Building a New WHS

[PCEddie]

Since I returned from the Home Server Show Meet up, I have been motivated to begin my next project of building a replacement Windows Home Server to replace my current box. Below is brief breakdown of my current Windows Home Server. 

 

ASUS M3A76-CM Mother Board 

 

AMD Athlon X2 5050e 2.6GHz Processor 

 

Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650 Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply 

 

Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2TB Sata2 5400 RPM Hard Drive HD204UI/Z4 

 

HighPoint RocketRAID 2680SGL 8-Channel PCI Express x4 3Gb/s Raid Controller 

 

 

 

My plans for my new Windows Home Server are to use Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-server-2012-r2-essentials/default.aspx#fbid=KeU6Otd7uXy) for the OS. This box will be used as my backup, file, and VM server. I will be repurposing the power supply, RAID card, and 5 Samsung SpinPoint 2TB hard drives. Below is my list of parts that I am thinking of purchasing but I am open to other suggestions.

 

 

Lian Li PC-A75 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Case 

 

Intel Core i5-3470 Quad Core Processor 3.2 GHZ 4 Core LGA 1155 

 

MIS Computer Corp. Motherboard ATX Z87-G45 

 

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) 

 

WD Black 250 GB Mobile 2.5 Hard Drive 

 

Intel Pro/1000 Pt Dual Port Server Adapter 

 

 

I plan on purchasing two RAM kits for 32GB of RAM and two WD Black 250GB hard drives and have them mirrored. My main goal is to learn more about servers and VMs. I want to be able to setup a VM and test different operating systems and software. 

 

Kick the tires on my planned build and tell me what you think. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jmwills]

I thought Essentials was only allowed to run Hyper-V in a migration mode, so why are you going to use this for a VM server?

[schoondoggy]

The one thing that jumps out to me is the 2.5" WD black drives. They are good laptop drives, but even at 7200 rpm they are not very fast. For a little more $ you could go with WD VR drives or go all out and put in a SSD.

[PCEddie]

I am not using the correct terminology. What I plan to do is install  Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials and then run my VMs from Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials using the Hyper-V role.

I thought Essentials was only allowed to run Hyper-V in a migration mode, so why are you going to use this for a VM server?

[PCEddie]

Interesting suggestion. My server will be in my office. How noisy are the WD VR drives? I have a older WD VR drive and it is very noisy. Your suggestions has peaked my interest. If I decide to go with this route, would you suggest this Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB drive?

 

 

The one thing that jumps out to me is the 2.5" WD black drives. They are good laptop drives, but even at 7200 rpm they are not very fast. For a little more $ you could go with WD VR drives or go all out and put in a SSD.

[schoondoggy]

The current drives are much quieter than the original VR. 

I do recommend the drive in your link, but Newegg just had them on sale for $59.99 check the deals area.

[Joe_Miner]

Interesting suggestion. My server will be in my office. How noisy are the WD VR drives? I have a older WD VR drive and it is very noisy. Your suggestions has peaked my interest. If I decide to go with this route, would you suggest this Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB drive?

 

 

The current drives are much quieter than the original VR. 

I do recommend the drive in your link, but Newegg just had them on sale for $59.99 check the deals area.

 

 

I was using these drives in my demo's at the Meet-Up

http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n40l-microserver-hdmi-video-card-hss-meet-2013.html

http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n54l-g7-microserver-sans-digital-tr4mbnc-hss-meet-2013.html

 

I had 5 of them in the N54L at the meet-up and I don't think anyone noticed the noise..................

 

Just before the Meet-Up these drives were on sale for $49.99 http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6192-4999-velociraptor-wd1500hlhx/

So keep an eye out during the sales in the next couple months

Last year the 250G model http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236245 was on sale for $69.99 on Black Friday and I'm still kicking myself for not picking up a handful

[ikon]

I think jmwills point about Essentials still applies. The Hyper-V Role in Essentials is not intended for use as a Hyper-V server in production. It's supposed to be used to migrate from Essentials to Standard. Technically, I believe you would be breaking the licence by doing what you suggest. Just a thought....

[PCEddie]

I am not clear as to what I would be using the new build for. I will have Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials running my backups to my client computers and will serve the duty of my file server as well. Since Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials has HyperV build in, I would use HyperV to run a VM which would my Plex server and run other VMs to learn Windows Server and other software. 

 

I am looking for input on my build to make sure it can handle what I am trying to do. I am also looking for input for those who have built a Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials server and running test VMs. 

 

 

This build and idea came from the last meet up while looking at JIm's Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials server while running a VM. 

 

Thanks for any information.

[javaman]

Hi just curious, why might one need the Intel PRO/1000 Pt Dual Port Server Adapter? Is the Lan on the mother board not enough