Ryan L Gamer Built into Windows Home Server

Note from Dave:  Re-publishing user submitted builds into the category BYOB Hardware/User Builds.  Access more at the top of the blog under category BYOB Hardware.

My Home Build probably isn’t all that exciting, but I love it none the less.  It’s actually my old gaming rig that I parted out due to the fact that I Didn’t have the money to afford to keep 2 PC’s up to date.

Specs:

Motherboard:DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D

CPU: AMD FX50

RAM:2GB of Geil PC3200

Video: ATI X800

Add in SATA controller: Promise TX150

Optical:Lite-ON DVD Burner

NIC:PCI-E Intel Pro1000 PT

10 Total SATA ports

Storage:

• 3 Western Digital 250’s
• 4 Hitachi 1TB’s
• 1 Maxtor 300
• 1 Seagate 400(E-Sata)
• 1 Seagate 500

Add In’s:

Advanced Admin Console

Router Control

Disk Management

Client PC Info

Whiist

Duplication Info

Avast

My Movies

Program Launcher

WHS Customizer

WebGuide

Auto Exit

Event Viewer

It’s main use now is a media serving box.  I have all my DVD’s ripped to it now which was a long job, but very worth it.  My Movies is the best add-on going.  It was great to just pop in the disc, and let it go. The other great use is when my wife just happens to leave important school work at home.  She always has access to her computer when she needs it.

One other cool thing I’ve done, is make a remote backup server for my family.  I’m sure other people have done this but I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere, and thought it would be a good snippet to throw in the podcast.  If you’re like me and are the family PC tech, this is a great way to get your family to back up their PC’s.  I use Hamachi to set up a network with all my families PC’s in it.  From there remote desktop becomes very simple, as all you need is the PC name.  No more DYNDNS updater running.  From that point all you need to do is connect up, browse to  your homeserver and install the connector.  It’s simple really.  The only thing that I found is that you have to do the initial backup in increments.  Pick a few folders, back them up the first night, pick a few more folders, back them up and so on.  Most internet connections are still not able to transfer GB’s of data in one night.  The other downside is that in order to do a full restore, you would need to go get the PC and bring it back to your network as a software VPN isn’t going to work outside of Windows.

That’s my Homeserver.  Let me know what you think.  Keep up the great Podcast!!

Ryan L

Note from Dave:  Great build Ryan.  It’s a great Franken Build but It’s not that ugly!  I do like the dust on the case though!  Great shot of the SATA card in action with plenty of hard drives.  Backing up over a Hamachi VPN is cool.  I never would have tried a backup over VPN even though I have used it to connect.  Thanks again.