DIY Haswell or HP Gen 8 Microserver for Windows Server 2012

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hairy1

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#130776 27-Sep-2013 13:23

Hi Guys,

I have decided that we need a home server as things are a bit hit and miss with the current desktop setup. This is going to be mainly for use as a media server and also for files and photos. I have Windows Server 2012 here and am looking at some suitable hardware. I have a couple of options:

1. Build a reasonably grunty Haswell machine basically out of desktop parts.
2. Buy a gen 8 HP microserver or similar.

It is only a home server so there is no need for guaranteed uptime etc so I am leaning towards option 1. I am running Plex which does some transcoding of media files and tends to get bogged down on the lower speced microservers from what I have read. Has anyone got any suggestions for going with one or the other?

Cheers, Matt.

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freitasm

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#903740 27-Sep-2013 14:11

We'll be giving a HP Microserver Gen8 during October. You might want to enter on that

hairy1

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#903741 27-Sep-2013 14:16

Oh yes! I will certainly be entering. I can't imagine I will be the only one entering however and don't want to count any chickens...I imagine there will be a lot less counting of chickens before they hatch around New Zealand after the events of the last week.

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kiwifidget

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#903743 27-Sep-2013 14:22

Hi Matt, I have a WHS2011 server that I built myself, utilising a quad-core Q6600 CPU, 4GB RAM, and 4XHDD SATA drives pooled with StableBit DrivePool, and clients running XBMC. I looked into building a WSE2012 box but was dissuaded from doing so by the guys over at WeGotServed due to instability issues with MS storage spaces and upgrading capacity. However, the box I built works perfectly fine so I dont think it needs to be super grunty, you just need to be able to upgrade capacity easily.

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hairy1

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#903768 27-Sep-2013 14:45

Thanks Sheryn,

Are you using a client on tablets at all? We have some android tablets here which are using the Plex client. That works really well.

Cheers.

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Gilco2

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#903780 27-Sep-2013 14:57

I built a home server using WHS 2011 and have now got stablebits scanner and drivepool. Easy to setup and have not regretted it. Have only just put stablebits on which I should have done a while ago. Well worth it.
I had used a standard pc case which was a pain with space and replacing a faulty hard drive. Yesterday bought a new case from Playtech. Arrived this morning easy to swap over and all running nicely.
I bought the Fractal Design R2 Mini. Space for 6 hard drives and 2 optical and 2 SSD drives. Really neat having the SSD behind the motherboard and easy to get at. Hard drives easy and quick to change if necessary. Very pleased with it

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

kiwifidget

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#903807 27-Sep-2013 15:16

hairy1: Thanks Sheryn,

Are you using a client on tablets at all? We have some android tablets here which are using the Plex client. That works really well.

Cheers.

Tablet, yes, Asus TF700 running Android 4.2.1 and XBMC, though I have some issues with buffering and I suspect my wifi is the baddie there.
My cabled clients run fine though.

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HiTM4N

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#903877 27-Sep-2013 17:17

I run a plex server as a VM with 2vCPUs and 2GB of ram on my ESXi box. The ESXi Box is a AMD FX-6300 with 16GB Ram and 3 1TB disks not in a raid. It works flawlessly for streaming to all my devices. You don't need much to stream Plex. I stream all formats and up to 1080p without issue.

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kiwifidget

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#920835 24-Oct-2013 09:49

UPDATE : have ditched my Linksys WAG160N router for a TP-Link TD-W8970, and all my Wifi stuttering issues have disappeared. I can now watch all my ripped movies on my tablet.

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Snowflake

#920864 24-Oct-2013 10:38

hairy1:
1. Build a reasonably grunty Haswell machine basically out of desktop parts.
2. Buy a gen 8 HP microserver or similar.

option (2) *should* be the most reliable, has excellent cooling & low noise, has iLO so you don't even need a screen/keyboard+mouse - perfect for stashing in the attic, garage, or elsewhere. With a couple of gigE network ports its also great for servicing multi streams/files at once. For $700 or so, its not bad value either.

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