New Home Server

[neonplanet40]

Hi guys I am looking to build a new Home Server. You can see my current one in my sig at the bottom. This one is being replaced with a bigger one.

Im looking a general hardware list for this server. Also a motherboard that holds ALOT of Sata slots would be great and the ability to hold more in add in cards. The current build at the bottom is being used for something else. I will also need a case which can hold about 16 Drives? Even if that means adding the 5 1/2 inch drives to 3.5 converters.

I already have bought Windows Home Server OS. I obviously dont want to spend loads but reccommendations would be great then I can get an idea of cost. No hard drives are needed as I have loads.

The Case im looking at is the Sharkoon rebel 12 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Rebel...wless-mounting with three of these http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Silve...wap-black-RoHS But i will need to see how the cooling would be. If you guys can think of a better case then let me know.

Many Thanks Guys

[kmac]

http://www.saverstore.com/product/20...t-Case---Black

This should do it in terms of drive bays - you may have to convert some of the 5.25 bays and also add additional 3.5 drive cages. It has the space for 16 though.

[neonplanet40]

I have the case covered now pretty mucnh. I just need a hardware list now if anyone has any ideas? I obviously want it to be fast and in no way limited by hardware and a motherboard with a lot of sata slots is a must.

Many Thanks Guys

Mark

[aidanjt]

Would 10 ports be enough?.. Just add an Athlon II X2 CPU, should provide plenty of CPU grunt.

[madman045]

This would cover you in terms of 16 drives on one controller or maybe get two controllers with 8 ports and split the arrays? depends on what you want to run from it I guess, also a battery backup module (if this model supports it)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Areca...-SAS-RAID-Card

[neonplanet40]

Its better If the add on cards I get dont have Raid as WHS runs its own type or duplication. i dont know who you'd explain it... But I already have two sata controller cards so they are plenty. That motherboard looks good aidanjt. I'll put it on the list. I'd like an intel and an amd system to compare and then go from there.

Mark

[aidanjt]

This would cover you in terms of 16 drives on one controller or maybe get two controllers with 8 ports and split the arrays? depends on what you want to run from it I guess, also a battery backup module (if this model supports it)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Areca...-SAS-RAID-Card

Slightly overkill for what he has in mind (reasonably priced home server). A great card, none the less.

[aidanjt]

I'd like an intel and an amd system to compare and then go from there.

Another gigabyte board, P55, adding a 'cheap' i5 CPU adds £100 over the Athlon II CPU, albeit with 2 extra cores (which probably will never get any use anyway).

[neonplanet40]

Another gigabyte board, P55, adding a 'cheap' i5 CPU adds £100 over the Athlon II CPU, albeit with 2 extra cores (which probably will never get any use anyway).

I like the look of this mate. What else would you add to this mate to keep the cost and power down?

Or do you have alternatives than a quad core?

Many Thanks

[aidanjt]

The best way to keep cost and power usage down is obviously having less cores, that's why I'd be leaning towards the AM3 system, personally.

[neonplanet40]

I really like the AM3 board but i'd liek a board with the same amount of slots and discrete onboard graphics which i dont think i'll be able to get. Google is a nightmare.

[neonplanet40]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/GIGABYTE-GA-MA790X-UD3P

This one looks good. Only 8 slots but thats not bad and board is cheap! But what Processer, ram, PSU, etc for it

[aidanjt]

Cheapest dual core CPU, 2GB of the slowest, and a branded PSU with sufficent SATA power connectors and doesn't break the bank. Honestly, your bottleneck will be the hard drives, entirely the hard drives due to the way WHS does disk management (followed by the gigabit NIC), even with my server boxen running software raid5, the bottleneck is still the NIC.

[neonplanet40]

I do get about 75MB/sec transfer rates which isn't too bad. But which CPU in general? The older ones use more power whereas the new Phenom II's use a lot less.

[aidanjt]

Yeah, that's why I suggested the Athlon II CPUs (a phenom ii with 2 cores shut off).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah, that's why I suggested the Athlon II CPUs (a phenom ii with 2 cores shut off).

The Athlon II does not use the Phenom II chip. The Phenom II X2 is the dual core processor which has two cores disabled.

To the OP I would look at either a 45W single core Sempron 140 or a 45W Athlon II X2 235e dual core:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-S...MHz-45W-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...che-45W-Retail