Guest poster Orlando Martinez talks about his 1st Windows Home Server 2011 server build. Have a look and tell us all about your build.
My 1st server/computer build. WHS 2011 in a Solano 1000 case
Hi everyone my name is Orlando,
I thought I would share my build with everyone here, now that my server is officially up and running.
As it says in the title, this is my first computer build from scratch but I’m pretty happy with the final product. The following is a list/links of the parts that I used:
AZZA Solano 1000 Full Tower Case $100 after rebate
Microcenter motherboard and processor combo deal $129.99 after rebate.
MSI 870A G54 motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black
2X Hitachi 2TB 6.0Gb/s hard drives $60.00 each after rebate = $120.00
4gb PNY DDR3 1066 memory $25.00 after rebate
Galaxy video card $20.00 after rebate
LG Blu Ray Drive/Burner $85.00 no rebate but I did get 5 free Blu Ray discs.
Rosewill 600w Power Supply $40.00 after instant rebate.
WHS 2011 software $115.00
About $30.00 in Sata cables
Grand total $664.99 after rebates
I already had a 500GB Seagate hard drive so I decided to use that for the OS. While it is rated at 3.0 Gb/s it has a spin speed of 7200RPM so I figured this would be ok to use as the OS drive.
The motherboard has 6 6.0Gb/s Sata III connections which is perfect for me right now, I still have 2 available if I include the eSata port connection available on the case. When the time comes I will add a Sata control card for additional drives, by then I should have some decent options for 6.0 Gb/s Sata expansion cards I suppose.
Here are some pics of the hardware, I have to say I really like the case design and how well it breathes.
The case comes with 2 drive cages which hold 4 drives each.
The 8 pin ATX cable from the power supply had to be stretched over the mother board, I hope to correct that soon with an extension but I did try to be as tidy as I could with all the cabling.
With the Phenom II Black processor I have 4 cores available. 
I know this is probably way more horsepower than I will ever need, but I couldn’t beat that combo deal for the performance. I want to stream to multiple devices, have local and remote access to media, backup all of the home computers, backup Blu Rays and DVD’s, high rez pics etc. The plan is to also get the new Homerun Prime network tuner and utilize the Server as a DVR, possibly eliminating my Motorola DVR so I don’t have to pay the monthly lease fee. So all in all this machine will see a lot of activity, just need to sort out how I would do live tv access besides the one Windows7 PC that I have available.
I was able to source everything just before the Memorial Day Holiday here in the U.S. so that afforded me some pretty good deals and rebates.
Let me know what you guys think for under $700 bucks.
Orlando Martinez
I am an Audio and Video enthusiast with a Do It Yourself whenever I can mentality. I became interested in using WHS as a storage solution for my media collection during my Personal Home Theater build, and saw all the possibilities that it could provide.
Thanks Orlando – that’s a great build.
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Wait, how did he configure the disks? What did he use to replace DE?
Hi varun,
I’m currently not using any DE options. I only have 2 drives besides the OS drive, so I am using one as storage and the other for backup.
I am just beginning the setup of my media library which will eat up space quickly, but hopefully by the time I need more drives things would have shaken out a bit for the best DE option.
I also wanted to point out that I listed the memory up above as 1066 memory, but it is actually 1600. The link is correct.
Orlando
Just a thought – for future expansion: You may want to consider a sata backplane and maybe a SATA SAS controller card or a hardware raid card (redundancy) if you are looking for expansion.
Thanks Dave,
Ya this is all sort of new to me but I have looked at some future expansion options. I hope to move the OS drive to one of the empty 5.25″ bays with an adapter bracket. That way I can utilize all of the 8 slots in the cages. Beyond that would likely be an external solution.
There seems to be some decent options now for a Sata III controller card, so I hope to get a good deal on something that will integrate nicely when the time comes.
Thanks for the feedback,
Orlando