Final Thoughts
It’s very nice to see yet another UK company releasing a Windows Home Server 2011 box. It seems that the UK is pretty much keeping WHS 2011 going!
Viridian PC is a new company, but they have already got a few different models available, which is great.
Viridian gave us a heads-up on a couple of points:
Firstly, there are a few cosmetic issues to address with the server bundle. We’re awaiting some case badges to cover/replace the Lian Li badge on the front. We’re hoping to improve the ‘polish’ as we go along.
Right now that really doesn’t cause us a problem for the review, but it’s useful information to know.
The Lian Li case is really nice and very easy to get into – basically the sides just “pop” off and then go back on just as easily. So no worrying about screws and screwdrivers if you need to get into it. There is also an ample amount of fans in the case to keep it cool, and noise wise the box was pretty quiet.
Fitting drives into the case and using them in WHS was very simple and only took a few moments to do.
The i3 processor made video conversion pretty simple and I had no problems streaming audio and video to other computers on my network.
There were enough ports on the back of the case for my needs, however it would have been nice to have had some front ports, although this is the drawback to using this Lian Li case. Overall it wasn’t a major issue.
What would have been nice though would have been some USB 3.0 ports rather than just 4 USB 2.0 ports, after all there are more and more USB 3.0 devices available today, and if you want to use external drives you want them to be connected at the fastest possible speed you can get. Maybe in the next model?
So all in all its a good WHS 2011 box and one worth considering if you are in the market for one and you are in the UK. Although Viridian have said they are willing to ship outside of the UK, although the price for shipping may add more onto the price that you are happy with – best to check with Viridian if this is something you are interested in doing.
And don’t forget that we also host the official support forums for Viridian PC.
Price wise, the VHS-5HC starts at £675.00 depending on what specifications you choose.
What’s Good:
Another UK based company releasing a WHS 2011 box
The Lian Li case looks good and is easy to get into
i3 Processor works great
Overall a great WHS 2011 box
2 Year Return to Base warranty
What’s Not So Good:
Only USB 2.0 ports
No front USB ports
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.