MaximumPC 2001 11

R&D^

EXAMINING TECHNOLOGY AND PUTTING IT TO USE

64 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC|JAN 2011 |www.maximumpc.com

BUILD IT

A Windows Home Server

BUILD IT

A Windows Home Server

BUILD IT

with Muscle

THE MISSION If you buy a Windows Home Server system off the shelf, you typically get an anemic processor—

usually an Atom of some kind—and the original version of WHS, updated with various power packs. Recently,

Microsoft released a beta of its next-generation Windows Home Server, code-named Vail. This new version

off ers some pretty cool features, which we’ll dig into shortly, but it looks like you’ll want something beefi er than

an Atom to take full advantage of them. My aim here was to build a system that will get the most out of Vail.

An adequate CPU is just part of the story. I also needed adequate memory—most off -the-shelf WHS

systems tend to skimp on RAM. The system also needed to be small enough to fi t into tight spaces, but large

enough for all the gear I want to cram into it. I also wanted to build a system that had room for future growth—

particularly storage. Mind you, I’m not skimping on storage in this initial build. But I wanted to have power and

free bays for expansion.

Let’s dive in and take a look at the component list.

The next generation of Windows Home Server enables video streaming

and transcoding operations, so we built a WHS system that can handle

the load

¹



4 HOURS

INTERMEDIATE

LENGTH OF TIME

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY

INGREDIENTS

LOYD CASE

CONTRIBUTING

WRITER

✔ Case Lian-Li PC-Q08 Mini-Q

http://lian-li.com $110

✔ PSU Seasonic SS-460FL Fanless 460W

http://www.seasonic.com $160

✔ Mobo Zotac H55ITX-A-E

http://www.zotacusa.com $130

✔ CPU Intel Core i3-530

http://www.intel.com $114

✔ Cooler Intel OEM

http://www.intel.com $0

✔ RAM Crucial 2 x 1GB DDR3-1333

http://www.crucial.com $45

✔ D rives 2 x 2TB WDWD20EADS

http://www.wdc.com $240

✔ OS Windows Home Server “Vail” Preview Build

http://www.microsoft.com $0

Total^ $799