WHS Server "Black_Rook"
If you are reading this post you've probably been hit by the fever of wanting to custom build your own Windows Home Server. Before putting my creation together, I spend weeks thinking and plotting what components I would use and what functions my server would perform. Thinking is probably too mild of a term - my significant other would freely use the word obsessed.
Finally, I began to purchase piece after piece -roaming freely through the vastness of the internet. Every few days a new box would arrive - a cooling fan, a SATA cable, a case, etc. My prototype server, an old repurposed Dell Dimension 4500, continued to moan away in the corner - it's 5 IDE hard drives whining and it's venerable 2.4 Ghz P4 churning through watts. I knew the old workhorse could tell my embarrassment at it's hefty figure by my sole use of remote desktop and it's home within the closet. I longed for a svelt, sweet chassis and an elegant SATA setup.
The most interesting thing about my setup is that it is unique. I could not build another one of these if I wanted (I tried) and certainly not at the price I achieved. This is not a guide on how to build a cheap WHS server, this is how a cheap WHS server was built.
I managed to take advantage of the EBAY and Microsoft live cashback offer, thereby reducing my price on all EBAY purchases by 30%. Furthermore, I painstakenly played the wicked EBAY game complete with myebay alerts and sniping choice items when they wandered online. You might expect with such technique a horrible frankensteinish monster was created - complete with a beige DVD drive in a black case - but this is not so. It is indeed a sight, however.
My computer naming scheme is fairly common and involves chess pieces. "Black Rook" is the result of the inspiration of the WHS community. Let me break it down:
Case InWin Mt Jade $50 Small case, co-designed by Intel. Only needs CPU fan. Quality.
CPU Core 2 Duo E4300 $90 Found the CPU, MB, and MEM on EBAY as someone had
MB Intel "Council Bluffs" 945G VIIV removed it from an old gateway media pc. Great deal.
MEM 2 Gig PC-4200
HD WD 1TB Green $75 Popular drive. Again, Live.com cashback off $100
FAN Stock Intel CPU fan $10 Needed to purchase, not included
What we have in the end is a nearly silent, very low power, 1 TB Windows Home Server for < $250.
What it is doing now will be another post.
