Thanks for the info !!!!!

I have a debug board. I bought it while trying to fix the original server. I also have a portable CD/DVD drive. If I hook up the debug board, can I connect the portable CD drive via USB to the server to load the software ? How would I do it ?

I can get my hands on a WHS2011. And like I said, I have an old tower (in fact, it was supposed to be a server tower) that I can probably get an updated motherboard/ processor for less than $200. Honestly, if you think that is a better and easier solution, I'd rather do that. I've never liked the headless system, but dealt dealt with it because it worked fine. Now that I'm having issues, it's a total PITA !!!!

Since you already have a DEBUG Board then all you need to do to load another OS on to the EX485 is to connect a USB DVD Drive to the bottom rear USB Port and boot off it. There 2 areas of the BIOS as I recall that you will need to disable the on board SMI from booting. I don't recall where they are but I could look at the BIOS on the EX485 to find out. The reason is some have reported that when the EX485 has a different OS installed that when it reboots it will boot up into its recovery mode and changing 2 settings in the BIOS prevents this and basically they are settings to disable the USB SMI FLASH.

As for which piece of hardware is better it really comes down to what the hardware is and what your looking to do with your server. Basic file sharing and client backups do not take a lot of power but if your looking to stream media from your server then its a different ball game. The other thing worth looking at is how many bays does the other server have and what drive interface does that server use. Now today with the huge drives now available you need fewer drives then say a few years ago. It all boils down to how much storage capacity you will need. Obviously if you have been living with an EX485 then your storage needs are not all that great but then again once you find uses for it that changes quickly.

On the other unit you will also want to look at what type of expansion slots it has and if its old you may find PCIx slots so to expand it you will need to find those types of cards. That unit may also have multiple processors installed but WHS2011 only supports 1 processor. Then there are the drivers so you will want to see if there are drivers available for the server that run in Server2008 since that's what WHS2011 was built from.

I do have WHS2011 running on an EX485 and I set it up to well see if it could be done, get the LED's working, I have an E5200 in it with 2GB RAM and then I setup a 2 x 2.5 Bay ICY DOCK that fits in a 3.5" Bay and setup the OS Drive RAID 1 but then I dedicated the 2nd bay to the OS Backup and used the other 2 bays for the storage pool which is run by Stablebit Drive Pool. I then installed Remote Potato, and set that up to read my movie files from my WS2012E Server and I have to tell you it streams well online. I was so happy with it I just left it running. I took another EX485 and setup WHS2011 on it for another person who has been using it now I think nearly 2 years and his only issue was with the PSU which I replaced for him.

I actually like WHS2011 its been a very solid running OS for me and for those I have built systems for. The other thing worth mentioning is that with WHS2011 you do not have to worry about the AF Drives as the OS fully supports them.

You can install other server or NAS Software onto your EX485 and this has been written about in the forums. Some may mention installing a different OS on a different HP MSS Model but basically its all the same thing with the difference in getting the right drivers and of course the LED's will not function properly but there is a fix for that in WHS2011 but I am uncertain about the other OS's.

_________________
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

Lol. I think I understood about every 3rd word of that.

I don't have a need for a lot of storage, but I was hoping to get at least 4TB. Don't do a lot of video streaming, but have a ton of music we listen too. However the 485 was setup, it worked for my purpose.

If I built the other case into a server, I'm not really worried about the cards. All I would really need would be a vid card. I have a few old disk drives that would probably work in a 2008 OS. I know they're older than 08. I'm more interested in the processor and hard drive limitations of WHS2011.

Well the 485 is as simple as it gets and it will do the job. If the NIC is not working you can always install a USB-LAN Adapter and work around the NIC issue. The stock Celeron in the EX485 will work but the performance will suffer a bit.

I believe but not quite sure you can use the larger then 2TB Drives in the EX485 running WHS2011. I would look through the forums to see who is using the larger drives. Always nice to know you can use them even though your needs can be met with a couple 2TB Drives.

Still a close look at the other unit might be worth your time because it might provide a more robust solution for you. In the end its what ever works for you.

_________________
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