I think I'm going to retire Windows Home Server 2011

[thesameguy]

I built the system in 2012 - almost exactly two years ago, actually. Lately one of the 2tb WD Green drives has been disconnecting from the OS, which is troubling. It comes back after a power cycle, but power cycling a server kinda gets old. It's possible our issue with electric utility had something to do with this, although the system is connected to a UPS and the UPS did it's job. It's probably for the best - WHS never really panned out, and with MS discontinuing it I think it's unlikely the situation will improve. Not being able to stream media from WHS to the xbox is by far and away the most annoying aspect. (Yes, I could use a DLNA host on the server, but the low-power E350 is about useless in that regard, and besides, having a utility transcode video that's already in a highly compatible format is a dumb thing to have to do)

I'm thinking about switching to Window 8 for the server, as don't think that will inhibit any of the HTPCs and will enable the Xboxes. I actually don't know if 8 will be an issue for devices down the road, but whatever, my home network is always grotesquely behind the times. ;) I obviously can't trust one of the four 2tb drives, so they'll all be swapped for a pair of 4tb drives I think. What I am wrestling with is whether to keep the E350 or move to a Haswell-era Pentium or i3. I really like the low power consumption of the E350, but what's a few watts between friends? I think the G3220 is 18w/54w vs the E350 14w/52w (idle/full tilt), so not a huge difference. The Pentium certainly brings a LOT more power to the table at its wattage.

I am a little upset the be upgrading this box after only two years especially given the protections I put in place (UPS, climate controlled closet, etc.) but I guess that's what happens when you run consumer-grade computer parts 24x7. And I'm going to do it again, which is rad. I just need to be sure Win8 can server an xbox properly, and then get going on this.

[Random]

Is this the "Dammit Random" box?

[thesameguy]

ROFL!

I really do love the little red cube in the closet! It's just outlived its usefulness I guess. :(

Hmmm... I am now reminded I have the old HTPC cube sitting around. Maybe I will build it as the server - if it will fit in the space in the closet, not having to buy an mITX board will save some money. But I really do love the little red cube.

[thesameguy]

I have officially decided Red Cube is out.

I have a much larger cube case that was formerly an HTPC that will fit in the space the Red Cube is. The advantage of this plan is that I can put that larger case back to work, and be left with an ITX case equipped with an ITX motherboard and still have a functional computer. If I upgraded Red Cube, I'd have a "useless" E350 ITX board hanging around with no home. So, it's gonna be the Lian Li V351:

http://media.bestofmicro.com/lian-li-pc-v351,X-O-221532-13.jpg

My only complaint about this case is the asinine layout of the drive bays. Like so many other cases, if they'd just added a fraction of an inch here or there they could have fully doubled the utility of the case. I'm not sure what the design process is that results in those sort of compromises, but I'd love to learn more about it. But, I think it will be enough for the foreseeable future.

I think it still has a Silverstone ultra-quiet PSU in it, but I may switch it out with an XFX PSU I have, simply to go from "80 Plus" Bronze to Gold (IIRC) and get a little more power efficiency out of the deal.

I'm going to go with the Pentium G3220, but haven't resolved on a motherboard. MSI has a couple good MicroATX candidates that have onboard video support and six or eight SATA 6gb/s ports, which should be plenty of storage - because the case is functionally limited to four 3.5" drives anyway.

I think for the short-term I am going to try and keep a pair of the 2tb drives and replace the other pair with a 4tb drive. I know I can fit two drives comfortably in the case, but three could be a challenge. I will probably have to lose the optical drive, but that's hardly a big deal. I'll boot it from the same 256gb mSATA SSD that WHS2011 is currently using. Reusing drives will reduce the initial cost of getting this up and running.... and I might as well milk those 2tb drives to death as their resale value is crap anyway. All I need to get, then, is the board, CPU, and one 4tb drive.

Leftover will be the fully functional Red Cube with its 430w (IIRC) power supply, one good 2tb WD Green, and the Fusion E350 CPU/board with its 8gb of RAM. Maybe I will bequeath it to my parents to use as a home server... although that would give my dad some other device to obsess about and overmanage. I'll have to think about that.

[thesameguy]

Oooh... just had an idea. I can convert the 2x 5.25" external drive bays to a 3x 3.5" hot swap bay. That will solve the physical space issue entirely. Nice.

[Random]

My MSI H77-spec mATX board has been fine, though I am not exactly stressing it in any way. A bunch of reviews pointed out that you have to look carefully at which direction MSI points their SATA headers if you're going to be installing it in a tight case--wasn't an issue for me (as you saw).

[thesameguy]

That is maybe the one real upside of this case. Because it's a "two story" design there is nothing anywhere near the motherboard unless a video card is installed, so connectors and such are never obscured. This thing won't have a video card, so it's going to be really empty downstairs... just the board and 4-5" of airspace.

Maybe I should install a video card and have this thing mining bitcoin. ;)

http://media.bestofmicro.com/lian-li-pc-v351,X-T-221537-13.jpg

[Yw-slayer]

Then you may recover its cost in about 30 years. ;)

Win8.1 works pretty good on our home server.

[thesameguy]

Picked up an ASUS B85E/CSM last night.

https://www.asus.com/websites/global/products/K1tEj1VyyByAEW10/line.jpg

It has four SATA 6gb + 2 3gb ports so that covers me and then some plus it has HDMI, DVI, VGA and DP out which is nice flexibility. I was honestly not going to roll with ASUS given the bad luck I've had with them over the last several years, but it was there and the features were right, so that's what it is. I did buy it locally, so if it turns out to suck out of the box like the last two ASUS boards I've bought, at least this time I can just take it back. And this time, I won't blame goofy stability problems on something I did. It's going back.

Got home to find an email from Amazon that the price of the Pentium G3220 dropped by $15, so that's coming in tomorrow. Er, maybe Thursday. I dunno.

I still need drives and an OS. but I can certainly use the existing drives for now, and I've got a couple licenses for Win7 Pro kicking around so I could start the build this weekend. I've mentioned it before, but it's kinda sad how trivial desktop computer stuff is these days to work with.

[Yw-slayer]

Sweet MB.

[thesameguy]

Finally resolved on the final components - a pair of Western Digital Red 4tb drives and a Cooler Master "Vortex Plus" HSF. I'm not the biggest fan (HA!) of CM products, but it seems the CPU fan market has stratified into genuinely good stuff and junk and not much in the middle. I wasn't going to drop $60 on a server CPU fan and didn't want a $10 noisebox, so $25 Cooler Master fan. Those final bits show up in the next couple days, so I'll build this weekend. I'm going with Win7, because I can't find a truly compelling reason to go with 8.

This is not terribly exciting, but servers rarely are (a beastly 8-way 8-core monstrosity I'm ordering for the office might be such an exception, I guess ;) ).

[Yw-slayer]

Yeah, if you've got some spare Win7 Pro licences then it's a no-brainer for a server.

[thesameguy]

I wanted to do 8 just to maximize future compatibility with, say, xbone, but free is better than $120 right now.

New box is up, old box is sitting on the floor. I'll miss the little red monster in the closet, but c'est la vie. Time marches on!