Do I need a Server - "Boss" says why?

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2004
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Kent
Hello, this is what we have at home:

3 desktop PCs (2 Win 7, used all the time, I x XP for legacy stuff);
1 laptop (Win 8.1)
1 netbook (Win 7 starter)
1 WHS which backs up all the windows pcs except the win 8.1 laptop which I have backed up separately;
1 1 GB raid NAS (photos, music, etc. backup)
1 WD Live media player, networked, attached to TV (movies, photo shows).

The WHSv1 works as it should and I have recently used it to reinstall a Win 7 backup on a PC that windows update had "corrupted".

All works together - no current issues.

Then HP come up with the HP proliant microserver for ~£100 or £128 with 3-year service contract. Yummy says I, I could replace the WHS pc / NAS with one new box BUT WHS is no longer available and it's such a neat solution.

My wife says - don't change anything - it's not broken.

Is there some software that operates just like WHSv1 - without any human intervention / cheap (NOT Windows Server 2012 - too expensive / complicated for me. I do have a not-yet -used Win7 disc?

OR should I leave "as-is" for a year or so? I don't need a network media server - just a reliable networked backup / storage (e.g. photos / CDs, etc) system.

Thanks, Mel
 
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I'd like to sit here and agree with the if it's not broke don't change it approach but who am I to talk I've just dropped over 1k on a brand new laptop because well it's shiny and I wanted one.
Although my only boss is my bank balance so it's easier to get away with it.
 
Liking the look a lot of these ProLiant micro servers! Was needing a NAS box and the synology boxes are £200+ without drives. This HP solution would cost the same but at least it's an actual server as well.
 
Jay said:
The day my wife dictates what Kit i can have, she gets binned.
Click to expand...

She hasn't dictated what I can buy - she has just said - why do we need another black box - just because it's £100 off! :D

I'm not sure I can justify it - and I know setting it up will be a hassle and I will not directly replace the WHS!
 
U could dump the Nas,WHS,and WD Live, and use a HPN54L to do all those things, mines pretty quiet and its unobtrusive enough to sit near a TV. Maybe you could dump the xp machine onto the server aswell?
 
I am thinking of replacing my wife's XP PC and upgrading her to Win7 (have a spare copy) and then using her old box, power supply, DVD, fans, etc as starting point for a server. Have 6GB DDR3 so I only need a motherboard, processor and some HDDs (I would need the latter for the HP Proliant).

Mel
 
I've got a single PC running WHS 2011, with ~7TB of storage.

This is my NAS, my MySQL server for XBMC, my CrashPlan storage, my automated downloader box, my "always-on" box for remoting into home via TeamViewer.

I had a WHSv1 box, but the motherboard (and WHS) didn't support disks larger than 2TB, and I'd filled all my SATA ports and HDD slots in the case. So, I bought a new case/mobo/cpu/RAM, which now has 6x SATA ports and I'm only using 3 of them (2x 3TB and 1x 2TB drives) - leaving me plenty of expansion.

I'd only get a Microserver if you were happy with the relatively weak CPU, and the limited space for expansion (ie it will only hold 4 HDDs) - my £25 case+PSU combination can hold about 12 hard drives, and I can throw in a PCI SATA card to make use of this space in the case - I couldn't do that with my old box, and you certainly couldn't do that with an HP Microserver.

WHS 2011 is ~£40 - and StableBit DrivePool is ~$20, and this will give you everything that WHSv1 gave you, with the ability to use newer hardware. And, it is much, much quicker (my old WHSv1 box wasn't much less powerful than my WHS 2011 box, but the new one feels so much quicker due to a better operating system)
 
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