HP Microserver or Home built WHS?

Right then knowledgable HEXUS readers, what should I do - buy a Microserver or continue with my home built WHS?

Home built machine:

Core2Duo E6600 @ 3.0ghz
Hefty Cooler - 0iD knows the model details
4x1Gb PC8500 XMS2 Memory
Abit AB9 Quad GT - with uGuru Clock (what a brilliant piece of kit!)
Seasonic S12 430W PSU
Sharkoon case
GeForce 4 for display duties
Akasa Paxmate Sound deadening
Temporary DVD drive - will be gone once I decide on final setup of OS etc.


or HP Microserver?


It is going to be running 24x7, so power consumption is certainly a concern. However, is a 1.3ghz dual core going to be sufficient? I must admit I do like the idea of having the Microserver with a number of 2tb drives installed - but am I going to miss the power of the E6600? Either machine is going to have a number of 2tb drives added - just I'd need to order caddies for the self build, where as I wouldn't for the Microserver?

So, Hexites - what would you do?

for a home server I think you would be better off with the microserver, the power consumption would be much lower.
Not sure why you would miss the power of the C2D though, what else do you do on your server?

I've planned to have it as the centre of my home network - so it would be doing the hosting for a couple of HTPCs, all the desktops and laptops in the house (in terms of files, backups, etc). I mainly started building it because at the time it was cheaper than buying a ML11x G5 to play with as I missed the offers on them. However the arrival of the Microserver has made me rethink that plan :)

"Grunt" is virtually irrelevant. I've been running a dual-core atom for ages, never even stretched that. Don't forget, it's basically Server 2003, so in terms of requirements it's stripped down from XP. The only thing I would say that's a necessity is 64-bit for upgrade to Vail when it arrives.

On the flipside, why would you spend money? If you can do it very cheaply, and sell your current components or put them to another task so as to make the server virtually free, then fair enough. But if it's going to cost you a few bob, then I don't think it's worth the effort.

EDIT: Re: your previous post, my server has handled 1 HTPC, 2 desktops and a laptop happily before. Backup and so on will strain network speeds, not the CPU I suspect.

MicroServer. Has ECC memory, if you're bothered about that. Buy an APC Smart-UPS for it too.

Regarding WHS, unless Microsoft reconsiders then WHS v2 (Vail) won't have Drive Extender, so it will be a bit crap - everybody is saying that they'll dismiss WHSv2 completely if it doesn't have DE & dedupe.

The MicroServer hovers at around 30 watts idle power usage with two disks, and perhaps +10 watts if you fill the other two bays.

You need very little CPU oompfh for a WHS box - even a 1st gen Atom would be fine.

Be wary of using WHS with other software. I used WHSv1 for a few months, and I managed to break it by just installing a service; I think it was Apache.

Be aware that the MicroServer RAID is fakeraid - WHSv1 doesn't need RAID anyway, as it manages disks & data redundancy itself.

Whether or not the HPMS is worth it depends on your previous spend on parts & what you intend to do with it in the future. It's a neat little box though - worth £120.

My thinking was this:

I've already built the HTPC, I'm seriously considering making my Q6600 machine simply a gaming PC (partly because of wanting to take it to LANs etc, I don't really want to have anything important on it in case it were to crash or I dropped it etc), which would then mean the E6600 based machine would become my daily desktop.

If the bits I'm currently doing don't require any serious power then it wouldn't matter that this is a smaller, lower power box - indeed I could spend most of the post cashback price on simply getting a hot swap HDD caddy for my current box.

Either way I'll have made the decision tonight because I want to use the 2.5% voucher but also avoid the 2.5% increase in VAT.

i would go for the micro server and a Linux MD array. for you the micro server will be normal size anyway :)

My opinion now? You've got a good purpose for the currents bits, go for it!

I came to the same conclusion and may have just ordered one ;)

Now just working out if I really need to order 4gb of RAM, or whether I could perhaps pick up another 1gb stick from one of the fellow HP Microserver purchasers. For the start at least it will simply be a fileserver until I get a chance to setup the network properly....

1GB is fine, 2GB is ample. Unless you want to start installing all sorts of services that really shouldn't be running on a WHS, you'll never need 4GB.

...and just ordered 2x2Tb Samsungs for it from Scan :)

I was struggling to decide which one to go for. In the end I went for 4x 2TB WD Greens.

Making sure you saw this, http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/prol...antmicroserver
£100 off, terms on the site, snail mail rebate type thing.
I went for 4x2tb ecogreens. Raid options are 0 and 1, 5 not available on hardware without an addin card which gets complicated considering the drive bays are backplaned. for power and all data connections go to a miniSAS. Giant pain in the ass.