Home server build

[Stan_Lite]

My 2TB NAS drive is nearing capacity now and, rather than shell out for a second or larger one, I've decided to build myself a home server. I just wanted to put the spec on here for people to look at although I'm pretty sure this will suit my needs. Main uses will be SABnzbd/CouchPotato etc, streaming to TV via WDTV box and/or xbox 360 and possibly to smart TV in future.

YOUR BASKET
2 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) £97.99 (£195.98)
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-E350N AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64Bit (1 Server & 10 Client Licenses) - OEM (CCQ-00128) £39.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP2G3D1339DS1S00CEU) £25.99
Total : £423.92 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[zakblood]

with what cpu?

silly question really "Built in with an AMD E-350 Dual-Core processor"

as rest of bits look great

never seen or heard of m/b built in chip either

ah well another day, more brain filled with more new info

 

[Addicted]

Looks good, but I'd potentially look at more SATA ports for future proofing if you can find a board that has more!

I'd probably go for a lower W PSU as well - I managed to find an Enermax 350W elsewhere, it will help with longevity of the PSU as it's running closer to full load than @ 430W.

Probably overbudget/not enough help but this is what I went for:

Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard
AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU)
4x 1TB WD WD10EFRX RED 24x7, SATA 6Gb/
350W Enermax NAXN ENP350AGT, Quiet
2x Zalman FAN MATE 2 Fan controller
Sharkoon 3-pin Y-Cable
Lian Li PC-A04B Black Micro-ATX Mini

It came to around 450-500 mark as well! (I put them in RAID 5, I'd have gone for Seagate being cheaper, but would never buy them again after bad experience).

 

[Stan_Lite]

with what cpu?

as rest of bits look great

The motherboard has an AMD E-350 Dual-Core processor built in.

Looks good, but I'd potentially look at more SATA ports for future proofing if you can find a board that has more!

I'd probably go for a lower W PSU as well - I managed to find an Enermax 350W elsewhere, it will help with longevity of the PSU as it's running closer to full load than @ 430W.

Probably overbudget/not enough help but this is what I went for:

Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard
AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU)
4x 1TB WD WD10EFRX RED 24x7, SATA 6Gb/
350W Enermax NAXN ENP350AGT, Quiet
2x Zalman FAN MATE 2 Fan controller
Sharkoon 3-pin Y-Cable
Lian Li PC-A04B Black Micro-ATX Mini

It came to around 450-500 mark as well! (I put them in RAID 5, I'd have gone for Seagate being cheaper, but would never buy them again after bad experience).

I thought about a similar system to your suggestion but decided the low power of this system would be better (the A6 has a 65W TDP while the E-350 is only 18W). There are 4 SATA ports on the MB so I can add another two hard drives in future, that should give me more than enough future-proofing for the next few years.

 

[zakblood]

i edited my post after i looked at the parts etc, never seen one b4, seems a good setup and the lower poser usage of yours over a Trinity based one makes sense if you dont need or use the power etc

ah well you learn something new every day here

 

[R088ieS86]

WHS runs a little sluggish on HDDs. I've got mine on a 40GB SSD and it runs a little smoother. So that could be a thought if you have a little left over ££ (will also keep power down - although if you are using WHS look @ the lights-out addon for power saving)

 

[Stan_Lite]

WHS runs a little sluggish on HDDs. I've got mine on a 40GB SSD and it runs a little smoother. So that could be a thought if you have a little left over ££ (will also keep power down - although if you are using WHS look @ the lights-out addon for power saving)

I thought about an SSD for an OS drive but I read that it was a bit of a faff setting it up. How was your experience? Did it cause you any problems? Are you able to pool the storage drives while keeping the OS drive separate?
Only real issue is that the OS drive would use up one of my SATA ports limiting my storage potential - not a big issue at the moment but could be an issue in the future. I always have the option of adding USB drives if required, although that would be a bit messy and the whole idea of the home server is to keep everything in one box.

 

[Matblack]

Looks very expensive in comparison to a pre-built micro server Stan

MB

 

[Audigex]

I wouldn't bother with an SSD for your use - you're not going to need a lot of fast loading times etc when streaming, and you're going to be limited for space for HDDs as it is (unless that mini-ITX case is surprisingly large)

Instead of an SSD, I'd look at a slightly more powerful CPU. The one included with the motherboard will be lower power, but it will also feel sluggish in general use (and not just loading times)

 

[zakblood]

my idea is opposite, i have all my storage outside of box, well 19tb is hard to fit inside tbh

o/s on sdd, data / apps on second sdd, will add another sdd later this month making 3 inside case, all storeage on 1tb free drives from ex work, will be replacing later this year when work ex work gets rid of 2tb ones and updates again.

as storage isn't access all the time usb 3 is plenty quick enough for me for my films etc

plus i'd like a quicker cpu than that with WHS also, plus i'd add more ram, but then again thats me, i dont like to wait

 

[R088ieS86]

I thought about an SSD for an OS drive but I read that it was a bit of a faff setting it up. How was your experience? Did it cause you any problems? Are you able to pool the storage drives while keeping the OS drive separate?
Only real issue is that the OS drive would use up one of my SATA ports limiting my storage potential - not a big issue at the moment but could be an issue in the future. I always have the option of adding USB drives if required, although that would be a bit messy and the whole idea of the home server is to keep everything in one box.

I had zero issues. Followed this guide

I use:
YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock B75M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £28.99
Total : £91.88 (includes shipping : £8.25).



So i have 8 SATA ports to use, so using one for the OS wasn't an issue. I also prefer having it seperate to the data drives. But it won't fit in the Prodigy
As far as power and RAM; whilst streaming the CPU & RAM are barely doing anything.

As far as drive pooling is concerned have a look at the Stablebit Drivepool addon for WHS (although just checked the site and you may have to pay for this now...hmmm)

 

[Clav]

HP Microserver, pretty much a quarter of the price.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Looks very expensive in comparison to a pre-built micro server Stan

MB

They actually work out the same. If I spec up the one you bought with 2x3TB drives like my build and upgrade my RAM to 8GB like you got on yours, they both work out almost exactly the same when you include the cashback for the Proliant.

I wouldn't bother with an SSD for your use - you're not going to need a lot of fast loading times etc when streaming, and you're going to be limited for space for HDDs as it is (unless that mini-ITX case is surprisingly large)

Instead of an SSD, I'd look at a slightly more powerful CPU. The one included with the motherboard will be lower power, but it will also feel sluggish in general use (and not just loading times)

I'm thinking I won't bother with the SSD. Sluggishness won't be an issue because it will only be used for storage, streaming and downloading - it won't be in general use (I have plenty of other hardware for that).

 

[Stan_Lite]

HP Microserver, pretty much a quarter of the price.

As above. Not when you spec it up with extra RAM, WHS and 6TB of storage

 

[Stan_Lite]

Actually, having had a look at the cashback claim form for the proliant, WHS doesn't qualify for the cashback so I'm actually a fair bit cheaper.

 

[unleashed]

Asus P8H77-I is a good mini ITX board with 6 SATA connections. Add a core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM and it will handle pretty much anything you can chuck at it WHS wise.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Asus P8H77-I is a good mini ITX board with 6 SATA connections. Add a core i3 CPU, 8GB RAM and it will handle pretty much anything you can chuck at it WHS wise.

With the cheapest i3, that would add £115 to the build. It would also use more power. I was trying to keep it as cheap to build and to run as possible. Also, as I mentioned above, speed isn't an issue. The server will be scheduled to download and unpack at night and through the day it will be used for streaming. I don't need it to be quick.

 

[nutcase]

I thought WHS2011 couldn't cope with 2TB+ drives? I've been trying to find out if it can or not - can anyone clarify?

 

[unleashed]

The above setup with 4 x 5.5" storage HDD plus 2 x 2.5" HDD system HDD running on an Hardware RAID controller at idle pulls measured 35Wish. You could save money and may be a very small about of power by specing:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-450-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2037

Are you planning on doing any transcoding?

 

[Stan_Lite]

The above setup with 4 x 5.5" storage HDD plus 2 x 2.5" HDD system HDD running on an Hardware RAID controller at idle pulls measured 35Wish. You could save money and may be a very small about of power by specing:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-450-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2037

Are you planning on doing any transcoding?

I originally specced it up with a G530 and a Gigabyte MB which was only £17 more than the E350 MB. Would there be much of an advantage going with a Celeron over the E-350? (I'm not used to building low spec machines ).

I will be doing very little transcoding. What little I would need to do, I can do on my gaming rig separately - it's no big hassle.