Ok, so I have decided I can not live without a WHS and I want to build it myself. I have been lurking around this forum for a few weeks reading and learning and now I seek the advice of so many that gone before me. My main goals of the WHS will be backup other WIN7 machines and single store for my media (movies, photos & music). I was looking at the following items:

Case - Antec Three Hundred
MoBo - ASUS M4A785TD-M-EVO (AMD Socket AM3, 4 DIMM DDR3, VGA, GBLan, 5 SATA connectors, etc....)
CPU - AMD Athlon II X4
PSU - Cooler Master RS500
DVD - LG DVD+-R
Sys HD - WD Caviar Blue 320gb
Additional HD's - WD 2TB Caviar Green
Misc CPU Fan and front case fans

This is not a huge case, but it should meet my immediate needs with some room to grow with the 9 total drive bays.

So now the questions start....
As a media server and backup machine, is the CPU overkill?
Is the MoBo enough?
Is the 500w PSU enough?
Is the Caviar Blue a good choice for the system disc?
Is the Caviar Green a good choice for the media discs?

Thanks in advance for your input. I can not wait to get started on this build.
Scott

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

You don't state exactly which CPU you're considering. If you're considering a quad core, then yes, it's overkill for a media server/backup machine.

An AMD 785 chipset mobo is a good choice for a media server.

It should be.

If you're going to use the system disk as a system disk only and not allow any storage pool data on it, then 320GB is a waste of space. Either 80 GB, 120GB or 160GB are plenty big enough. If you're going to put Vail on it, then the system drive will need to be at least 120GB.

Any of the Green or LP drives, WD, Seagate or Samsung F3EG, are a good choice for WHS storage pool drives. I've noticed that the Samsung F3EG drives run quite a bit cooler than the Seagates or WDs.

First off, I do not believe there is anything call CPU overkill. Maybe for most of the time the server is not doing much work, but with the new low power processor, and the need to push/stream 40G bluray rips, I BUY POWER. My current build is on an Intel I5 650, with an upgraded path to an i7 when the prices drop. Thats just me, be all over this forum is guys upgrading pocessors to get more power, dont be one on them. BUt, with that said, a Quad core Phenom II would rock!

I personally never look at a MB with less than 6 SATA, but again thats just me. With the MB you elected youcan always add a SATA card.

DVD drive not really required. Yep, they are cheap, but they aslo take up a slot in the case and a SATA port. Yiou can always uase an external to load WHS, or do a USB Thumb drive for the install. Once windows is installed, you RDP into from clients anyway.

Did not see WHS software on the list. Depending on your time lime, V1 is the only thing available right now, execpt for Vail Beta. You WILL want to go Vail in the end, just a guess.

For the install HD, if WHS v1, I would go with the 80-120G as recommended above. My short time with WHS V1 (now running Vail) was not good with the OS and data pool on the same drive. Even with Vail, which I think is a min of 160G, not 120G, I am running a 250G Laptop drive, used only for OS, and the rest of the drive NOT added to the pool. I do not FOLDER DUPLICATE everything, so if I loose the OS drive, I loose no data, just replace theOS drive do a restore and all is good.

Good Luck, I did a DIY about 2 months ago. See i5 build in the DIY section. Also is the link on how to do WHS Boot USB stick, if you decide not to get the DVD drive.

Rhino

Cavediver,

Thanks for the response. I was considering the AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8Ghz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000mhz, Quad Core for the CPU.
For the system HD, the 320gb model is overkill, but price difference from 160gb to 350gb was only $7.50. I wanted to use this as an insurance policy against future/larger OS releases. Thanks for the information on the Samsung F3EG drives. I will check them out.

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

Thanks Rhino for the quick response.


I am looking at the Quad core Athalon II, but assume it will hold up fairly well to the work I am proposing for this server. Please respond back if am incorrect in thinking the Athalon to be just marginally less than the Phenom in performance and upgradability. I have not yet moved into Blueray, but must assume it will be in my life eventually.


I plan to rip my movies from the server, hence the DVD drive. Also, the cost is low, so I can always remove and throw it way later in exchange for an external drive.


You are correct. I do plan to purchase WHS and move to Vail once it is out. Hopefully there will be an upgrade path then. I do not look forward to a full install.


Yes, I also plan to only use the system drive for the OS. The additional size was only based on what was available for what price.

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

There will most likely NOT be an upgrade path from WHS to Vail since WHS is 32 bit and Vail is 64 bit.

Thanks Cavediver

I guess the next question is.... Is there an estimated release date for Vail? I may be willing to wait for the production release if it is under six months away. I guess I could build for testing, but not fully load up my storage pool.

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

Vail probably won't be released to final until at least the end of this year or early next year, but only MS really knows.

I myself am in a similar process/stage for a Home server.
The Antec 300 is a good case and a decent number of hdd bays. In my case, the height was a issue in the living room therefore a 4u Norco RPC-450B will work right considering how it will slide underneath my side table.
Keep in mind, if you rip blu-rays in the future 9 hdd bays will run out quick , at that time maybe external enclosure for many hdd or a complete 2nd server might be an option. Who knows by that time 4tb+ dries might be out and everything will be just perfect!

That is an excellent mobo, however i recommend looking for something with atleast 6 SATA ports (the Asus of that range usually have 5 and 1 eSATA), ATX sizes do help. Gigabyte usually hold a standard of 6.
I myself am going for a Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H (ATX, 6xSATA3, 2xSATA2, 2xUSB3.0 and the basic rest), in the future SATA3 should be more efficient for port multipliers (hopefully!) and USB 3.0 can easily satisfy 2 HDDs.

I would recommend an energy efficient CPU, like the Athlon X4 6xxe or Phenom X4 9xxe. Wish they were in stock here in Canada (in the major stores). Beware they can be a bit more expensive than their normal versions.
The Phenom II X4 9xxe should have the horse power for streaming, check out some of the reviews online on how well they perform as I'm not too sure.

PSU as everybody recommends has to be solid, branded and long lasting. I do not know how Cooler Master fares now a days, but I can recommend: Antec, Seasonic, Corsair and Silverstone.
A really good and commonly known Wattage calculator based on components
A very structured PSU guide
A complete guide on choosing parts (for all computers in general) if you wish to look in depth
I'm planning on getting a Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W, lots of SATA and molex power pins! for those future HDD upgrades.

I recommend WD for drives, they work great for me and the overall word on the street is the same.
Personally a WD Black drive is best as the system drive, to keep the speed up and all WD green drives as storage.
Otherwise all WD drives are awesome.

Now based on where you keep it fans, CPU heatsink all have to be chosen according to sound output!

WHS v1 to Vail can be tricky as I was advised to have another backup of all my data during the move
Pretty much the disks cant be transferred over I believe. Other experienced forum members will have more to say on the matter.

Thanks HPMSS.



Yes, I need to keep BD in mind. Not having BD yet, exactly how big is the average movie? 25gb?



Unfortunately the Athalon II X3 400e is the best energy efficient AMD I can currently find in Australia.



I'll take a look at the PSU again. All the brands you listed are readily available down under. Thanks for the links.

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

Blu-ray files whether ts, m2ts or mkv can range anywhere from ~15GB to 48GB. The size of the files depend on many different factors. Lossy vs lossless HD audio files can affect the file size quite a bit. Also, stripping out everything except for the main movie and audio track can reduce the size considerably.

Blu-ray ripped sizes, as cavediver said.
The ripped ones that is available online that use x264, lossy 5.1 etc are very good rips but not upto reference quality, however they range from 8-15GB.

I believe a Triple core should do it, read online reviews and have a look. If not go for a normal CPU which does not exceed a TDP of 95W. Accordingly get an aftermarket HSF to cool it too

48GB!?!?!? People say 4TB drives will be available soon, with BD's we better start hoping for 8 to 12TB.

_________________
Thanks,
Scott

WHS - CPU AMD Athlon II-X4, MB ASUS M4AB9GTD Pro, Case Antec 300, RAM 4GB DDR3, Storage 7.6 TB

That's nearly the same build as mine that I just threw together a couple weeks ago It's also my first server.

I went with the Phenom II 905e cpu. It's quad-core, yet very power efficient for a home server or htpc setup, only 65w tdp. I went with a quad-core cpu because I'm anticipate encoding video on the server, as my client pc's aren't powerful enough to do it efficiently.

If your just ripping movies and not having to encode video...then a quad-core cpu probably isn't necessary. I'm not sure what other activities you might engage in on the server that would make efficient use of all cores?

PS: I like the Antec Case...but not so easy for cable management. System has been idling around 25-28 degress celsius with this setup, in fact while transcoding video via ps3mediaserver to stream to my ps3 I don't think my temps passed 32-33 degrees C.

Yes for that very reason I haven' been ripping my BD yet...just going through my dvd's. Keep in mind, that if your going with the Vail beta to start, you will have to reformat your drives when upgrading to the release version of Vail. So however much you store on there you have to make sure you have enough other HD space to swap off and on when you inevitably have to reinstall. So my blu-rays won't get any love until Vail's released and final.