Building a new home server. Any thoughts and advice?

[ferryenthusiast]

Hello All

Hoping everyone had a good Christmas.

I currently have an HP Ex490 (upgraded to dual core 2.2ghz CPU) which has worked fine for a couple of years now, but the time has come for many reasons including the fact that Microsoft are ditching support for the operating system.

I am looking at building my own this time to give me more scope, not to mention the longer warranty with building rather than buying.

The following is the list of components currently:

Intel Celeron G550 2.6ghz
Gigabyte ITX H61N-D2V
8Gb Ram
Seasonic G Series 360w PSU
Bitfenix Prodigy Black Case

£240 delivered.

Will be running WHS 2011 which I have a CD and license for already.

I have, the following hard drives up and working so initially not looking for extras, however one of the new roles will be storing DVD archives to play through the TV so any advice on new HDDs would be appreciated. I used Samsung in the past as they were excellent drives but they are now part of Seagate:

Three 1Tb drives (2 x Samsung and 1 x Seagate that came with the HP)
One 512Gb drive (Western Digital)

I am thinking that the 360w PSU will be more than ample for the above new build along with 4 or 5 HDD's.

Many thanks for any thoughts and words of wisdom.

Paul

 

[ferryenthusiast]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have looked at the Proliant Microserver but am reluctant based upon the processing power of the unit and the various limitations on the ability to upgrade and expand etc. I remember the MediaSmart Ex490 was very sluggish to start with until I upgraded the CPU and the CPU I replaced looks faster than the NEO.

I think I would prefer a self build project as I think it will last longer and support better growth if you know what I mean in the future.

Will take a look at the motherboard mentioned.