As discussed in detail on the “Network Map and Detail” page, this section gets more into the hardware of the server as opposed to why you want a server in your home. It is my belief that every home should have a server in their house even a small one, if for no other reason but to back up critical data. 90% of people do not backup their systems and most have irreplaceable photos or data that can be lost in a second and without warning. The digital age is wonderful and offers us many options but like home owners insurance, we have to take some precautions. Home servers can be fairly low cost such as the line offered by HP, or you can make you own of an older PC and just buy the software, or you can do what I did and build one from scratch with the purpose of expandability. Of course there are dozens of uses for centralized storage but by far the four main reasons are automated backups, central place for storage, “automatic data duplication” and of course, media serving. I will discuss “Media Servers” and Network players in more detail on the “Network Media Player” page so you can see how it all ties together.
As for the hardware, you will see from the pictures below as well as the video that this is not a low end server here. In total, this server has 9.5 Terabytes of total storage with all but 20 gigabytes available for data. The server uses a regular PC motherboard that has ports for 8 SATA drives, and in addition, I added a secondary SATA card with two additional ports for two more drives, as well as two external eSata ports for future expansion. It is housed in a Lian-li aluminum case which contains a total of 6 120mm silent fans to help keep everything cool as this systems run 24/7. To supply power to this system, I used a 850 watt Thermaltake supply to insure there is plenty of clean power going to the system even though the system does require that much power. To round things off, I added 4 gigs of DDR2. Since Windows Home Server software runs as a headless unit (no monitor, mouse, or keyboard required) I still added a low end video card so I log in locally if I need too. When I first built the system, it only had 3 drives and over time I expanded it. I selected the case I did as I knew storage requirement would increase and wanted to keep everything in one case.
Main Server Configuration
| Description | Detail |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte |
| CPU | Intel E6750 Core 2 |
| RAM | 4 Gigs DDR2-800 |
| Case | Lian-Li A70B |
| Video Card | On Board |
| Hard Drive (System) | WD 500 gig Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 1 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 1 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 1 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 1 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 1 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 2 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 2 Terabyte Sata |
| Hard Drive (Storage) | WD 2 Terabyte Sata |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake 850 |
Pictures of my main Server
Videos