http://blogs.dootdoot.com/mike

Aug

7

Potential WHS Parts List

Filed Under Home Server, Projects

Now that my course is over, another item on my list of things to do has been put together a Windows Home Server. I have been actively watching WHS for the past few months, and since Power Pack 1 was released, it’s hard to say no to. Plus, I’ve run out of storage space at home, so it is a good time to invest in a storage server.

The storage server will be more beneficial than just “adding another hard drive.” It will also alleviate my other computers from requiring so much storage. My media center will also get to run a lot cooler once I am able to pull the extra three hard drives out of him. It will also let me build up my new desktop to be a mini-tower or shuttle-type desktops to save power/space.

Partial Parts List:Windows Home Server

Case/PSU/SATA_BP: $319.93
CPU/MB/RAM: $309.97
HDD’s: $109.99 (Starter HDD’s)

Total: $ 739.89

Note: I am not dedicated to these parts just yet. I am more than open to suggestions. This list is just a start for me to have a record of (and links to parts). Also, I am more than confident that this is an overkill for what I need, and may consider downgrading some items. However, I am trying to build a case with the SATA II backplanes (preferably room for two, if not three) so that I can hold more than a stock 5-6 drives, like in a standard case.

Basically, what it comes down to is that I want something with expandability. I will be putting in 4-6 drives in the WHS just to start with, and if that maxes out the space, then it would not do me a lot of good if I am unable to upgrade past that point. With three SATA backplanes I would be able to easily add 15 drives, plus 1 system drive. That should leave a good amount of room for future expandability, which should hopefully help keep this thing from being worthless in 6 months.

Edit: There is a third option that I guess I did not consider, instead of uber-expensive and/or moderately expensive, I could use my old P4 as a “starter” WHS. It would save me from buying a new case, power supply, motherboard, processor and ram. There are a few major down-sides though:

  1. The P4 is not 100% “stable.” The computer does alright most of the time, but still has his quirks and random restarts. This could also be from a crappy PSU, or just a really old install of XP. I am not sure how WHS will handle random restarts though, especially if it is in the middle of file replication.
  2. The current case only has room for 1x SATA II backplane, which means I would have to install some drives internally, and also limits the amount of drives I can install to 8. This could prove to be a pain later if I have to transition the parts into a new case.
  3. I have not read how easy/hard it is to move from one WHS install to another. If the P4 eventually craps out on me, how easy is it to restore the content on the drives to a new WHS install? This is actually the one thing that scares me about WHS, the “system” partition has no redundancy. The data can, but the system doesn’t. I would like to know more about how WHS handles “restores.” I may have to purposefully reinstall over WHS after putting some temp files on the storage array first to verify how easy it is to recover, however I will still have to do research about how easy it is to move the storage pool to new hardware/install, if it is even possible at all.

Comments

4 Responses to “Potential WHS Parts List”

  1. mike on August 7th, 2008 8:05 am

    An alternate case, that offers very similar features, but slightly less fancy:

    Case: Antec Three Hundred $59.95

  2. Sonja on August 7th, 2008 9:57 am

    I shall support you in what you enjoy - but goodbye money. :(

  3. mike on August 7th, 2008 10:21 am

    Well, there is an alternative to not having to spend as much money. See the “EDIT.” Although I will admit, I am a little insecure of how good of an idea that is.

  4. mike on August 7th, 2008 11:50 pm

    Added a couple GIGABYTE motherboard options:

    * GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 (6 SATA) $107.99
    * GIGABYTE GA-EP35C-DS3R LGA 775 (8 SATA) $129.99

    Both seem like decent motherboards, basically what I was looking at though was the on-board SATA ports.

    With an end goal of having 15 drives (in this one machine), the combinations to get to a number that works is tough. 6+4+4=14 (1 short). 8+4+4=16 (1 over). Assuming I purchase 4-port SATAII controller cards (since the 8/12/16+ are way out of my price range, only the 4 ports are really cost effective).

    So basically I have to make a choice if I want to sacrifice one end drive to save a $20, or find another motherboard.

    I would prefer something with a minimum of 6 SATA ports though. If it only has 4, that means I’ll have to buy an additional SATA controller to make 15 drives, which costs an extra $60.

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