New Home Server

Sweet server build you have going there


Considering your budget , I think you have chosen some good parts .

Just a few suggestions :

1) I would go with a G620 . Will be plenty strong enough for a server .

2) I will proly get pawned for saying this but other than initial o.s. installation and a few other minor instances , an ssd is just not needed in a server . Savings right now would be about $80 .

3) I use whs 2011 with flexraid . Hands down love it for it's ease of use after it is properly set up . Or should I say lack of use . Once done , you will rarely touch it . Flex will also spin down the drives when not in use which is always a plus for power saving . Remember , most servers run 24/7 if you truly use it as intended .

I really can't comment on your selection of AMD items as I have refused to use them in any capacity since about 1995.

I also HIGHLY reccomend the below link for a great read prior to any purchases . Best info on the subject you will find

http://www.assassinserver.com/

Good luck and post back

620W PSU is probably too much. Even it may be 80+bronze at 620W, could be poor at a more realistic 250-300W. Get a 300-400W 80+ PSU.

WHS 11 needs at least 160GB for OS. There may be a way to get around this such as install on a HDD then clone to SSD. So Win7 or WHS 2008 may be better.

What you are needing, is some kind of content server for the pictures, or Photo Gallery Content Management server, so that you can better find them out there on the server or NAS that is holding them. Gallery server is one http://store.dotnetnuke.com/home/pro...server-pro-261 Here is a list of Linux Apps for Photo managers http://linuxappfinder.com/graphics/photomanagers Shotwell comes with Ubuntu now http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/shotwel...ment-software/

There are some others out there. If you are running Windows Home Server, it should already have a photo manager in it, which would be the best if you want to stick with windows, but with Linux, you have better control for being able to not be restricted to just one type of gallery server, or roll your own.

Are you doing the encoding "ON" the server or just storing the encoded file on the server?

If the latter, consider an HP Proliant Microserver like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16859107052

This is the server that I have, and it is really great. Much, much better than my previous homebuilt server. Maybe not enough disc slots for you? And not rack mount...

Other thoughts:

I was an AMD fan for a long time, but Intel is really better value at this point. If buying new parts, go Intel.

That Rocketraid controller gets some really bad reviews...

Yes, to the M4 SSD for your boot drive.

Yes to WHS 2011

Consider Raid 1 or just using the Windows Disc Mirroring feature instead of the RocketRaid controller. A small penalty in usable space for greater simplicity

RAID will ideally use matched hard drives, and not WD Green drives...

Your post is missing details about your hard drives and total storage space needed, so some of my comments may not fit your needs...

If that's the case, you can get an Intel 330 180GB SSD for $139.99 after rebate at either Amazon or Newegg for the next few days. Would that be large enough?

No. Much more than pictures. But not all free.

Ratings from who? There are plenty of quality lower power PSUs.

If you want reliable information about PSUs, then read JonnyGURU.com or Tom's Hardware Power Supply Articles.

Or from people at AVS that have actually used them in a server/HTPC setting.

Even better.

Very true and an oversight in my response.

I was just hoping that the whole "there aren't any good PSUs less than 500w" wasn't based on Newegg stars.

As an aside, the SeaSonic S12II comes in a 380, 430 and 520, and you can't do much better than that.

Fyi there are ways around this check google.

#1 Yes or I would not have made that statement .

#2 I did not base my information or choice on economics . I made it on what I was told would be a wise choice for my server by a reputable member of this forum .

The server guides are worth 10 times the asking price . I , by nature am a very difficult person to please and set my expectations of other folks as high as i set them for myself. So when I say the server guides are a "steal" to purchase ... It aint no joke . I also feel the same about the htpc guides as well and have purchased them too . What is $25 on a $500.00 build ? Easy choice that's what !

Just FYI :

When you open the server blog guides that Assassin was nice enough to provide , The pictures of the server is mine . I was chosen by Assassin to assist him in supplying the parts and he did the actual build . We collaborated back and forth on the parts selection and quite frankly he kept me from making some choices that while not a disaster , were not the best decisions . I am not going to delve into the build as that would be un fair to him. I will say that you now may be able to see why I lead you the way I did

I will take a moment to Thank Assassin in public for his patience and dedication to our temporary partnership on this project. We had over 100 e-mails prior to building and he is a true professional and quite honestly a great internet pal

Wow, man. Thanks a lot.

You just made my day.

Wow, that sounds like a great experience. And after all the effort Assassin put in to protect your identity. . . .

I had my reasons for protecting my identity during the project build . Yes, he completely respected my wishes the entire time . See what i mean ?

I did however ask his permission prior to giving up my identity as related to the build and he had no issue what so ever with my request .

The server is just flat out "KICK ASS " . It is with out exaggeration , the finest piece of computer equipment I have ever used ! and with out bragging , I have built some really intense systems.

That is one heck of a nice server. Congratulations!

The thread detailing the construction, and subsequent Blog by Assassin, has inspired several others to make the plunge.

You are a lucky person. I read that thread the other day with great interest and was very impressed by what you received.

If you want to encode video, you may want to consider a i3 CPU so you can use Quicksync at some point. I haven't checked recently but don't think the Pentuim series has it.

Asrock has several motherboards with 8 Sata ports, wish I had one right now.

I bought a 400W FSP Aurum Gold power supply recently. It is very efficient and seems to work well so far in very limited use. When I bought on Newegg it was only $59.99, but after some good reviews they've jacked up the price a little bit. It has 4 sata connectors, can use molex to dual sata for more if needed. With an i3-2100, single 2.5" hard drive, 2 sticks of RAM, my old 330W Seasonics used 8W more at idle than the FSP, a newer 300W Seasonic Bronze used 3W more. FWIW I traditionally only buy Seasonic.

Comparison of systems using a Killawatt meter to measure wattage, all used the FSP setup as above, "onboard" graphics. Most CPUs were undervolted.

i3-2100 on Intel DH61WW - 18W idle (max on boot 48W)
i3-550 on Gigabyte H55M-S2H - 31W idle (max on boot 58W)
Sempron 140 unlocked (same watts with 1 or 2 cores) on Asus M4A785-M 35W idle (max on boot 48W)
Athlon 445 unlocked (same watts with 3 or 4 cores) on Asus M4A785-M 43W idle (max on boot 77W)

AMD Sempron system with one 2.5" OS drive and 5 Samsung 2TB drives with Win7 in power save mode uses 54W idle and maxes at 108W on startup.

AMD Sempron system was only about $35 for the CPU maybe $65 for the motherboard. Not all CPUs will unlock either, I just got lucky.

Another thing you might consider, although not mentioned, is getting a motherboard that supports VT-d virtualization. The VT-d CPUs are more expensive, not sure if you want one though.

My problem is software/file systems, I want a system that will run off a USB stick to conserve sata ports, but need Windows for Sagetv which will require another hard drive. I've tested Openfiler (didn't work), Freenas (required manual command configuration, menu settings didn't seem to "stick"), Nexentastor works ok using menus, kudos to them. Standard RAID or ZFS type systems will spin up all drives when writing so I am back to finding something that only spins up the drive in use grrrr, looks like either Linux with LVM and Snapraid or WHS 2011 + Drivepool + Snapraid. Might need to run 2 PCs for what I want.