Help me build a Home Server

FrankGrimes

I'm interested in building a Window Home Server to add into my network (supporting 2 Media Center HTPCs and an Xbox 360), but want to do it reasonably cheaply - around €350 (£250) excluding hard-drives. The budget is by choice so if there's a compelling need to spend a bit more, I will.

I was thinking of a Pentium Dual Core E2160 CPU as it would probably do the job at a very decent price. 1GB of DDR2 PC6400 RAM is €50, so that leaves about €200 (£140 inc. VAT) for a barebones case with case, mobo, and PSU. I have a contact that will get me WHS through MS employee purchase very cheaply.

This page would seem to suggest that that CPU and 1GB RAM would run WHS smoothly - any reason to go higher?

What I'd really appreciate would be some suggestions for a suitable barebones case with PSU and mobo that would do the job, while preferrably being reasonably quiet and low power consuming and having space for 3-4 SATA 3.5" HDDs. Hopefully someone knows of a bargain barebones that will fit the bill, or maybe even details of a particular old Dell PC or something like that I could pickup on ebay to do the job.

The server will likely be in the attic or a cupboard so it don't gotta be pretty

highlydebased

You dont need a dual core for a home server unless you are connecting a good number of clients to it.

A P4 or Celeron would do the job. Get a mobo with onboard VGA (no gfx card required)

Doubt you would need 1gb of RAM either, €350 is alot of money to spend on a server (ex hard drives)

FrankGrimes

Thanks Neon-Circles, good to hear that €350 is more than enough for these needs. I guess I'm just really looking at the .ie websites like Komplett etc. and the days of picking up a P4 or Celeron on there are pretty much gone!

Allowing €40 for 1GB DDR II RAM, and €65 for a basic Dual Core or AM2 processor gives €105 for those 2 - I could probably knock €50 off this, but I'm happy to spend the €105 to ensure the server cruises along.

I guess the most important thing is to find a suitable barebones PC that is reasonably small, quiet, has integrated basic graphics, and can support at the very least, a DVD drive and 3 SATA hard-drives. This proving harder to find within this budget than I had thought, so would appreciate any recommendations.

This Shuttle SN68SG2 would seem perfect if a little pricey for this budget, as it's small and quiet, but am I right in my understanding that 1 x Serial ATA - integrated means just that - i.e. can only take one SATA hard-drive or DVD drive? This would rule it out as a server if so.

This Asustek barebones seems to fit the bill quite well for €112 as it has 4 SATA channels and takes an AM2 processor. Downside is it's quite big and I doubt it would be quiet, but I could live with that, particularly if I can modify my LAN to allow it sit in the attic. That would mean the following would come to:

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4LLN&CategorySelectedId=11253&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11253 - €112
This AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2.1GHz for €65
Corsair Twin2x 5400 DDR2 - €34
NEC DVD RW drive - €33. Am thinking IDE is the way to go to keep a SATA port free for future additional HDDs.

That's looking like €244 all in, which seems ok, though the barebones PC is out of stock at dabs so not sure how long it would take for delivery.

Whaddya reckon about that proposed spec?

highlydebased

Komplett still stock celeron http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338341
Planning putting one in my own server soon

The shuttle is not a good idea for a server, little expandability, if you want to add extra hard drives.

There are few motherboards that have inbuilt VGA that would be to your needs
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338814 this has 4 SATA ports.....would you need more than that?

Stephen

Rumour has it that future versions of windows home server are going to be 64-bit only, so it may be worth ensuring the CPU you get supports x64 if you ever plan on upgrading the OS in future.

FrankGrimes

LOL - I knew you were going to pick out that Celeron! It's a fair point if it will do the job, but with future expandability in mind, I reckon the extra €23 for a Dual Core is money well spent - and I believe it will mean the processor will run at a lower temperature, which is good as it will be on for long periods.


That mobo looks decent and 4 x SATA will do me grand (could top up with USB 2.0 HDDs if needed - unlikely), but the reason I wanted to go with a barebones is that I reckon it would be difficult to get a case, PSU, and mobo for under the price of a barebones.

What case and PSU are you planning on using - I'd love to hear of decent alternatives in or around the same price as these barebones.

highlydebased

Case is only cheap, but Corsair PSU. Seeing as it will be running all the time it will be important.

I would recommend you get a Corsair- seeing as you have the money to do so.... 450w is the lowest they come in I think

FrankGrimes

Yeh, good point - I've had positive experiences with Corsair PSUs (the modular ones are class) so I'll go with the 450w for this server.

I've put together a shopping list here. What do you reckon?

It comes in at €281 which is not bad. I went for that mobo as it has GbLAN, which I may need in the future, 4 x SATA, and integrated basic graphics. Actually, hang on a second, looking at it further, it seems the title says GbLAN, but the card does not actually support it?

The Asus P5GC also has 4 x SATA, and integrated gfx, and calls out Wake On Lan as a feature, not sure if the Abit mobo would support that, and it would be a very useful feature if I got it working on the server, so I might go with the Asus and sacrifice the alleged GbLAN.

Chose that case cos it's cheap and based on the reviews it seems to do the job. Wonder how noisy it would be, but not sure spending extra on the chance the more expensive case would be quieter is worth it.

Not sure how it would be for

highlydebased

That list seems fine.

If you needed GbLAN in future you could install a PCI Card

Wake on LAN.......most motherboards have that






I would not imagine it being terribly noisy. If the supplied fans were too noisy, you could replace them with smaller, quiter ones.