WHS Box advice

[Hawker1986]

Hi all,

Just after some advice on a WHS box im going to be running. Essentially this will be used for streaming media to my HTPC and running backups from my PC and the Mrs' laptop. Possibly also for torrents. The aims on this one are silence and low power consumption.

Parts so far (mainly bought on our good sales forum ):

Zotac M-ITX 8200 mobo
AMD 4850e (will be clocked down to 2Ghz and undervolted)
2x1GB DDR667 RAM
1.5TB Seagate HDD (will be used for data backups being pulled from my HTPC once this is all done)

Things left to get:

2x2TB HDDS for media streaming to be run in RAID 1 or using WHS folder level duplication for redundancy.
Case
PSU
Passive CPU cooler
SSD boot drive

Now my main issues so far are:
1) which case will be best for my uses so far im tossing up between:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=7&subcat=187
and
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12789

Second one comes with a PSU which is good (dont know how loud it is though) but doesnt allow more than 4 HDDs to be installed long term. Opinions?

2) What passive CPU cooler will keep the chip in good order in these cases (pretty small clearance).

3) If I go for the Lian Li case, would it be worth getting a passive PSU such as:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/300W-...and-24-Pin-ATX

Advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Hawker

[DDY]

With 3 hard drives fixed to the case you're not going to achieve silence, with that in mind; a passive PSU would be a waste of money.

I'd go for the Lian Li with a quiet fanned PSU, your system wouldn't be drawing much power - with a low load the PSU would be pretty much silent anyway.

Finally, I have to advise against the CFI case, the included PSU is fitted with a 40mm fan, these things aren't loud but the whine will dig right in to your brain.

[spoon_]

SSD boot drive? That's the biggest waste of money ever lol

Also you need to read up on how WHS works - this refers to RAID0 point.

[arthurleung]

Instead of a SSD boot drive try something like a 16GB USB stick.
RAID 0 is not necessary on a WHS box as GbE will be the limitation.
Is there any particular reason you're not going for a simple NAS box or a HP WHS server which is not going to be more expensive?

[Hawker1986]

Instead of a SSD boot drive try something like a 16GB USB stick.
RAID 0 is not necessary on a WHS box as GbE will be the limitation.
Is there any particular reason you're not going for a simple NAS box or a HP WHS server which is not going to be more expensive?

I thought that WHS had a fairly rigid minimum install amount around 60GB, Ive not played around with it I have to say so im not certain. So I had thought that would put a USB stick install out of the picture. I may in the end just go for a mechanical 2.5" drive.

RAID 0 was a typo, i meant RAID 1.

I quite fancy the project tbh and I wanted something more compact than the HP WHS boxes.

Hawker

[s_kinton]

Instead of a SSD boot drive try something like a 16GB USB stick.
RAID 0 is not necessary on a WHS box as GbE will be the limitation.
Is there any particular reason you're not going for a simple NAS box or a HP WHS server which is not going to be more expensive?

I thought that WHS had a fairly rigid minimum install amount around 60GB, Ive not played around with it I have to say so im not certain. So I had thought that would put a USB stick install out of the picture. I may in the end just go for a mechanical 2.5" drive.

RAID 0 was a typo, i meant RAID 1.

I quite fancy the project tbh and I wanted something more compact than the HP WHS boxes.

Hawker

The minimum drive size for the main WHS O/S drive is 80GB, even though it doesnt use anything like that amount of space. The pre-install checks will stop you going any further - I found that out to my cost when I first built my server.

Also, you dont need to implement any sort of RAID in WHS, in fact it doesnt actually support it. WHS uses its own 'duplication' system to basically copy files to another drive in the storage pool - its fully automated in the background so you never notice it. This can be set at the folder level so you can turn it on and off for specific files that are important. Obviously, this uses double the disk space though but it looks like you'll have plenty. Have a read up about it.

Also, make sure you get a few plugins or the WHS console; disk management, duplication info and advanced admin are all good ones to have, along with ClamAV - the only free antivirus thats built into the WHS console.

http://www.wegotserved.com/category/add-ins

[neonplanet40]

+1 on the WHS being a waste of money. Will make no difference at all.

80GB is minmum boot drive size for drive. You are advised to leave RAID out altogether as it can interfer with WHS's own Drive extender technology and cause you major headaches.

[Saracen]

+1 on the WHS being a waste of money. Will make no difference at all.

Erm .... typo, neon? Did you mean SSD, not WHS?

If so, I completely agree. Surely the whole point of WHS is that it's available either all the time, or at the very least, all the time systems are in use. If so .... how often will it get booted?

I also agree about not using RAID with WHS. If I remember correctly, MS actually advise against it, as it doesn't play well with their Drive Extender technology. Whether that will still apply to the forthcoming WHS v2 remains to be seen, as Drive Extender is, IIRC, one of the casualties.

[neonplanet40]

Erm .... typo, neon? Did you mean SSD, not WHS?

Yes SSD My bad

[Hawker1986]

Thanks very much for all the good input guys, I shall dispense with the idea of an SSD then and instead ill just install it to whichever mechanical drive im running on. Ill probably go with the Lian-Li Q08B case since its well cooled, quiet and will allow for expansion in the future. Probably the Scythe Shuriken BIG Quiet Low Profile CPU cooler which ill run passively and an OCZ 500W Modxstream PSU due to the large quiet fan. (ill install the PSU so the fan is pulling air from the CPU) Can anybody think of any issues with that lot?

Cheers

Hawker