Building first WHS.. Need suggestions..

[flocko]

As far as I can tell , no .... there is no hidden spin up by WHS 2012 or Flex.

Your basically talking a whole different animal here with usb drives and what I assume you mean by Windows 7 ilo WHS 2011 ?

This is from personal experience and means nothing toward quoting fact but I REALLY discourage running any htpc or server in ANY type of suspend or sleep mode . I have had countless mother boards from different vendors and many , many different bios updates , roll backs .... blah , blah , blah and sleep mode is nothing but trouble.

I run Flex in it's simplest form which is "Cruise Control" (snap shot) raid . It came set up for me and quite frankly I am no guru by any means . It works , I don't touch it . I get an e-mail every morning as to the update status of the parity which I have set up to start at 2:00 a.m. and will finish around 4:30 a.m.( this will vary depending on how much data you have stored) and then I get the e-mail giving me the "successful update " message . Another nice feature of Flex. It tells me by mail when it is felling well and NOT feeling well. If your a late night server junkie and stream content from the server to your htpc , you would want to vary your update times as this will cause an error in the update. Anotherwords , you don't want to be accessing the server while updating . I can go into the flex software anytime and do a manual update of the parity if I want and I can see the health of the drive pool anytime I want as well . I use a small desktop computer with Win 7 Pro and remote into the server to do maintenance tasks ( almost nothing to do) so I can run the server headless .

You can run flex with different sized drives as well . Almost forgot to include that little tid bit of advantage as well . You will want to be sure to your parity drive is at least as large as the largest drive in the pool . IE; If you have 3 - 1 TB drives and 4 - 2 TB drives then you would want at least 1 / 2 -TB parity drive . Un said rule of thumb for adding parity drives is 1 parity drive for about every 8 to 9 TB of data . I run a 3 - TB parity drive so it will give me more time to purchase another parity drive when the time comes .

BTW... most if not all Window 7 drivers work on WHS 2011 and Microsoft Security Essentials works with out issue as well and it is FREE !!

[barnabas1969]

This is from personal experience and means nothing toward quoting fact but I REALLY discourage running any htpc or server in ANY type of suspend or sleep mode . I have had countless mother boards from different vendors and many , many different bios updates , roll backs .... blah , blah , blah and sleep mode is nothing but trouble.

This is the complete opposite of my experience. My HTPC goes to sleep when it's supposed to, wakes up for recordings and guide updates, goes right back to sleep, and wakes in a couple of seconds when I press the power button on my remote. I have no complaints whatsoever about S3 standby on mine. Plus, it's not too tough to configure things so that a WOL packet is sent for certain events on your network or on a client PC.

Consider this... a 150 watt PC, running 24x7 @ 11 cents per KWH will cost you $11.88 per month. That adds up pretty quick if you have more than one PC running... and 150 watts is not a high estimate by any means. My HTPC draws about 165W at idle.

[flocko]

There , I fixed my post so you can better see the part where I said "personnel experience"

I use my htpc when I need it so it does not stay on 24/7 . To each his/ her own though .

Neither my htpc or server runs any where near those wattage's at idle .

Again , just my experience / thoughts

[newfiend]

Update:
I got the SSD and SATA PCIe 1x card in today. I made an .ISO of the WHS 2011 DVD and then used this method for installation http://www.groovypost.com/howto/windows ... ash-drive/ worked great!

I installed all the drivers for the Intel Board and the SATA adapter card. Device Manager has no errors or missing drivers. YAY!
I had a couple WD Raptors (150GB each) laying around and Installed those and formatted them for storage for now until I can afford a new 2TB Drive.. I've over done my budget for the time being and any more Newegg Boxes coming to the house will surely get me killed by the wife...

Overall Things went really smooth.. Only issue I had was forgetting to hold down the F2 Key at initial boot and setting up the BIOS. I kept getting a beep and no Screen.. Usually, you get a screen that says hit F2 (or another key) to enter the BIOS and make adjustments. It would literally give me no Video... Just a black screen.. I thought it may be memory at first so I reseated that and still no video. So I cleared the CMOS just in case... Still nada...
Finally I remembered reading that I needed to hold down F2 at boot so I shut it off and turned it back on holding F2 the entire time and it took me into the BIOS and the screen lit up... As did my face, now that I knew I didn’t have a bad Mobo.
After I tweaked the Bios I then inserted my Flash Drive and Installed WHS 2011, then all the Updates... Then Entered the Dashboard and ran through all the initial settings.
So far it’s humming right along I just need to configure the HTPC so I can use it for storage. But that will be tomorrow sometime.
Thanks to all of you for your help and suggestions!!
newfiend~

[flocko]

GREAT NEWS !!! and congrats .

Always the best feeling in the world when that baby fires up and you have the ability to install an os . At the very least you now know that your hardware is all working and that is more than 1/2 the battle.

[newfiend]

GREAT NEWS !!! and congrats .

Always the best feeling in the world when that baby fires up and you have the ability to install an os . At the very least you now know that your hardware is all working and that is more than 1/2 the battle.

This entire project was a first for me. I have built my own PC's for years but never a server. It's also the first time I have used a Mini ITX board.. And I thought the Micro ATX was difficult to work on...It's damn near impossible to hook or unhook stuff if you mess up installing a cable. I had to do a little re-routing of cables to get the PCIe 1X card in.. Thought I left enough room for it but was wrong.. After I got it all resorted it went in really smooth. For such a small board its quite impressive thus far.
Yes I was deffinately happy to see the BIOS screen.. from there I know I had a working PC... that was a huge relief.
newfiend~

[duffman984]

How about some pics of the new system? How's the performance on it so far? Have you noticed any speed increases on accessing your files?

[newfiend]

How about some pics of the new system? How's the performance on it so far? Have you noticed any speed increases on accessing your files?

I'll post some pictures soon.. I'm still working out a few kinks... see here: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =11&t=2829
Other than that I can back up my clients, share folders, Stream HD movies to my HTPC via Media Browser.. So fas so good.
I did purchase one add-in for WHS and that was Lights-0ut. I didn't feel the need for the server to up 24/7, with lights out it sleeps the server when the client PC's are off or sleeping and that just saves $.
It puts my Server in S3 sleep mode just like my HTPC. Wakes when My desktop PC comes on or when the HTPC comes online, It seems to work really well.
I shut down my desktop PC and Slept the HTPC last night before bed and a few minutes later the Server went to sleep..

Initially I had Cat 5 cables between my Router and a Switch (I had to add the switch because the Server need a Ethernet port and I was basically out) I bought 2 more CAT 6 Cables one for the router to the switch and one from the switch to the Server. My speed jumped from 10/100 to Gigabit with the cables. (According to my router) it gives a diagnostic display of each port's speed. File Transfer is about the same as me transfering a file from my desktop to the HTPC so I think I'm doing well there..

The more I am reading on WHS the more I like it. My only complaint is the Tv Archive not working. (I'm just obsessive compulsive when software doesn't work like it should so it bugs the crap out of me) I have been up the last two nights trying to figure out why the hell it won't launch, uninstalling and reinstalling the WHS connector software etc.. Frustrating!

newfiend~

[newfiend]

I was able to duplicate the error on both my Desktop Machine and the HTPC both have different OS versions One Ultimate and one Home Premium. I think gcoupe may have found the answer to my issue on connect... I'll post my results tonight after work when I have some time to implement the changes. Wish me luck and thanks gcoupe!
newfiend~

[newfiend]

I am still looking for a fix for TV Archive that dosn't break Media Browser, but I have the Server working like a champ. So far I have been able to get all the clients backed up and some of my important files (Music and Documents.) that if I lost I would be upset, backed-up. I don't know why or how I have gone this long without backing up my data like I should. I used to back up the most important files on a external HDD once in awhile..(never often enough) and this just makes it so seamless having the Server..cool stuff.

The case IMO needs some better air flow.. It has two small vents on the sides but one is blocked a bit by the SATA PCIe card. It has a 120mm fan in the front that pulls in cool air from the front across the HDDs then down to the motherboard area. The PSU has a 120 mm fan to keep it cool and suck out the hot air inside the case. It works ok but just ok..
I decided to add another 120mm fan to the side of the case. I ordered a nice 120mm black fan grill from here: http://www.mnpctech.com/Computer_Billet_Fan_Grills.html
and found this fan that will fit in nicely as it's a small server case : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... y1212sl12l

I have all the tools I need to install it, I'm just waiting on the grill to arrive tomorrow. Once I have all the mods done I'll post some pics.

I added another add-in to the server,.. Stable-Bit Drive Pool and added another 2TB HDD for a total of 4 TB of pooled storage so far.. I figured that would last a little while (at leaset it's a start).

So far I'm loving WHS...Why did they do away with this again.??
newfiend~

[newfiend]

Ok .. here's my little Server Project.
What I ended up with was a Intel e6600 CPU
( I had this left over sitting around so it was what I used to base my Server around. Otherwise I would have used a Core i5 and a newer motherboard.
But I decided to try and recycle some older/good parts I already had.)
Intel DQ45EK motherboard (mini ITX).
WHS 2011 x64
4GB Corsair RAM 800mhz
Chenbro SO/HO Server chassis here: http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/pr ... hp?sku=224
SIIG SATA 2 PCIe 1x RAID card.
Corsair 180GB SSD for the OS Drive.
(2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB
(2) Western Digital Raptor 150GB HDD's (these were left overs as well from an older build that will be replaced later by more 2TB Drives)

I added 2 add-ins so far Stablebit Drive Pool and Lights-Out.

I got it all assembled and decided It didn't have enough airflow so I opted to mod the box a tad and add in another 120mm fan to exhaust the hot air inside the chassis.
I ordered a thin fan and a custom 120mm fan grill from MNPCTECH. Everything for the mod came in Friday so I decided to get it finished.
Here are some pics of the Server, the mod, and how it came out...

Server Pic 1

Server Pic 2

New Fan location

[newfiend]

Here are the rest of the pictures of the 120mm fan mod.

Fan Hole and Mounts drilled

Fan Grill and Fan mounted

Finished Product

newfiend~

[newfiend]

And here she is in all her glory.. haha..

Server Up and Running. =)

It works really well.. Thanks to all of you that helped me out through building this. I appreciate all your input..
newfiend~