat6 cable. DIR-655 is the one connecting all this. I've read that wireless is not the way to go for a such a setup but running cables through or spending a fortune on wiring the house is not an option . Even still no HD content will be streamed via wireless.

Here are the following components I am looking at:

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 235e (2.7Ghz, this model seems to be out of stock in many places) or Athlon X4 600e as both have a 45W TDP, will really help in power draw and heat. Also if needed a better heatsink/fan for silent operation. Have some Arctic MX-2 left over from my desktop build.

Motherboard: Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H as it is AM3 supports DDR3, m-ATX! and has USB3/SATA 6 for future expandable storage!.Or is the ATX version better as it has more PCI/PCIe for more SATA ports

RAM: Any value tier 2gb ddr3

HDD: Will be going for atleast one WD Green 2TB hdd right away. The large part of storage will be media files, mostly videos. I do respect and praise the different RAIDs but would like to stay away from that complexity and just use the duplication feature within WHS for important documents. Wil be adding SATA cards when needed, any recommendations?

GPU: Onboard

Case: Another difficult decision - Need something small as this case has to be near the router in the living room therefore needs to stay hidden behind a side table and cant have wire running all over. The side table is around 16.5" tall and 17.5" long.
Cases that got my attention due to size and prices:
Antec VSK-2000
Cooler Master CMP 350
Asus CS TM-B11
Cooler Master Elite 342
Antec VSK-4482B also has a 80+bronze 380W PSU, almost perfect! -85$
around 50CAD
Air filters are important due to its near 24/7 operation time (or are they?). The Antec VSK is the only one in the list that has a front air filter. Considering all this the Antec p180 mini is the perfect! case but alas its near 100CAD

If I go with the 4482B I have a total of 5 internal 3.5" and 3 5.25", can convert 2 5.25" into 3 3.5" for hdd, the top 5.25" can be for a DVD drive.
Reading through MSS has revealed another tactic of using a single standalone drive as the OS, therefore separating the storage drives from OS access/issues/formats etc. I want to hear what you guys think of such a method in my situation? worth it? or just install it on a 2tb green drive along with other storage.
If so is there a bracket for a 5.25" that splits into a 2.5" hdd and a slim ODD (DVD drive)
Want to keep most of my storage inside and not take extra space.

PSU: As recommended a quality PSU (for continuous usage). eXtreme power calculator game me values from 270-300W(6 green hdd) at 90% TDP and load based on configurations similar to my parts preference. Therefore a 350-400W PSU? Would like 80+ certified PSU for power draw, heat and efficiency reasons. (Corsair?)

In the end I am looking for something that doesn't use much energy and dissipates low amounts of heat 1st, silent 2nd and efficient 3rd.

Feel free to criticize, change and suggest other configurations.

Sorry for the long post, but so much has been buzzing through my head while researching on this home server!.
Thanks!!
HP

Here is my build;

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7793

Nice build there!
However I am looking for something with more HDD bays like around 6-8 (and above is possible but 6-8 ought to do it)
I am surprised that a 180W PSU withstood an i5, H55 and 4x3.5" hdd.. lol


After reading my post, it felt confusing and very ramble like so here is a concise version of my orginal post

Whats the best case with most HDD bays that can blend well with a living room, preferably 16.5" tall and 18" long?.
Current choices:
Antec VSK-2000
Cooler Master CMP 350
Asus CS TM-B11
Cooler Master Elite 342
Antec VSK-4482B also has a 80+bronze 380W PSU
Any others?

How stable is Vail for current use in Home servers and WHS activities?.

Athlon X2 235e (2.7Ghz - dual core) vs Athlon X4 600e (2.2Ghz - quad core) - the best for Vail? or other energy efficient CPU?

HD content most likely will not be stored and it will be SD. WHS duplication backup will be used only on important files and most media files will be left out as backing up everything is just way too expensive and space consuming in the living room.

Please keep the price in mind as I do want to save as much as possible unless it calls for it

I went with that case because of size. I wanted small, just like the HP MSS and I paid for it. $200. However, there is room inside the case for 2 2.5 Laptop drives and the 4 Hotswp drives. So with a 2.5 250 inside I run the OS. Running 4 2 TB in the hotswap bays and still romm for a 1 TB 2.5 drive inside. That gives me 9 TB, and Seagate announced 3 TB drives by the end on 2010. More than enough for me. Also, what takes alot of room in my server is Movies. I do not Folder Duplicate on the videos. I install an backup HD and backup the videos, and kkep that drive separate from the server, locked away.

On Vail, I currrently am running that as my MAIN server(Not recommended). I also keep a backup of all my data on other drives, so when Vail does make significant OS updates, I can just reformat the OS drive, install a new OS, and then use the backup data to reinstall all my data on the new OS server.

There are many case that are very inexpensive and can accomodate over 9 HD. Saw one on Newegg fo $29-39. Here is one for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 33094-LC7C


Also Today at Newegg the Ex490 is $389 free shipping, not a bad starter server, however, the CPU will probably need upgraded.

I wouldn't recommend Vail as your main WHS machine for now. Vail is in an early beta stage with several features missing and /or yet to be added. Also, there are no add-ins available yet. You should though, if you want to use Vail, start formulating a stragegy for migrating to Vail when its released to final.

Interesting....

I guess I will go with WHS for now and migrate to v2 when it gets RTMd. What kind of plans do u mean cavediver?
As the OS side of things are straight, what case would you guys recommend for a living room, big or small, preferable 16.5" high and 6 or more hdd bays.

I have excluded many mainstream cases from my search before and will now have a look at them.

Basically a plan/strategy for migrating your data from WHS to Vail. It really depends on how much data you have in your storage pool, and how much money and time you're willing to spend.

I see...
I do not understand what plans it would be, like what would it involve?
My understanding would be format the OS drive and re-install considering the OS is on its own HDD.

Please do explain
Thanks

@ Cavediver ~ I plan on just moving my data back to an EX470 with a port multiplier attached and just play move the data then as I free up space in my primary server then I get to play move the drives. I sit here and say now thats a royal PITA but then I always try to think of someone whos task at hand is harder then mine and I thought of you and your server and now its not so bad. I mean I recall you mentioning you and correct me if I am wrong but I believe you mentioned building a new server to handle Vail. Is that what you are planning them simply move the data and then the drives or will the Vail server be an addition to your existing server?

@ HPMSS ~ Chose wisely and take your time. Sometimes even the best of cases come with very loud fans and since noise is of concern for you, then you might also start looking for low noise level fans with good CFM rates. I also know your concerned with power consumption and looking for a low wattage CPU but do not sacrifice processing power to much just to save energy or you could end up have a server bogging down on you depending on what your planning on doing with it. Speaking of which the configuration you end up with should not only meet the needs you know about but also allow you some growth. I would watch the progress of Vail very closely and spend some time reading the message threads. I am certain they will help you better determine a hardware configuration that will work best for Vail and you down the road.

As for the data migration from the current version of WHS to the VAIL or what ever Microsoft will call it, you have to understand that installing Vail is not like an upgrade its a new install so you will have to move your data somewhere then install Vail and move it back if your running WHS v1. So its a full install and if you do not move your data then you will lose it but you can remove the drives and then install them in another computer and move the data off them but thats a pain but its possible. In short if you can wait for Vail to be released it might make your life easier but if you want WHS now then just understand what installing Vail will mean when the time comes.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I'm going to build a completely new server (maybe Andromeda II), running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Vail running in Hyper-V. I'll just copy all of Andromeda's data to the new server. With the two of them attached to the same gigabit switch, it shouldn't take but several days to copy all the data over.

I think if you look around, some people have fairly complicated drive management - copy - paste - remove - replace, etc., scenarios devised for migrating their data from WHS to Vail. This is only necessary if you can't build or buy a new server to house Vail and you need to re-use existing drives. A simple copy and paste from old machine to new machine is the easiest but more costly.

I see...
so the storage pool disks cant be just removed and placed into the new machine or recognized by another OS? (maybe due to JBOD like configuration?)

How would this setup work?
Win7 for now..use the disks as needed (will be having 2x2TB green drives for now)
Would the drives that need to be added to storage pool need to be formatted/empty?

I cant wait too long but would like to keep Vail option open without causing too much problems and thus avoid WHS for now, would that help?

Looks like whatever be the way I go, OS needs to be on a separate hdd to keep things safe.

There is a lot I backup/store in my ext 1TB hdd(almost full which is why I need an external storage soon) and DVDs, for now I can hold of on them.

Another plan is to just use 1x2tb hdd for whatever I am using WHSv1/Win7+storage for the time being(constrict myself to that amount) and keep the 2nd for a complete copy when its time to reinstall WHSv2? and also get a OS dedicated hdd too.

Oh my..... Andromeda II, Andromeda was a beast, insane and awesome creation. Its sad that it cant be re-used for Vail and all that money spent.....

Andromeda is perfectly configured for Vail. However, Andromeda will continue to be my primary production WHS machine for a long time. I'm now using my upgraded HP MSS EX470, which was my main production WHS for over a year, for a Vail test server. When Vail is released to final, I'll build another server and slowly build it up like I did with Andromeda.

I would go against the prevailling wind and recommend that you get an EX490 as your first Home Server and play around with it. Maybe upgrade the Processor and get familar with the strengths and weakness of WHS. Then as vail gets stable and is released think about building a sever for that. In most cases it's not about putting hardware together to form a good base for a system but understanding the system and putting together a hardware base that compliments the system. Just like the cases your looking at, I have found with trial and error it's not a good thing to use drive bays which are not hot swapable - may sound like a good thing but when you need to swap drives or not allow the system to reach a drive, it is easy to pull a drive tray not so easy if they are fixed drives in a case. Just my two cents.

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HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

True in the end it can always store and that is the final goal



Hmmm.... interesting, hot swappable is quite expensive and getting it would be out of my budget also buying a EX490 now and a customized server later on is out of my budget and I'm pretty sure my media storage will grow fast and considering I will get a HTPC sometime soon it is best if I can store all my DVDs on my home server
I do agree your method is the best but sadly funds and time
(Sweet setup there erail and in a way the luckiest, considering how you got many quality components free! )

Norco RPC-450 seems like a very solid case, within price range, 4U and 11x3.5"hdd bays and 2x5.25" bays. It actually might meld into the living room much more than the other mainstream cases out there considering its sleek/plain black exterior.