Home Servers, Network Storage and the Case House
by Loyd Case on December 2, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Postmortem: Nothing’s Perfect
For the time being, I’m planning on running the old ReadyNAS alongside the WHS box for a few weeks. Then I’ll switch over to the Windows Home Server box. After using WHS for a couple of weeks now, it seems much more flexible and, well, shiny, than the old NAS.
That said, no solution is perfect. There are a few gotchas about this particular system I built that I might do a little differently.
There’s the cost issue. Here’s the bill of materials, if you go out and buy all the components:
| Component | Model | Price |
| Case | Chenbro ES32067 | $120 |
| Motherboard | Intel DG41MJ | $80 |
| CPU | Intel E5200 | $64 |
| Memory | 2GB Kingston Value RAMD DDR2-800 | $41 |
| Storage | 2 x WD2002FYPS | $290 each; $580 total |
| Memory | 2GB Kingston Value RAMD DDR2-800 | $41 |
| Operating System | Windows Home Server OEM (SP1) | $85 |
| Total | $970 |
Just the $580 cost of the pair of WD2002FYPS drives could buy you a modest 2TB NAS system. The total cost of $970 is $150 - $300 more than similarly configured, off-the-shelf WHS systems, though many of those are Atom-based. So building your own WHS from scratch may not be a cost effective way to go.
Then there are the technical limitations I encountered.
Take the motherboard, for example. The BIOS setup is pretty limited, even by Intel motherboard standards. One thing I wanted to do was to undervolt and underclock the CPU slightly, to use even less power. But the BIOS doesn’t allow that, even if you enable the infamous “BIOS configuration jumper.”
After I built the system, I discovered that Chenbro actually builds the ES34069 mini-ITX server box with four cold swappable drive bays. That might be more flexible, but it’s also bulkier. The unit also uses an external 120W or 180W PSU brick, rather than a self-contained PSU.
So far, though, the case has been a winner. It’s actually seems quieter than the ReadyNAS, though I haven’t taken SPL measurements. It also fits nicely into the space that was taken up by the ReadyNAS.
Here’s the ReadyNAS in the storage area off the basement lab.
And here’s the Chenbro-based WHS system running. It’s a little taller, but not as wide, as the ReadyNAS, so fits very nicely. If anything, it’s a slightly more efficient use of the available space.
For most users who have modest home networks and simple backup needs, Windows Home Server may be overkill. I’m personally looking forward to the additional flexibility of an actual server, plus I’m also looking forward to experimenting with the various add-ins. So for my purposes, which are not the same as most users by any means, it’s all good.
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shin0bi272 - Thursday, December 10, 2009 - link
that looks pretty sweet. I sort of did something similar when I recently upgraded to an I7 cpu. I took my core2duo guts out of my game box and put them in a oneof case that I modded as a tribute to 9/11 (Im from NY so it hit me pretty hard personally). For years I had nothing to put in the box but considered doing a file server out of it because it was this huge micron tower from the mid 90's (seriously its like 3ft tall wtf?) that used to have a dual p133 mobo in it. I put a raid5 card in it with an enclosure similar to yours only mine holds 5 disks not 2. Im currently running 3x1tb wd ent. drives in it and have 2tb of usable storage with redundancy (and an LTO2 tape drive in another computer that I can back up that server remotely with) and the capability to add another drive.The one thing I am concerned about though will be upgrading to 2 or 4tb drives later but that will be a while Im only half full now.
larsv - Saturday, December 5, 2009 - link
Correction to the article text - the 4-bay Chenbro case ES34069 is same physical size as the case used in the article.To make room for the two extra bays the ES34069 case uses an external PSU. My setup runs an Atom 330 MB, four WD Green drives, and a separate 2.5" boot drive. Power draw at wall socket at idle (drives spun down) is 35W, fully active 46W.
Re WHS: Part of the attraction of WHS, for me, is that my data isn't dependent on specific hardware. If my processor burns to a crisp I can still take each drive and pull the data I need off it using any computer fluent in NTFS. As a contrast, when my ReadyNAS packed up I had to get a new ReadyNAS just to get the data off it. Never will I be that dependent on proprietary hardware again.
Inglix - Sunday, December 6, 2009 - link
I run a very similar build with:200w Chenbro 4 bay case (the "psu" isn't as efficient as I'd like)
Intel DQ45EK mITX (more efficient than the G45 mITX board, and has management tools)
e8400 (cheapest VT wolfdale at the time, an e3200 would do now)
2x2gb 1.8v (I wish these were still $15 after rebate)
60gb Vertex 2k8 r2 boot drive (hey, it was $126 after rebates)
4 WD20EADS pass through for WHS hyper-v
Antec 200mm fan (mounted on the side for extra cooling)
e-sata to sata adapter for the 5th port
I like having a smallish domain server with plenty of space to store WHS & Acronis backups. For cost reasons though I'd still recommend a HP WHS system over a Chenbro build, unless you need alternate OS support.
Zurichtx - Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - link
InglixI like the idea of the SSD drive as an os drive. That extra 2.5 bay in the 4 drive chenbro case it seems like the perfect spot. How has the setup worked out for you? I am considering a simliar rig.
Glaucus - Friday, December 4, 2009 - link
Any word on what the total power consumption is on such a rig? I'm trying to put together a system that will use as little power as possible and looking for ideas.beady - Friday, December 4, 2009 - link
though 2TB isn't the best price point atm, 1.5TB is, or the 2TB greens, but if you manage to fill 4TBs of data you really should look at RAID 5/6 unless you have backups, but not many have backups of backups, but normal failure is only 2%/year or so.but its a good beginner article anyways, not as tech savy as most of anandtech people are but most people don't see the benefits of a nas, its mostly for convenience sake, but setting it up is inconvenient and takes a long time, there are too many options and you have to look all over the web for the different hardware/software configurations and guides almost always from 10-20+ different websites for setting up everything. Simply because there are 100's of different ways to set up home networks for all different things.
here's a link to my HTPC resource;far from complete
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtfZAEbM0x...">http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=...CUVBDejE...
anyways, everyones needs are different, NAS's are generally expensive and not easy to set up and takes awhile regardless of what or how. IMO if you don't have TB's to share then don't bother, its easier to run Tversity on a normal PC or something.
yacoub - Friday, December 4, 2009 - link
At first I thought "The Case House" was some new e-tailer website that specialized in computer cases. Then he started naming family members and I figured it out. ;Pvalnar - Friday, December 4, 2009 - link
So after all that, what is the power consumption?rrinker - Thursday, December 3, 2009 - link
I too built my own, using a low power dual-core Athlon CPU and an integrated video motherboard with 6 SATA ports. I used a small but still ATX case so I'd have enough drive bays, so while my system isn't tiny, it's not a monster, either. It sits under my desk and hums away storing my files, videos, music, and photos, while also backing up my two desktops, one of which runs Win7 64bit. Right now it has 3x 750GB drives (which were the sweet spot in price when I built it - 1TB was 2x the cost for that extra 250GB), and 2x 1TB drives I bought when the prices on those dropped. I don't think my total system cost was as much as this build - AMD has it all over Intel when it comes to low cost low power system - and I have over 4TB of space.WHS is better than most NAS boxes or using RAID for the average home user, it's not overkill. Drobo uses a similar disk data protection scheme - but a Drobo loaded with drives with the ethernet adapter actually cost more thanmy system, and it doesn't do the backup.
As for the HP extras - Twonky is pointless if you stream to a media pc or, in my case, a Popcorn Hour that actually handles pretty much any format you can throw at it. Other media player devices seem very limited especially in terms of what formats they support, requiring an add-on like Twonky or tVersity to convert formats on the fly.
nafhan - Thursday, December 3, 2009 - link
To all the people complaining about prices of build it yourself vs. buying a prebuilt system: remember to be flexible! You can save a lot of money by:1. Reusing parts you already have (like Loyd did).
2. Being flexible on which components you use (you could save $40 - $80 on the case if you don't need hotswappable bays).
3. Waiting for deals, sales come up all time (I bought a 640GB WD drive for $38 a few months ago).
Loyd's price list is a good reference/starting point, but straight retail prices should be viewed as the most you would pay for any of those things. DIY is great for those who are willing to do research to find the best components at the best prices, and not so well for those who aren't.