Should I upgrade my WHS machine?

[Severian]

I really just began playing around with WHS a few weeks ago. I put together a machine with the following specs and installed WHS onto it:
P4 2.8ghz
2gb DDR400
Gigabyte 8IK1100
Multiple hard drives of various sizes totalling about a terabyte of storage.

I use this mostly to stream media to my HTPC. So far it works flawlessly. But my ability to add drives is about up, this board only has two SATA ports and two PATA ports. Even after removing the optical drive I used to install WHS, I'm limited to 6 drives total.

I do have newer parts I could use to upgrade the WHS machine,
E3300
Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
2GB DDR2-800

This setup has four SATA ports but only one PATA, so still limited to 6 drives, but with considerably more power. Obviously I am going to have to invest in some PCI to SATA cards for adding future storage whichever way I go with this project. Does it just make more sense to add those cards and drives to my existing setup?

My question is, is it worth it to upgrade the WHS box? It runs fine as is, but my concern is the hardware is old, and I'm getting leery of depending on this machine for my main server. On the other hand, the newer parts are surely overkill for my purposes, aren't they? I'm sure I'd derive some benefit from some of the newer power-saving tech in the newer cpu's, C1, etc. But power consumption is definitely going up with a dual core, no?

I did check out the alpha of WHS-2 code name Vail before I built this machine, and although it clearly wasn't ready for prime time, I'm definitely interested in upgrading to that when it finally comes out next year. This would obviously need the beefier system specs above. But once I get the server set up, I'm not going to want to back up several terabytes of data for a new installation of WHS2 for a long while.

I'd appreciate anyone's input, thanks.

 

[Chapbass]

I honestly think that you should keep with what you have and sell that MB and proc to me.


Just my opinion though 😀

 

[Severian]

LOL.... I have too many projects in the works to part with them now...

 

[mfenn]

If your only complaint about the old box is the number of HDDs, why don't you just buy a cheap PCI SATA controller?

 

[RebateMonger]

If your only complaint about the old box is the number of HDDs, why don't you just buy a cheap PCI SATA controller?

That's what I'd do. I've used $25 PCI SATA/IDE controllers for making WHS servers out of several old PCs.

I'm expecting that the new version of WHS (whenever it's released) will allow migration of existing data disks to the new server. Right now, you can recover your data disks when the WHS System disk fails by re-installing WHS on a new System disk and allowing it to scan the other disks and index what it finds.

 

[Severian]

If your only complaint about the old box is the number of HDDs, why don't you just buy a cheap PCI SATA controller?

this is exactly what I'm wondering.

anyone want to advocate for a more powerful server machine?

 

[mmntech]

If your only complaint about the old box is the number of HDDs, why don't you just buy a cheap PCI SATA controller?

Or use external USB drives. They're fast enough for media. I doubt you'll see any big benefits upgrading the CPU if you're just using at as a file/media server. Even the Atom systems will do that job quite happily.

 

[Severian]

Or use external USB drives. They're fast enough for media. I doubt you'll see any big benefits upgrading the CPU if you're just using at as a file/media server. Even the Atom systems will do that job quite happily.

Yeah, I'm doing that now, I want to try to keep everything inside the case for as long as possible. I have close to 5TB in BluRay rips that are scattered across the network, and want to move everything into the server.

Anyone think it's worth it just for the power saving benefits, i.e., C1E, EIST, etc?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Don't forget that WHS is ONLY sold as an OEM license. Which means that it is NOT transferrable between motherboards. You will have to purchase another new copy, if you upgrade your WHS.

This is one of the things that I really dislike about microsoft, and the reason that I normally ALWAYS buy the retail version of OSes, because retail licenses ARE transferrable.

 

[Severian]

well I'm just running the trial now, so all the more reason to sort out which way I'm going to go.

 

[imaheadcase]

Don't forget that WHS is ONLY sold as an OEM license. Which means that it is NOT transferrable between motherboards. You will have to purchase another new copy, if you upgrade your WHS.

This is one of the things that I really dislike about microsoft, and the reason that I normally ALWAYS buy the retail version of OSes, because retail licenses ARE transferrable.

Mmm nope. You can upgrade WHS hardware as much as you like. Did 2 motherboards already no problem (even ram is why i changed motherboard, old one did not let me use 8gigs vs 4 gigs).

 

[mfenn]

Mmm nope. You can upgrade WHS hardware as much as you like. Did 2 motherboards already no problem (even ram is why i changed motherboard, old one did not let me use 8gigs vs 4 gigs).

Just because they don't restrict it via a technical mechanism does not mean that it isn't against the EULA.

 

[Severian]

Anyone think it's worth it just for the power saving benefits, i.e., C1E, EIST, etc? Still looking for input...

 

[ViRGE]

Anyone think it's worth it just for the power saving benefits, i.e., C1E, EIST, etc? Still looking for input...

The power savings are certainly nice, but it's not cost effective except in the very long run. Upgrading for power savings makes more sense when you need to relocate the server to a more sensitive location.

Just because they don't restrict it via a technical mechanism does not mean that it isn't against the EULA.

Bit OT here, but while this is technically true, even if you have to phone it in MS will activate it. Unlike other OEM software where MS does sell a retail version, WHS as an OEM-only release means that they don't give a damn how many times you move it. It's OEM-only because they don't provide any end-user support, not because they're offering a discount in exchange for it being locked to specific hardware. Unfortunately they'd never put that in their carefully worded (and lawyer approved) EULA.