I want to build one too!!! My Windows Home Server Build Sheet

This article was written for release on July 21st but Power Pack One being released that day got all the news.  This post would have been shuffled to the back very quickly.  I decided to hold onto it so the pricing may not be timely.

Everybody is publishing a build sheet for a home grown Windows Home Server. I can't let the opportunity pass me by since I occasionally build gaming rigs.  It's a labor of love mostly.

Cue the drum-roll and trumpets, here is my list!

Before you commence with the comment flames understand that this is not your normal WHS build.  I thought about it and instead of building what the masses wants, I decided to build what I want. It's a server that a gamer would love!

Lets start with the case.

Antec Three Hundred - Six drive bays - $59.99 (on sale for $55.98) at Amazon - comes with 2 fans, top and rear.  Two more are needed if you are going to load up hard drives in it.  This is a great case for gamers and it's perfect as a server.  Looks good too.  There is nothing flimsy about it.  It does not have hot swappable external drives but it's going to hold six internal and the drive bays themselves are removable from the front.  Each drive bay holds three drives and has a place holder for a 120 mm fan.  This fan will draw cool air in over the drives and the case fans will expel it.  It also has a side case fan option for the graphics area.  This is a BAD A** case!  I own one and will continue to recommend it.

I chose a moderate power supply.  It's not going to run a SLI rig but it should have enough juice for future hard drives.  It's a good price too.

Now, on to the issue that should spark the most debate.  The motherboard.  Disclaimer: Although these are quality parts I have not actually purchased them and built a WHS with them.  I realize other sites have builds that are proven.  This is a paper build just to appease my curiosity in building a server.  They should work just fine.  The issue i cannot prove is WHS running ok on the motherboard.  I did find posts and drivers on the WIFI version of the motherboard and it's compatibility with Windows 2000. I also found NewEgg reviews that stated 2003 Server was running on the board.  It will take some driver work probably.  No guarantees.  If you would like to buy these items and ship them to me I'll build it and ship it back to you!  Then we can prove it!  Back to the motherboard.

The ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard was my choice. (Review Here) This is a lot of motherboard!  It's more expensive than other boards but it's also a lot more board!  Six SATA ports onboard, two eSata external ports, six external USB ports.  It also has two onboard USB connectors that support an additional 4 ports.  1 Floppy port, 1 IDE Connector in case you want to slip a couple of old drives in your system or maybe that old DVD drive you have laying around.  (Cost saver, cha-ching!)
This board supports many processors.  You may even have one laying around.  Intel®  Core™2 Quad / Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors.  Dual-channel DDR2 1066/800/667 MHz.  It has one onboard Gigabit LAN port.  This board should be fine with a stock cooler and it will overclock.  Asus boards overclock very well in my opinion and you should be able to get a small percentage of CPU gain by overclocking with the stock cooler and the RAM.
So if you change your mind or give up on WHS in the future you have a nice board waiting for you. (In my recent review of an external drive see if you can find an Asus box in a photo)

What, no onboard video?  Well, with the end product we don't want video.  Remote Desktop will serve just fine but here is a cheap-ola video card for this board.  Cheapest I can find, $33.99 with a $15 rebate.  Use it to install and pull it out.  Now you have a nice backup video card for just about anything.

Processors
You can go as low as $40 for a celeron.  This motherboard will support a ton of CPU's.  The least expensive Core2 Duo you can get is the E4600.  It's $119.99 at the Egg.   Lets go with that.

RAM
Lets go least expensive but still a good vendor.  Corsair Valueselect 2x512MB.   $20 bills at the Egg.

HD -$79.99, Seagate 500GB

DVD Drive -     ASUS Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE 21.99

WHS OEM - $149.99

Cost savers - You probably have a DVD drive somewhere abouts.  Possibly a video card for a temporary install?

Add-Ons
For $5 more you can get the Asus P5K-E/Wifi - it adds a Wifi chip to the mobo.  That was another reason I chose this board.  I would add the wifi for $5.  That's a deal.  If you are needing a good DVD burner check out some of the deals at Newegg, get a nice SATA drive, use it for the install, and sneak it into your own rig!

Conclusion:  If you factor in the cost savers you have a one drive WHS for as little as six Benjamins!

That's a pretty decent deal.  It will be pretty but probably not as pretty as this one. Nor as green.  It's a tad cheaper than this build when all the drives are factored in.  Same amount of ports too.  It will never compare to this hand crafted perfection! Is it as ExtremeTech as this build? I dunno.  It's certainly not as "published" as this build. Is it as "Popular" as this one?   What, these guys again?  Hmmm....as "Whistful" as this one? Vladvilles. Mr. Kindel. I've used the case in this build before!

Wow, that got out of hand quickly.  I only stopped because the linkback section of my Wordpress is going to die once I post this! Please forgive me.  There were so many posts on builds that I couldn't resist.  If we are not building one, we are linking to one.  Good stuff.  It shows you how popular this platform has become in such a short time.

So, take my build sheet and give it a whirl.  I think it's a cool looking box that would look good in your server room (closet) next to another one that is just like it. (Maybe your Media Center?)

Oh, wait a minute...don't go anywhere...how about this!  A PCI or PCI-E SATA card, and a SATA backplane!  Add 3 to 4 more drives!

I'm curious now.  What would it cost to completely fill this box?

I added the 9 drives, backplane, and SATA card.  That's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I probably should beef up the power supply at this point!

Buy List
Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case External 3 X 5.25; Internal 6 X 3.5 2*Usb2.0
ASUS P5K-E ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Antec Basiq BP500UB 500W Power Supply

CORSAIR 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3450 100233L Video Card
ASUS Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A/A6/QT_B+W

Microsoft Windows Home Server 32 Bit 1 Pack

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Optional:
Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) SATA II 3G Controller Card/ 4 internal SATA with 2 external eSATA Design

Athena Power BP-SATA2131B 2 x 5.25"Bays to 3 x 3.5"HD (SATA) Backplane

ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP ATX Intel Motherboard

Disclaimer: Although these are quality parts I have not actually purchased them and built a WHS with them.  I realize other sites have builds that are proven.  This is a paper build just to appease my curiosity in building a server.  They should work just fine.  The issue i cannot prove is WHS running ok on the motherboard.  I did find posts and drivers on the WIFI version of the motherboard and it's compatibility with Windows 2000. I also found NewEgg reviews that stated 2003 Server was running on the board.  It will take some driver work probably.  No guarantees.  If you would like to buy these items and ship them to me I'll build it and ship it back to you!  Then we can prove it!