Stick with W7 or try WHS2011 ?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Stick with W7 or try WHS2011 ?

martyyn

1971 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#133807 3-Nov-2013 16:05

The server I put together for $100 five years go is starting to play up and I have a spare C2D lying around with 4 sata ports so I'm going to replace it.

I'm planning on a single 160Gb drive to host the OS(as its already in there) and have a single 2TB with two 1TB WD greens to use for data.

My old one has worked pretty well with W7. I use Crashplan to back up the laptops, it streams to the HTPC and laptops nicely and remote access is available around the house, I can have no complaints.

I will need to buy a new OS for the new one, so should I stick with W7 or are there advantages in going to WHS2011. I've not used it before, so that would be a plus.

Cheers

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79314 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#926619 3-Nov-2013 17:13

Do you use it for anything else or just file server?

martyyn

1971 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#926636 3-Nov-2013 17:39

That's pretty much it. I have used it as an ftp server previously and may do that again in the future.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79314 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#926644 3-Nov-2013 18:03

Go with the one you think can do better for you and expand later. Windows 7 would allow you to run any software for the platform, including free AV, which won't run on server platforms for example.

martyyn

1971 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#926650 3-Nov-2013 18:18

freitasm: Windows 7 would allow you to run any software for the platform, including free AV, which won't run on server platforms for example.

That's a good point, which is why I thought I'd ask. I know nothing about WHS other than seeing how people have used it on here.

Thanks

Hammerer

2476 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#926652 3-Nov-2013 18:24

martyyn:
I will need to buy a new OS for the new one, so should I stick with W7 or are there advantages in going to WHS2011. I've not used it before, so that would be a plus.

Why spend any money on an OS. There are a lot of free and easy to setup OS for a file server. Several come with streaming media servers and the like.

I've just used two of them to setup two servers in an hour each: FreeNAS and NAS4Free (the old FreeNAS with lower hardware requirements e.g. 512MB RAM). They normally run on a USB stick which saves you either a hard drive for data or some power.

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#926706 3-Nov-2013 20:23

I looked at freenas etc and Windows Home Server 2011. I went with WHS 2011 and havent looked back. The reason being I have used each version of Windows since 3.1 and am familiar with it. WHS 2011 was easy to set up and I used Windows 7 drivers and havent looked back.

As others had suggested I also bought Stablebit drivepool and scanner. Well worth the cost.

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#926714 3-Nov-2013 20:42

I started out with a Win7 "server", I now use WHS2011 and really like it. StableBit DrivePool and Scanner, Gives you great pooling. LightsOut, gives you an "on demand" server.

WHS is a server, so it does sharing so much better than a non server/nas OS.
You get client backups, which are fantastic. If a client PC gets screwed up from something like windows update, I roll back to the previous day and in @1/2 an hour (mostly unattended), it's like nothing happened.
It gives you server backup, which is just as good. The same benefits as client backups.
I now have WSUS up and running on my server, so all my PC's get their updates via the server (it's not hard, but also not simple to do), next time I rebuild an HTPC, I won't have to download stacks of updates.

The only thing I've found doesn't run on the server is free AV, but that's not too big an issue for me.

The main thing is, you'd want to treat the server as a server, not a desktop machine. If you wan't to use it as an HTPC as well, Win7 is probably the better option.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

davidcole

6038 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#926728 3-Nov-2013 21:06

I started with WHS2011 then dropped "back" to w7...main reason 32gb ram - WHS2011 has a limit of 3gb.

Also the way the drives worked annoyed me so I had DriveBender installed to consolidate all the drives - but it'd still only use a single 2tb drive for backups.

No I have no such problems with windows 7, no memory limits and slightly better multimedia performace.

My machine is used an a VM host (vmware server), plex, file server and centralised backup server (crashplan)

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#926744 3-Nov-2013 21:39

I'm certain the ram limit is more than 3GB, I suspect its 8GB. And frankly, if you need more than 8GB, its probably not "home server" you need.

You can only backup to 2TB disks with server backup, but the client backups have no such limit.

timbosan

2160 posts

Uber Geek

#927095 4-Nov-2013 16:31

andrewNZ: I'm certain the ram limit is more than 3GB, I suspect its 8GB. And frankly, if you need more than 8GB, its probably not "home server" you need.

You can only backup to 2TB disks with server backup, but the client backups have no such limit.

The limit of USEABLE RAM on WHS2011 is 8GB. The OS will see more (I have 12GB installed) but the maximum it reports as "usable RAM" is 8GB.

More than 8GB is useful for running VM's, which can be useful for mucking around with other OS's without needing separate hardware.

martyyn

1971 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#929318 8-Nov-2013 11:37

Thanks everyone, I dont think I'm quite ready to commit it to be a full server at the moment, being able to have the desktop functionality (and ease of W7) if I need it probably shades it in W7's favour.

TwoSeven

1627 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#929324 8-Nov-2013 11:46

Out of interest, why WHS11 and not Server 2012 essentials (or whatever its called)?

Software Engineer
(the practice of real science, engineering and management)
A.I. (Automation rebranded)
Gender Neutral
(a person who believes in equality and who does not believe in/use stereotypes. Examples such as gender, binary, nonbinary, male/female etc.)

...they/their/them...

martyyn

1971 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#929327 8-Nov-2013 11:51

I just saw it was about the same price as W7 I think. I wasnt stuck on WHS11, I was interested more in whether I should look into it more than anything else.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#929371 8-Nov-2013 12:54

TwoSeven: Out of interest, why WHS11 and not Server 2012 essentials (or whatever its called)?

2012E is certainly a BIG step up from Win7, and not necessarily in a good way. It's a domain controller, so you have to be comfortable with that, and everything that comes with it, or you have to be comfortable doing workarounds to avoid it.

It's also VERY expensive.