PassMark Rating:
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for an entry level WHS 2011 box, then this could certainly be the box for you. Whilst it’s not exactly the fastest processor on the block, it performs a lot of the WHS core functions perfectly. Although if you plan on doing a lot of video transcoding you might want to consider upgrading the processor.
As with previous WHS 2011 models from Viridian, they have included the two AWIECO add-ins that in my opinion are must have’s for any WHS 2011 build, so well done guys!
The box was fairly quiet (admittedly there was only a single drive during a lot of the review) but it’s better to start off as quiet as possible!
There were certainly enough USB 2.0 ports included on the box, and in the case of the review box, we even had a couple of USB 3.0 ports on an included PCI-Express expansion card.
Looks wise, the case is very nice and certainly gives the impression of quality.
Price wise, the VHS-3HC starts at £441.67 depending on what specifications you choose.
The price of the server we reviewed with the USB3 and Pentium G620T is £491.67 + VAT & carriage.
As a special offer to UWHS readers, Viridian PC have offered this deal:
Until the end of April where if anyone orders the basic spec and posts a link to the review into the comments box in the payment details section of the checkout, the USB3 card and CPU upgrade from Celeron to Pentium G620T will be done free of charge. Anyone who wants to pay to upgrade to the i3 or Xeon will get an upgrade to 8Gb in lieu of the CPU upgrade.
So don’t forget to post a link to this review in the comments box on the payment section at checkout.
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.
It’s also good to see that Viridian PC are continuing with WHS 2011 boxes when most of the market isn’t interested in producing them!
And don’t forget that we also host the official support forums for Viridian PC.
I bought the server VHS-4HA in August 2011 for 622 GBP including VAT and flat shipping rate. Pre-sales communication was excellent, I learned everything I needed to. The server arrived and worked until January 2013. Since then, it has failed to start (stopped booting after a while). At first I tried to contact ViridianPC support, which took me 10 days. They had a “problem with DNS”. On the basis of discussion with the support I’ve sent the server to the UK (70 GBP). The server was delivered to repair on 14th February and since then (for more than 50 days) no one is communicating with me. I don’t have the server, I don’t have money. I take the entire investment as lost (692 GBP) and I have to buy another server because I can not wait anymore. I want to very strongly warn everyone who would like to purchase anything from ViridianPC. You can end up like me and lose a lot of time and money.