Building a Home Sever 2011

razzal · 27 Oct 2014 at 15:36

Hi 2 all that read this,
Can some1 help me with my inquiry.

I'd like to build a WHS with the 2011 version cd. i have some old pc parts that im hoping to use which are;

Asus P5WD2 Premium
Intel celeron 420 1.60ghz
3gb ram 6400
DVD Drive
ati radeon x850 pro 256mb
cit PSu 550wts

Im planing on using a 160gb ide hdd for installing WHS 2011 and later adding 2 x 1tb hdd and 2x 2tb hdd for music and movies so i can stream them over my network and maybe share with friends over the net.
( Not really for backing up my systems only entertainment )

If this set up looks ok could you let me know plz.
Thanks.

Raz

UnworthyBean · 27 Oct 2014 at 16:33

Depending on how you're going to be streaming or what else you're going to be doing, I doubt the CPU will be up to the job as it's fairly low powered.

Edit - The PSU isn't exactly a high quality unit, I wouldn't really trust that amount of data with a PSU that could potentially take the whole lot out.

PurplePhoenix · 27 Oct 2014 at 16:34

To run WHS 2011

CPU 1.3 GHz dual core or 1.4 GHz single core; x86-64 architecture
RAM 2 GB (8 GB Maximum)
Hard disk space At least one 160 GB drive

Your CPU is 1.3 single core, I cant say how well it will work, if it installs fine you are good to go.

wonko · 27 Oct 2014 at 17:20

As already said, CPU speed may be an problem. It may cope with simple sharing of files but there wouldn't be a hope of transcoding video on the fly.
The graphics card is overkill for server duties and even idling may use quite a bit of power if you're worried about the electricity bill.

razzal · 29 Oct 2014 at 00:15

Thanks for your help,
I wasnt sure about the cpu aswell.
Thinking of getting a p4 or a core duo that will fit that asus mobo. I dont really want to spend to much on this server.
so any ideas will be helping.

thanks

UnworthyBean · 29 Oct 2014 at 09:01

A Pentium 4 will actually be worse. It also doesn't look like the board supports Core 2 duos.

Just my opinion here, but at worst you need to replace the CPU and board. A new power supply would go down well too.

Skeeter · 29 Oct 2014 at 22:27

I have a slow Core 2 Duo in my WHSv1 and it really struggles with transcoding video whilst doing anything else, and I do have it doing a lot.

razzal · 6 Nov 2014 at 00:42

what about a Pentium d, over 2.2ghz?

UnworthyBean · 6 Nov 2014 at 09:07

A Pentium D is only going to be marginally better. As said, if you want a generic file server then they're going to be fine. But any streaming and you'll need a complete overhall. Unfortunately, you're quite limited for CPU choice in that mobo and nothing is really going to be up to the task.

Scottland · 6 Nov 2014 at 09:46

You could look at something like a mATX motherboard with Celeron 1037u embedded. That should be upto the task I would have thought, and cheap at about £50. You could do away with the gfx card as well that way.

asim18 · 6 Nov 2014 at 09:48

razzal said:
Im planing on using a 160gb ide hdd for installing WHS 2011 and later adding 2 x 1tb hdd and 2x 2tb hdd for music and movies so i can stream them over my network and maybe share with friends over the net.
( Not really for backing up my systems only entertainment )

WHS2011 seems a bit overkill if you just want to serve files. CPU could easily be a bottleneck in a Windows based server due to extra overheads/tasks associated with Windows.

I'd stick ubuntu server on it and run and just run some SMB shares.