The Home Media Data Center Project
By Free Tutorials on Sep 28, 2008 in Windows Home Server Tutorials
This homebrew project is to create a datacenter-in-a-box for a fully redundant home data & media management system, using Windows Home Server and Vista to serve media via XBox 360 extenders to different rooms. The goal was to fit the hardware to run both systems in as small and aesthetically pleasing a form factor as possible- pretty pleased with the way this turned out, let me know what you think!
Before embarking on this I did some pretty extensive experiments with virtualization- Home Server under Vista, Vista under Home Server etc… my conclusion was that both systems really need access to the raw hardware to perform best, which is why I settled on the two-motherboard solution. For next steps I’m looking at booting Vista from flash memory so as to free up a hard drive slot, and replacing the ATX power supplies with micro-ATX ones to free up more space. Suggestions welcome.
Buy the old IBM server cabnets off ebay they also have some old IBM Racks for them also… I got Mine For $1,200/£600 with 5 racks and i put old powermac G4’s in the racks. Its about 8TB store as from yet but soon with more money will goto about 18TB store.. I want to get it to 50TB store by the end of the year.. Am using main computer Powermac dual G4 with no harddrive as the OSX is accessed off the xserver… good luck with the project..
PublicDomainContent | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
nice cable management. Just Kidding
i like the overall setup, very nice.
But I would seriously reccomend buying a server case. They are more compact and a lot easier to use. And you can make thos ver “plug and play” as well.
Nice.
Enjoyed watching
GarrettBMXes | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
worst setup ever, makes me sad
gameplayer44444 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for clarifying dawthness. It is a switch. Cost less than $50, iirc. I’m not sure you can even buy 100 megabit hubs these days
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Actually… Each switchport is going to get 100Mbps,.. when you connect a hub to that switchport,the devices connected to that hub are going to share the bandwidth (and collision domain).
Hubs are bad. using a hub is as bad as using dial up. Switches aren’t that expensive anymore
All a hub does is forward all frames (well technically, it just repeats the electrical signal.) out of all interfaces.
I apologize if you just got terminology messed up there - is it actually a hub, or a switch?
dawthness | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Thanks koz303303- good suggestion. The heat load’s manageable right now but most of it is coming from the HDDs. SSDs should help solve that problem when they get a bit cheaper!
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Thanks EmoLovez. A big part of the goal was also to make this appliance-like/plug-and-play, with just two connections in: ping and power.
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Not to feed the trolls, but just to correct the one fact you stated (and got wrong): look up ethernet packet switching: you’ll find that doesn’t mean that with two attached devices each device is allocated 50 megabits. If it was a 100 port switch, do you think each device would be allocated a maximum of 1 megabit? That would be one funky switch
And thanks for the ‘defies everything’ comment: I’d love to take credit but I haven’t defied gravity. When the box floats I’ll post another video!
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
There are so many issues with this/ It defies everything. your LAN speed is reduced by 50% by going from 2×100 to 1×100.
You cooling is a joke. you need to fix that.
Sorry, but you should just stop. As far as PC’s go you make those of us in the business sad.
chrono162 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
its for space saving and not everyone likes there place to look like yours from what your saying… not to mention you can have power saving if you hook up the PSU’s corectly…
EmoLovez | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Why not just two cases with one machine in each one? I dont see the point in this! Theres no power savings because you have two power supplies in one box, the only thing you have done is save a little space? Do you live in a matchbox or something? hahahha!
musclesdude | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
i think i would run at least 4 big fans on both side of the case to move the heat. All that in that case has to produce some major heat. Nice job on the motherboards in the case
koz303303 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
WHS should work fine on a celeron (or an Atom). Just learned by tinkering. Good luck!
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
If only my Step dad would do that, get rid of 4 pc’s lol!
ABleachBattlefield | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
dood, too many wires! even raid array wont help heat load!
shagadelicman1 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Awesome man!
MetallicaHHH | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
hey man i love your project, i myself have a 6 computer home network, i was looking for a way to have multiple users in multiple computers, so i think i need a server, i pick my computers from a second hand store, windows home server its right for me, but i wonder if it can be run on a celleron computer, since its all i can pay for jeje, by the way where did you learn this? i want to study the same thing
armexico2003 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Wicked Rig!
lister0fsmeg | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
get a job and leave designing servers to pros and use virtulisation!
wankchufboxer | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Tried it. No dice- Windows Home Server needs direct access to the hardware to do its storage pooling, and Vista Media Center under Virtual PC only allows you to allocate one CPU to the virtual machine. It might work better under VMWare GSX if you can allocate 2 or 3 CPUs to Vista, but that’s out of my price range.
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Dude, I still think why you make it so complicated?
Beter to start a one OS with implemented all this things.
Much easier and manageable is just to use Virtial machines!
One system with Quad Core CPU and 8GB will be much more reliable and thin.
Cortezino | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
vista from a ssd? you’ve got some balls dude!
I’ve heard very bad things about booting an OS from a ssd.
ThisShouldBeCensored | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Dude tidy up those wires!
conlol | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
Good plan, for sure. Putting together the ideas for version. Maybe solid state drives?
jamesf12345 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
i just thought, you’d save alot of room and have less heat if you use laptop harddrives. Theyre wayy smaller and cooler. also, going to newegg you can pick up a few ITX or mini itx motherboards. They have some for intel that can work with core 2 duo that are really small and power efficiant.
KingPain14 | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply