Last year I showed you how to build a WHS for around $300. In 2009 the trend will continue as I am going on a Do-It-Yourself WHS building spree. If it has a CPU and half a pulse, you can bet I'll find a way to run Windows Home Server on it!
I'd like your suggestions as to what you would like to see built. I know many of you are interested in low power WHS units. Would you like to see how to build your own Intel Atom powered WHS? Others are interested in nothing but terabytes. Do you know of a case that would make a cool WHS? If so, let me know. I'll do the build and provide step-by-step instructions.
Pssst… the picture above is not really a WHS ;)
14 comments:
I would love to see you do a rack mount build.
How about running WHS on an Asus eee box?
How about the smallest WHS that can be built(excluding the mac mini) ? Something with the Intel Atom / Via C7 with nano itx case ?
@DanlTmas - believe it or not, I have a rack mount chassis in my closet ready to go.
@Ryan - an Asus eee box is on my short list. Great suggestion.
@old_shepherdian - try pico? the article is already in the works. check back soon.
I just finished building a MSI Wind WHS server. Have two posts on it on my blog already. Interestly enough I point back to your blog on how to create the USB WHS install flash disk. Genius, thats all I have to say. My rig should be pushing no more than 35watts with 2 WD 1TB Green drives, No CDRom, & 2 gigs of ram.
alexpummer.com
I should be posting the third entry on it soon. Still getting a feel for the WHS. Love it though.
I'm mot interested in the cross between low cost to build, low cost to run, and reliability.
In the past I built one on a via motherboard / processor combination, a pico power supply, and a single hard drive. It was fanless, quiet, and drew only 28 watts at full load. My problem was finding a small case that was not overly expensive.
I finally put that machine at my parents home to make sure that their laptops were backed up. I migrated to an HP 470 WHS because I liked the 4 drive slot system.
How about getting all the functionality of the newly-announced HP WHSs?
I'd love to see a new approach to integrating in to the home. Perhaps a wall mount that could also serve as art. The below link gives an idea of what I'm talking about. The nice thing about a whs is that you can run it fully headless. http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?specialty=4&sort_by=1&c=1&portfolio_id=1566546&individual_id=226605
I built mine with a Walmart (on sale $99) TC2502 Everex C7-D green pc. Quiet, energy efficient and a solid performer.
The MSI Wind PC runs ATOM and consumes just 60 watts. Newegg.com, $139
How about building something around a socket P motherboard? To run some of those relatively cheap, low power, Intel laptop cpu's.
@gregoriogreen
No the MSI Wind has a 60 Watt Power Supply, it consumes around 20 watts, thats including the 4-5 watts for the atom processor. The southbridge is the most wasteful part on the MSI Wind. If you add a WD 1TB Green drive, it uses 5-6 watts on full load.
How about a storage monster. Something with a lot of physical drive space. I currently have 9 IDE drives and 5 SATA drives in my WHS. I would like to see something with removable drives so they can be changed out easily. How many drives can be put in a box and still be afforadable (not spending $300 for a special case)
how about a raspberry pi... it has a cpu and a pulse. and would be badass!
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