This Topic is about DIY building a Windows Home Server as an alternative to the HP MSS family.

Now, before anybody climbs on me about posting this thread, it was not originally my intention to do so on this site. However, I am doing so on orders from Yakuza and UberModerator Cougar . I am therefore going to politely request that MSS vs Homebuilt comments be kept brief, factual and non-emotional. I have said many times that I think the MSS is an outstanding concept for the average user, and the latest “Encore” models appear to be moreso. ALL the opinions expressed by me are my own and nobody elses.
This thread is intended for those who are on the higher tech end and whose needs exceed the Consumer End-User market, which the MSS serves well.

Background: I had an MSS early on…but the Data Bug became apparent while I was still in return period, and I did. Shortly thereafter, I built a test-rig out of spares on hand and played with it a bit. My attention was diverted to other matters, and I , like many, was wanting more than what the EX470 offered even with tweaking, and more than any MSS would likely be. Having had some wind of what “Encore” would be, and being a hardware geek, I knew I had to build my own server. I also knew that to do so would be less expensive, more powerful and more future proof. So, I set out with the following goals:

Keep the cost down.

Have adequate CPU, Memory and Storage expansion.

Have as much Storage contained in one box as possible, without having external boxes, power bricks, etc.

Make it as energy efficient as possible without becoming compulsive.

My goals were NOT :

Size, absolute energy efficiency, or Support.


NEXT, gathering the parts.

Building a WHS server is NO DIFFERENT in any way from building a PC except for some planning specific to the purpose.

Gigabit Ethernet was a must. I wanted 8 SATA-II ports on the Motherboard, as I had a case to suit (See Below). The first thing I discovered is that at the moment, 8 SATA mobos are Intel Country..AMD boards are currently maxed at 6 (I am sure this will change very soon). The good side is that these boards are all Core2/Quad, and that is exactly the Socket/Chipset combo that fits the Celeron-L 35w chips (430 1.8, 440 2.0, 450 2.2). I had used the 430 in my test-rig, and was very impressed. Fast, cool, low power. So far so good. I already had the 430, and the 450 was selling for $42 delivered OEM.


I looked around at current and recent boards, with my primary choices being:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130185

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128359

Neither of these boards has on board video…for WHS pretty much anything in a GPU will work, and I had on hand several pci and pci-e cards. If you don’t have one from an older PC, this adds as little as $25 to the cost.

As I had set out to aquire the components for this build over some time and with cost in mind, I stalked the net and after several failed bids on Ebay, I was able to snipe the MSI P43 Neo3 board for $32.00 delivered.

Now that I have the mobo set, I decided to go ahead and buy the OEM 450 CPU, and hold the 430 for future use. I have a CoolerMaster CPU cooler on hand:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103051


2gb of DDR-2 800 were next on the list. I bought 2x1gb Samsung Cas 5 15-5-5-5 ram from a trusted seller on Ebay, $15 delivered. Pretty much any DDR-2 800 will do. Why not more ram now? No one has shown me that it is needed. The board will allow 16gb, so I can worry about that in another lifetime!

My board is populated, next, where to put it?

The Case is the thing…with multiple drive bays come size. I had this case on hand, used to be my main PC, and a great expandable box:

http://www.coolermaster.com/products/pr ... tail&id=71

It’s no longer made, and may not be the optimal case for WHS. It has an almost insane 9 bays, and something comparable would be:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119068

But for now, I’m sticking with the Cavalier.

Now I need a power supply. I have on hand:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... &Tpk=ea380
A unit I have built many PC’s with and never a hitch. The question here becomes “Can I get by with 300 Watts?”. Maybe, but with the intention of spinning 8 1tb and larger HDDs, I am going to cheat on the high end. The last thing I want to crash is an 8-plus TB server.
HDDs and other parts

For my boot drive I chose the WD7501AALS Caviar Black. I don’t believe that a 32mb cache is consequential in a storage drive, but I think it matters for boot time, OS and “landing zone” operations, and if in the end the WHS is called upon for transcoding or similar fuctions. The size was chosen simply because it was a few bucks more than the 500, and several less than the 1tb.

For the first storage drive, I had no other drive in mind than the 1tb WD10EACS (now replaced by the WD10EADS), because it is proven reliable, cool and low-power. If I am going to run 8 of these, heat and power are very important. I have some older IDE and SATA-1 drives I’ll throw in while I populate the higher capacity drives over time.

The MSI board has 4 USB 2.0 ports, which is plenty, but I have on hand a PCI 4-port card which I’m going to stick in for the heck of it. 8 rear USB and two front should be enough.

My cables are pretty much all on hand or supplied with the PSU or Mobo. My SATA-II drives are will be connected with SATA-II 3.0gbs cables. These can be had cheap from monoprice.com. Is there really a difference from older SATA cables? I don’t know, but for a buck each, I err on the yes side. Older cables are used for the SATA-1 drives. The PSU has enough SATA power connectors for now, but in the future I will need to use molex-SATA connectors and some y-connections.

I have all the hardware, and now it’s time to put it together.

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This Space For Rent

There will be a brief intermission while I figure out how to integrate pics into the text.

"Oh. post some pics too" Sez the Yak, who knows I am really a moron...

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This Space For Rent

Pic 1: The motherboard looks like this, naked, a really pretty design:

This board was designed to run Dual/Quad Cores , and operate with maximum cooling efficiency…notice the heatpipes for the Northbridge. 8 SATA-II ports in the top left. This is my first MSI board, and I am already impressed with the layout except for one thing: The floppy connector (which doesn’t show up so well here) is located as far from a floppy as you can get, in what would be the lowest rear corner of the board. Luckily, it doesn’t matter.

Pic 2: The CPU cooler I am using requires a bracket beneath the mobo, which provides the most secure method of attaching a heatsink/cooler. It also requires assembly with the mobo outside of the case. Not a big deal, unless you have a problem screwing the board down with the cooler in place. In my case, it’s not a problem, and I go ahead and install the CPU, Heatsink/Cooler and RAM on the mobo:

Notice I dog the fan wires between the unused RAM clips.

I prepare the case by inserting the PSU (no pic here, it’s slide it in and 4 screws). I place my hard drives and optical drive (left this out above, it’s an IDE DVD-ROM to preserve SATA slots), then insert and secure the motherboard assembly.

Pic 3: After connecting the PSU, drives, etc. , I insert the GPU and the USB card:

Note that I have marked the case for my own future memory:
Boot Drive = SATA1
Drive 1 = SATA 2, etc.
Top and second bays are marked “DVD” and “IDE” in red, so don’t show up well.
Yes, I know it’s crude, but you write with a Magic Marker on aluminum and plastic!
The other bays are unmarked as for now.
That’s it. Now let’s see if it works. More when I get a chance.

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This Space For Rent

As is most often the case, I turned the PSU on, pushed the power button and it posted. Sorry for the piss-poor pics!

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This Space For Rent

The CPU and the RAM show up fine in the Bios

So works, and next (later) will be loading WHS.

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This Space For Rent

As I have said before on the forum, installing WHS is about the easiest thing in the MSFT world. Unlike any MSFT OS I have encountered in many years, you put the disk in and in fends for itself.

The thing I find most interesting ( if not frightening) is this screen..it says you can break it!

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This Space For Rent

There is a slight burp to install the NIC driver, and I Don't even bother with the audio.

WHS reports the CPU as a Pentium, though System reports the Celeron 450 accurately (pic lost)

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This Space For Rent

SO...The monologue is over, from here on I will have more questions than answers.

In the last pic, you can see that it has been named after Cougar

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This Space For Rent

A great series of posts, mine will follow soon (new test rig). I'd name it after you but the numbers would confuse me so I'll just call it JackDaniels

Look forward to seeing what you do with this one.

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John (jd33308), with your contributions to the forum and your insightful wit at times, I'm surprised that you haven't been "Thanked" yet. It's my pleasure to give you your first "Thanks" in the initial post (a tear just came to my eye).

Thanks for your efforts in putting this particular post together with pics and all. I know it took you quite some time to do and we all benefit from the fruits of your labour. It's certainly helped to broaden my horizons on what is possible outside of the MSS world.

I'm trying to piece together what it would cost to build a DIY WHS based on your information but I'm finding it difficult because you also had many parts already hanging around. I also think what can make the solution appear "expensive" is the cost for the WHS license itself ($129 I think). When you factor that in, the costs for a DIY WHS appear to skyrocket.

I love the flexibility that the DIY WHS can provide and am looking forward to the comments that come out of this thread.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

Hey, I'm just glad there is no F-You Button...

I'm going to post a complete list of what building this would cost based on current prices if you just bought it retail. I still have to buy the WHS OS, as I am running the 120 day Evaluation copy.

Another thing I didn't address was future expansion. If I should feel a need for it, I can slap a Core2 in the board at any time. The ONLY reason would be if I decide to upconvert video on the fly, which is not in my plans. It would also use much more power and require a bigger PSU. But it's there.

The case has several PCI slots, so with the addition of SATA controller cards, numerous Esata are simple. 8 rear USB are available.

When I have time, I'll play with externals (I have a Esata bracket I can connect to an open SATA on the board).

BTW, I didn't realize that PVconnect is an HP MSS propietary add-in. So I have to find an alternate.

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This Space For Rent

What is the total hard disk capacity limit of your system? My understanding is that the limit would be 16TB due to NTFS (which is also the limit for the MSS). Is that a fair assumption?

http://forum.wegotserved.co.uk/index.ph ... howfile=79

I think that I read were PV Connect & Twonky Media are the same.

It's not free though.

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Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
Core 2 Quad Core Q9550s
4GB Mushkin Ram
TR4MB eSata Enclosure
TR4UB USB Enclosure
Netgear WNDR3700
UPS APC 1500 XS LCD

There are documented WHS with greater than 22TB of storage and having greater than 19TB of data stored on them.


http://mswhs.com/2008/11/05/windows-hom ... rd-drives/

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Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
Core 2 Quad Core Q9550s
4GB Mushkin Ram
TR4MB eSata Enclosure
TR4UB USB Enclosure
Netgear WNDR3700
UPS APC 1500 XS LCD

There is a thread on this forum devoted to this 16TB issue: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=79&hilit=16+ntfs+limit

According to Yakuza's post the culprit is NTFS. If that's the case then this should apply to all WHS based systems. Could it be that the servers you refer to have a bunch of drives outside the shared storage pool?