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 ... 6813130185http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128359Neither 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 ... 68351030512gb 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=71It’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 ... 6811119068But 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=ea380A 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.