[KalC]

Hi guys,

I need some help sourcing some parts for my planned WHS build. My situation is that the server will be used to stream media content (some hi-def movies, mostly standard) to my other laptops/PC's around the house. No gaming or anything like that whatsoever, just want to keep it nice and simple. Im guessing I do not need anything particularly powerful to do this? The server also wont be on 24/7 only when its actually needed.

Now, being my first server build im unaware of which parts will be needed/powerful enough for my intended use. I think full ATX build would be overkill so Im thinking mATX or possibly Mini ITX if thats feasible? The only thing thats a absolute must is SATA ports. I need them, the more the better!

I literally have no idea where to start, so im kinda looking for some (alot!) help in regards to a kit list. If someone could just help me get started it would be highly appreciated http://forum.wegotserved.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

Thank you

[Evaders99]

Here's a start: TechReport did a small mATX box. It's a few months old, but probably still worth it
http://www.techrepor...cles.x/18042/10
Not sure if it'd be tailored to something with more storage, but it has a decent 5 SATA ports

[KalC]

Evaders99, on 08 March 2010 - 11:21 PM, said:

Here's a start: TechReport did a small mATX box. It's a few months old, but probably still worth it
http://www.techrepor...cles.x/18042/10
Not sure if it'd be tailored to something with more storage, but it has a decent 5 SATA ports

Hi there and thank you for the reply.

Unless Ive missed something the site you linked me to seems to be on a article about a PC Gaming system?

[Evaders99]

You can easily switch out for a lesser graphics card or try for an integrated one
As I said, it's a start where to look :)

[KalC]

Evaders99, on 09 March 2010 - 12:23 AM, said:

You can easily switch out for a lesser graphics card or try for an integrated one
As I said, it's a start where to look :)

Yeah I'll stick with an IGP on the mainboard. Do you have any suggestions as to which motherboard is recommended? Or any other parts?? I would like to keep power consumption to a minimum.

[teq]

KalC, on 08 March 2010 - 09:30 PM, said:

Hi guys,

I need some help sourcing some parts for my planned WHS build. My situation is that the server will be used to stream media content (some hi-def movies, mostly standard) to my other laptops/PC's around the house. No gaming or anything like that whatsoever, just want to keep it nice and simple. Im guessing I do not need anything particularly powerful to do this? The server also wont be on 24/7 only when its actually needed.

Now, being my first server build im unaware of which parts will be needed/powerful enough for my intended use. I think full ATX build would be overkill so Im thinking mATX or possibly Mini ITX if thats feasible? The only thing thats a absolute must is SATA ports. I need them, the more the better!

I literally have no idea where to start, so im kinda looking for some (alot!) help in regards to a kit list. If someone could just help me get started it would be highly appreciated http://forum.wegotserved.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

Thank you

KalC, there were quite a few posts here describing existing WHS builds. So I suggest you do a forum search first. :rolleyes:

And, as always, Google is your friend. For example, check out this article (and make sure you also take a look at the reader comments that come with the article, they contain quite a few build suggestions as well):
http://www.maximumpc..._digital_domain

If the number of SATA ports is critical for you, then you need to go with micro-ATX. There are a number of boards available that feature 6x SATA ports and at least one PCIexpress port to add additional SATA ports. The maximum number of SATA on mini-ITX that I have found is 4x SATA (not counting the additional eSATA port you might find on some mini-ITX, e.g., the DG45FC).

Cheers,
teq

[KalC]

teq, on 09 March 2010 - 05:00 AM, said:

KalC, there were quite a few posts here describing existing WHS builds. So I suggest you do a forum search first. :rolleyes:

And, as always, Google is your friend. For example, check out this article (and make sure you also take a look at the reader comments that come with the article, they contain quite a few build suggestions as well):
http://www.maximumpc..._digital_domain

If the number of SATA ports is critical for you, then you need to go with micro-ATX. There are a number of boards available that feature 6x SATA ports and at least one PCIexpress port to add additional SATA ports. The maximum number of SATA on mini-ITX that I have found is 4x SATA (not counting the additional eSATA port you might find on some mini-ITX, e.g., the DG45FC).

Cheers,
teq

Cheers teq for the reply. Indeed I have used the search feature maybe Ive missed something? But I haven't found any information thats relative to my requirements. So mATX will be the way to go?

I will try and build a kit list myself and if you have any suggestions to it you can add your advice :)

[KalC]

I have come up with this kit list, please tell me your thoughts: (peripherals not needed)

Motherboard: Asus P5QPL-AM mATX
CPU: Intel E5200 (already have from another build)
RAM: 4GB OCZ RAM (already have from another build)
HDD: Samsung 1TB F3
PSU: Corsair 400W
Case: Antec NSK1300 mATX

And obviously WHS OEM.

By no means is this a final build list by the way. Just wanted some opinions to see if this setup is alright for my needs? Thanks for looking.

[CompTronicsTec]

Ive setup 2 systems using newegg, 1 is AMD and in the interest of fairness the other is Intel. Both are mATX and will be sharing alot of the same parts. Most of the parts are just a reference for the type of part to look for (like the RAM).

In regards to your build, why bother with a motherboard that has more then 4 ports when your case can at most have 4 drives, seems like a waste. Antec makes good cases, but they are overpriced and often times do not offer competitive features until you get closer to $100. For a WHS case i aim for the cheapest case with the most drive bays.

Also for the system drive id go with a smaller drive. I included a 320GB drive as the system drive, and 1x 1.5TB drive for data. No point in a 1TB drive when the cost of a 1.5TB is a few bucks more (at least in the US).

Additionally, there is not point in DDR2 anymore, the cost of DDR3 is pretty much the same. Even when the price fluctuates and DDR2 gets cheaper (like today) and you save yourself a few bucks, your ensuring that the ability to upgrade in the future is dismal and if its possible it will be massively expensive (old, rare memory). DDR3 will perform better and offer you a longer window for reasonably priced upgrading.

AMD WHS - $580 US subtotal (including WHS OEM)



Intel WHS - $575 US sub (including WHS OEM)

Other considerations for the above...

Both can use DDR3, but the Intel may be limited to DDR3 800 because of the CPU fsb. Also both are capable of using pci/pci-e sata cards to add more ports. If you need more drive bays (doesnt sound like you do, but just in case) then id consider an atx board and a different case. Offers 9 5.25" bays...so 9 hd bays with cheap brackets or like 12 bays with backplanes.

Lastly both have potential for underclock/undervolts to save energy or even overclocking (not recommended) dependent on your needs.

[KalC]

Thank you DV-Design for all your input. I'll take into account what you have said

DV-Design, on 09 March 2010 - 02:32 PM, said:

In regards to your build, why bother with a motherboard that has more then 4 ports when your case can at most have 4 drives, seems like a waste. Antec makes good cases, but they are overpriced and often times do not offer competitive features until you get closer to $100. For a WHS case i aim for the cheapest case with the most drive bays.

Thanks for the tip. I only chose that Antec case as I like the cube design, it would fit well with the rest of my kit. I'll carry on the search, although I do have a Silverstone LC17 Case kicking about. I may just use that? Can fit an ATX or mATX board and has space for 6 internal drives.

Quote

Also for the system drive id go with a smaller drive. I included a 320GB drive as the system drive, and 1x 1.5TB drive for data. No point in a 1TB drive when the cost of a 1.5TB is a few bucks more (at least in the US).

Another good point I missed thanks. How much space would be needed for a WHS install? Also space for any additional updates required etc?

Quote

Additionally, there is not point in DDR2 anymore, the cost of DDR3 is pretty much the same.

I was thinking to reuse my old DDR2 RAM? Do I really need to go for DDR3?

I was also planning on using my old Intel E5200 so this will be an Intel based WHS as I already have the CPU. Would that be a sufficient CPU to use?

[CompTronicsTec]

Sure i didnt realize you where using spare parts. If thats the case just use a Intel motherboard that supports ddr2 instead of ddr3 (like this) and use your E5200 (very similar to the celeron). Even your current case should be fine assuming it can house a atm/matx board.

As for the drive, 320GB is more then plenty for a system drive. It was the right balance of price and space and will give you plenty of headroom to upgrade to Vail in the future (160GB min req).

[KalC]

DV-Design, on 09 March 2010 - 07:56 PM, said:

Sure i didnt realize you where using spare parts. If thats the case just use a Intel motherboard that supports ddr2 instead of ddr3 (like this) and use your E5200 (very similar to the celeron). Even your current case should be fine assuming it can house a atm/matx board.

As for the drive, 320GB is more then plenty for a system drive. It was the right balance of price and space and will give you plenty of headroom to upgrade to Vail in the future (160GB min req).

Vail? I'll need to Google that :D

Thanks DV-Design, you've really been a big help so credit to you. The LC17 can indeed support full ATX or mATX so I will be using that, which helps save money :) Here is my kit list as it stands:

Mainboard: ASRock G43Twins (£58)
HDD: Samsung F3 500 (£42) - may try and source a decent 320Gb SATA HDD instead?
PSU: Corsair 400W (£40)
OS: Windows Home Server (£73)
CPU: Intel E5200 (already own)
RAM: 4GB OCZ (already own)
Case: Lascala LC17 (already own)

Think thats it? Have I missed anything?

Also, would the 400W PSU be enough?

[CompTronicsTec]

Youll want to include at least 1 drive for your data pool, the 500GB would be your system drive. Vail is basically the up and coming WHS2 and will require 160GB min system drive (WHS1 requires 80GB). I picked 320GB because it was enough additional space to provide even further future demands (lets make a stretch and assume WHS3 will need 2x 160GB, so 320GB, your covered)...it was also a good balance of enough space and still cheap. 500GB is fine if its not much more then a 320GB.

Idk what prices are in UK, but youll probably want a 1.5TB drive as your storage drive as its the best price per GB as of now. In the future you can add additional drives in whatever capacity you want.

Other then that everything looks good. Just as a precaution i recommend you check the ASRock website to see if that board has driver support for Windows 2003 or at least windows XP.

[teq]

KalC, on 09 March 2010 - 09:16 PM, said:

Vail? I'll need to Google that :D

Thanks DV-Design, you've really been a big help so credit to you. The LC17 can indeed support full ATX or mATX so I will be using that, which helps save money :) Here is my kit list as it stands:

Mainboard: ASRock G43Twins (£58)
HDD: Samsung F3 500 (£42) - may try and source a decent 320Gb SATA HDD instead?
PSU: Corsair 400W (£40)
OS: Windows Home Server (£73)
CPU: Intel E5200 (already own)
RAM: 4GB OCZ (already own)
Case: Lascala LC17 (already own)

Think thats it? Have I missed anything?

Also, would the 400W PSU be enough?

KalC, this makes a nice HW list. I like the ASRock with its 6x SATA ports. Regarding CPU, I use the E5200 myself and it's more than sufficient for all my WHS related tasks, including video streaming/transcoding. However, I agree with DV-Design that you should add at least one more drive to the data pool. In fact, I would recommend to add two additional drives - this way you can use duplication and still don't need to keep your data on your system drive. For example, you could go for the 1.5 TB WD Green EARS drives, which offer very good value for money.

Regarding PSU, 400W is sufficient. BTW, there are some very interesting articles regarding choosing the right PSU on this website:
http://www.silentpcr.../section10.html

Cheers,
teq

[KalC]

teq, on 10 March 2010 - 05:53 AM, said:

KalC, this makes a nice HW list. I like the ASRock with its 6x SATA ports. Regarding CPU, I use the E5200 myself and it's more than sufficient for all my WHS related tasks, including video streaming/transcoding. However, I agree with DV-Design that you should add at least one more drive to the data pool. In fact, I would recommend to add two additional drives - this way you can use duplication and still don't need to keep your data on your system drive. For example, you could go for the 1.5 TB WD Green EARS drives, which offer very good value for money.

Regarding PSU, 400W is sufficient. BTW, there are some very interesting articles regarding choosing the right PSU on this website:
http://www.silentpcr.../section10.html

Cheers,
teq

Thanks to you both for your input and advice :) teq, I will give that read thanks mate.

Yeah the ASRock seems like a nice choice for mATX. I havent found a G41 chipset with 6x SATA ports which the G43 have advantage over which is a plus point for me. Affordable price point too so I think its ideal. Ive never used an ASRock board before though, anything I should look out for? I have checked the ASRock website and it confirms driver support for XP. I imagine though there shouldn't be a problem?

I have 2x Samsung F3 1TB already in another build which I was going to transfer to the WHS. They're really nice drives, although I think WD offer better warranty....

Question: What does streaming file transfer rates depend on? If I was moving a file to or from the WHS from a PC, does the speed of transfer depend on the network speed or the HDD? Ideally I would like the fastest rate manageable. I have a Netgear router which I think is Wireless -G. Also the Samsung F3 have really quick internal transfer rates, but external transfer rates I'm not too sure how they cope?

Thanks again for the advice. I really do appreciate it! Will probably order the parts next week... just waiting for pay day! :)

[teq]

KalC, on 10 March 2010 - 09:01 PM, said:

Thanks to you both for your input and advice :) teq, I will give that read thanks mate.

Yeah the ASRock seems like a nice choice for mATX. I havent found a G41 chipset with 6x SATA ports which the G43 have advantage over which is a plus point for me. Affordable price point too so I think its ideal. Ive never used an ASRock board before though, anything I should look out for? I have checked the ASRock website and it confirms driver support for XP. I imagine though there shouldn't be a problem?

I have 2x Samsung F3 1TB already in another build which I was going to transfer to the WHS. They're really nice drives, although I think WD offer better warranty....

Question: What does streaming file transfer rates depend on? If I was moving a file to or from the WHS from a PC, does the speed of transfer depend on the network speed or the HDD? Ideally I would like the fastest rate manageable. I have a Netgear router which I think is Wireless -G. Also the Samsung F3 have really quick internal transfer rates, but external transfer rates I'm not too sure how they cope?

Thanks again for the advice. I really do appreciate it! Will probably order the parts next week... just waiting for pay day! :)

I think ASRock has a solid reputation, so I wouldn't expect any problems (though I've never owned an ASRock board, so I can't really judge this for myself). Personally, I own both Intel and Gigabyte LGA 775 boards. I am more satisfied with the Intel board, because the Gigabyte board takes a long time when booting (it needs extra time to load the AHCI driver...)

If you already have two Samsung drives you're happy with, then I think it's a good idea to utilize them. That would make three drives in total, right? I.e., the system drive and the two Samsung drives as data pool? I believe that would be an ideal solution because you can turn on folder duplication without storing data on your system drive (as long as the two Samsung drives still have enough space).

Regarding streaming speeds, IMHO network speeds are more critical than disk speeds (as long as you only use SATA drives - external USB drives are a different story, they can be really slow). Wireless G would be OK to stream audio, but most likely too slow for video. After trying Wireless N (which I still use to connect my netbook to the internet/to stream to my Squeezebox audio players), I have taken an "old school" approach to connect my WHS to my home PCs/PS3/SageTV and come back to using a wired network (Gigabit LAN). You can't beat that for both cost and speed. B)

However, in case you are talking about transcoding (not just streaming), then of course the CPU could turn out to be the bottleneck. But I believe you're safe with the E5200 - I haven't had any issues with transcoding performance.

So happy shopping, and have fun building your WHS. Don't forget to consult this site's Wiki regarding how to slipstream the SATA drivers into your WHS installation (you will need that for AHCI mode).

Cheers,
teq

[CompTronicsTec]

I agree with tec, the 1tb drives should be fine, use what you got. The ASRock board should be fine, they are a well known motherboard company...maybe not the reputation of Asus or Gigabyte, but still reliable.

Do keep in mind that while Windows XP drivers should work, the safest bet is a board that has windows 2003 drivers.

As for streaming, the network is the #1 determining factor in speed, leaps and bounds ahead of anything else, like say your hard drives. Personally i have a 500GB usb2 external i have all my movies on currently. Having that connected to my laptop, using wireless G i can stream to my PS3 wireless g. Certain video is simply not watchable, but most SD video or lower bitrate video plays surprisingly well (DVD's ripped to .mkv for instance). If you want the best performance right now gigabit ethernet is the way to go if your willing to run the cables, and wireless N is not bad either. Wireless G will leave a bit to be desired.