We have talked about the Viridian PC Windows Home Server’s previously, and now it is time to exclusively review their VHS-5HC Colorado edition Windows Home Server 2011 box.
Here is what Viridian say about their Colorado Home Server range:
Our Colorado Home server range comes pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011, based on Windows Server 2008 R2, this OS is 64-bit and supports the latest technology such as Advanced Format hard drives. Microsoft have improved many aspects of Windows Home Server such as the remote access and media streaming to give a much improved experience.
The VHS-5HC Colorado Edition server delivers an outstanding range of features in a very compact unit. The server comes with features not typically found on small home servers, such dual Intel network adapters featuring redundancy and teaming and optional Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT requires a CPU upgrade to i5/i7 or Xeon).
Using the latest dual and quad-core Intel ‘Sandy Bridge’ processors, this server is remarkably energy efficient, drawing as little as 30w at idle when coupled with green hard drives. The base configuration uses the Intel Pentium G620T which offers excellent value for money, however those seeking more power can upgrade to a choice of CPUs right up to the quad-core i7-2600S or even the amazing quad-core Xeon E3-1260L which combines all the features of the i7 with a TDP of just 45W. Customers who wish to use the video transcoding features of WHS are recommended to upgrade the processor to at least a Core i3.
Windows Home Server is installed on the internal 2.5” hard drive, leaving all of the space on the data drives free. The data drives are housed in hot-swap bays and can be configured as RAID 5 to protect against drive failure, or without RAID for use with drive pooling add-ins.
Who are Viridian PC?
From their website:
Viridian PC Systems Ltd. are a new company, based in the North West of England and founded with a mission to deliver the best range of home and small business servers in the world.
Specifications
CPU : Intel Pentium G620T, 2.2GHz, dual core, 64bit, 3MB cache (other processor options available)
Chipset : Intel C206
Memory : 4Gb DDR3 1333MHz, Max 8Gb
Networking : 1 x Intel 82574L Gigabit LAN port, 1 x Intel 82574LM Gigabit LAN port
Storage : 5 x free SATA hot-swap drive bays, 160Gb internal drive for Operating System
Graphics : Intel Integrated Graphics
USB : 4 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear), 2 x USB headers on motherboard
Expansion slots : 1 (x16) PCI-Express
Remote Management : Intel Active Management Technology v.7 (requires upgrade to i5, i7 or Xeon)
Power supply : 300w, 80Plus Certified
Physical dimensions : (W) 199mm x (H) 280mm x (D) 366mm
2 year return-to-base warranty as standard.
Thanks for the review, glad you liked our server. Interesting to see your observations regarding ports. We do fit USB 3 cards as standard in our larger server. We’ll list it as an option for this model alongside the dual-port e-SATA we currently offer. As for front ports, obviously there’s not we can do with this chassis but we do have larger and smaller models with front ports.
Can you identify the motherboard they used? I’ve yet to find a mini-ITX mobo that has 5+ SATA ports — which it appears they used for this build.
Hi Jaxon, the motherboard we use in this model is a pretty special piece of kit. It’s from a company called Portwell and is called the WADE-8011. It’s a board developed primarily for industrial applications, so it’s robust and built for 24/7 operation. As far as we’re aware, no other mini-ITX board currently on the market has the same list of features such as 6 SATA ports, a proper server chipset supporting Xeons with ECC RAM (we offer the Xeon E3-1260L as an option), and AMT remote management.
Appreciate you willing to share. Thank you.