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WHS 2011 or Win7 Pro (64bit)

sep

sep

Platinum Member
In the next couple of months I plan on replacing my existing MCE2005 Server. I use this server for File/Media Sharing, Backup Repository and to run a couple programs to run in the background (download, handbrake, etc.). Do you think WHS would provide a better performace

Hardware:
New hardware (MB,CPU,RAM) will be power sensitive but not that expensive. I want to utilize wake on lan and other power saving functions. However I want to be able to move my drives over, not reformat them.

I just dont' want to get stuck with WHS and have a headless server that doesn't do what my existing does today. I know Win7 will allow me to do everything my MCE does and better.

Thanks in advance guys!
 
WHS is designed to be run headless, but there is no reason why you cannot run vnc or the like or even have a keyboard and mouse hooked up and do what you need like the downloads and handbreak.

as for the rest of the options, for the file/media and backups that's what is is primarily designed for so easy to do. Not sure how you are doing your backups now, but with whs it will do it automatically of any pcs that you enable it on

The only thing I'm not sure on is moving the drive over, I believe as whs2011 does not have the drive extender,which would have made a pool and reformat the drive, you could just move the drives over.
 
Headless or Not it is your choice, WHS can run as a regular computer with Video etc. depending on your Motherboard and case.

Performance per-se is a hardware matter. Given the same hardware WHS will run better than Win 7 cause Win 7 is more hardware "Hog" than WHS.

If you need to Run something in the background make sure that it is compatible with WHS.

I do not know what you mean by WOL. You can use WHS to WOL other computers.

WHS itself is a server its suppose to be On, and it does not go to Sleep as is.

There is an Add On that can help overdiding and add features concerning this issue.

Lights-Out AddOn
Expertise Level: Standard Lights-Out is a power management add-in that allows you to place your server in sleep or hibernation mode at scheduled times. The add-in monitors a variety of sources for activity, and if they are powered on, your server will wake to ensure it’s available.

Pure WOL is a function of the hardware and Not of the OS.




😎
 
I do not know what you are planning to Run beside server related applications.

Using a server as a partial work station is Not a good idea.

However applications that run on Win 2008 SBS usually run on WHS too.



😎
 
Here is my suggestion:
Since you want the best of both worlds: WHS and some workstation functionality and low power consumption.
What about setting up your new computer with ESXi?
This way you will be able to freely install a WHS server virtual machine as well as a Win7 virtual machine on the same hardware, leave them running all the time and your power footprint will be the same as running one computer. -Of course, you can run as many virtual machines on this ESXi box as you have memory and resources for as well.
This leaves you very flexible.
I run WHS 2011 on my ESXi computer with no ill effects. It runs fast and I have 8 other virtual machines running at all times. My machine consumes less than 30 watts of power as well.
Here is a pic of my wall mounted ESXi computer:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tL7Yk7iKfZ0/TOvRTes40VI/AAAAAAAAAHo/ruIXC0J2X_o/s1600/DSCF0308.jpg

More info about wall mounting here:
http://chuckscoolreviews.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-build-wall-mounted-computer.html
 
chuck2002, love the wall mount, I find it funny when i see them done that way, not that there is anything wrong with it, just brings a chuckle too me.

But my biggest concern would be the elastics, if they dry out and become brittle they could break and you drive falls
 
Ya I guess that could happen, but it is sitting right in front of me, so I can check on the condition of the rubber bands any time.
 
Installed WHS2011 on a Virtual Maching (Vbox) and testing it out now. So far it's a pretty slick design.

Having the OS in front of me explains how you can install any software on it.
 
sep said:
Installed WHS2011 on a Virtual Maching (Vbox) and testing it out now.
Click to expand...

You might check with M$ to see if that's supported, unless this is purely a temporary testing measure. For the original WHS, it was definitely not supported and, in my case, there were problems. The weekly Sunday database cleanup, or manually-initiated equivalent, simply didn't work and eventually the disks would fill up. A support ticket was closed because the configuration was unsupported.

Art
 
I would run WHS v1 over WHS2011. WHS2011 doesn't have drive extender, and IMO, that's a far far better feature than anything WHS2011 has.
 
Raduque said:
I would run WHS v1 over WHS2011. WHS2011 doesn't have drive extender, and IMO, that's a far far better feature than anything WHS2011 has.
Click to expand...

Aside from running RAID (1, 1E, 5, 6 or 10, whatever tickles your pickle and whatever your controller supports), which DE never really played nice with... In that regard WHS2011 is superior (and the reason why Microsoft dropped DE in the first place).
 
While I agree that RAID is a more viable option for a server setup even if it's a WHS install I was personally looking for a solution that would allow me to take all of my old drives and put them into one big drive pool for cheap storage so I really liked DE in WHS 1.

That being said I have completely cut over to WHS 2011 this time as a guest on my SVR2008R2 hyper-v host. It's been great so far except with a few hiccups with getting the WHS client installed on one of my Win 7 machines.

As a DE replacement for WHS 2011 I've been using Stable Bit Drive Pool, still beta so be careful on what data you store but it's been good for me so far. When upgrading I've had the drive pools drop on me but have always been able to resolve the issue, just a word of warning.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool
 
I've come to prefer using NAS as major file storage / backup storage. It's more power efficient, and the netgears I'm using (both work and home) allow JBOD, expandable raid, etc, along with excellent performance. Obviously apps aren't going to be possible on this, but cobbling together a decent extra workstation to do those things on is easy these days for next to nothing, and without extreme local-storage needs, is even cheaper.
 
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