How to Build Your New Home Server

Before taking a look at the Windows Home Server software, you need to sort out some hardware to install it on! Later in the year, WHS will come ready-installed on dedicated hardware, supplied by the likes of HP, Dell and other OEMs. But that’s later in the year! So, I thought I’d have a go at building my own home sever. I’ve built one desktop PC before, so I’m not a complete novice, but if, like me, you are/were completely paralysed with fear when it came to trying to build a PC, don’t worry – it’s actually pretty straightforward, and whilst problems can happen, the parts themselves are all pretty sturdy, and as long as you do a little bit of homework to ensure you buy the right bits, they all slot together pretty easily.

Big things to watch out for – ensure you know what Memory and Processor is compatible with the motherboard. Most of the motherboard manufacturers have good websites, listing what types of processor (AMD or Intel) are compatible. You need to ensure you’re purchasing a processor that fits the right type of Socket. Again, they’ll also list th type of memory you should use. Check the PC number (eg. PC4200), and the type and speed of RAM. Some memory retailers (Crucial in particular) have great wizards for ensuring you select the right type of memory. Also ensure you check what hard drive connections are available. Most motherboards will still be compatible wiht IDE hard drives, but the newer SATA are a lot faster, so go with these.

Here’s a list of hardware I used:

An Asus Pundit P3 PH4 Barebones System
Intel Pentium D 820 Processor (2.8 GHz) Socket 775
Crucial 512Mb RAM DDR2 DIMM PC4200
LG DVD-RW [Multi Recorder]
Belkin CAT6E Cable
2 x500Mb Western Digital SATA II Hard Drives

The Asus comes with integrated graphics and sound on-board, so there’s no need to purchase a sound or graphics card – hey, don’t worry, we’re not going to be playing Halo 2 on this thing!

Step 1: Check the Voltage

Really important first step, and that is to check what voltage the barebones PC has been shipped with. There’s a small switch at the back that changes between 110 and 220 volts. Get this wrong, and kaboom! So, if you’re in a country where your electricity is 240v, then ensure the switch is set to 220v (this is not 240v, but is fine!). If your electricity system is 110v, then flick the switch accordingly with a screwdriver. Well done Asus for setting the correct voltage for us in the UK, and better still placing a large sticker over the plug socket reminding you to check the voltage. You suck however for only shipping a continental plug in the box, and not a UK plug.

Step 2: Open up the box

Undo the thumbscrews at the back of the box, and then slide off the lid. It comes out pretty easily, thanks to a metal grip at the back. You can now see inside the box.

Step 3: Remove the top bar

From the image above, you can see there’s a wide metal bar which runs across the top of the box. This aids stability when the box is standing up (and is also useful for keeping cables tucked in). To remove it, there’s a lever at one end, which you need to lift, and then you can easily remove the bar. At last, you can see the Asus motherboard in all its glory!

Step 4: Remove the Front Panel

With the motherboard now exposed and ready for plug-ins, all we now need to doto finally prep the patient is to remove the PC’s front panel (we need to do this to fit the DVD drive). This comes off really easily. Just stand the PC up, and look for three plastic catches on theopen side of the machine. Lift thse gently and rotate the panel to the right. You’re now left with an exposed front panel.

Step 5: Fitting the Processor

Okay, with everything open, it’s time to start slotting things in. First up is the Processor. Now, I’m always slightly panicky at this point, because you read lots about processors being so delicate that if you even look at them the wrong way, they’ll shrivel up and die in a ball of shame. Not true, as I discovered writing ths guide. More later. Anyway, first thing to do is locate the socket for the processor – you’ll see a square plate with a lever next to it. It’ll probably have a dark plastic cover on it too. That’s the processor socket.

Right, see that lever next to it? Press it down and pull away slightly to unlock it, and then lift the lever to open up the protection plate. Now’s a good time to remove that plastic cover off the top of the plate too.

Here’s what you should see.

At this point, it’s probably best not to sneeze all over the motherboard, stick your fingers/cat/screwdriver in the socket to see what happens, that sort of thing. The only thing that’s going in that socket, is a processor. Here’s ours!

Here’s where I discovered that processors were a bit more strudy that I thought – open the packaging, and you’ll see the processor and a heatsink plus fan in plastic protective packaging. Open this packaging and carefully remove the processor – I opened this packaging a little too quickly, and of course, the processor flew out and went crashing on to the table below. (I was convinced the processor would be creamed at this point, but I was lucky). Golden rule: Be careful with the packaging!

Right, holding the processor carefully at the edges with thumb and finger, place it in the socket – the socket and processor are both notched, so it will only fit in one way. Hurrah! We like design like this!

Once the processor is in place, close the protection plate with the lever, and lock the lever in place. The plate sandwiches the processor into place. Make sure you’ve got the processor the right way round before doing this!

That’s Step 5 nailed -now have a lie down to get over all the stress!

Step 6 – Fitting the Heatsink

Okay, see the big metal thing with a fan that came with the processor? That’s the heatsink. Take a look in the box the Asus barebones PC came in. Yup, there’s another heatsink in there. We’re going to fit this one, so put aside the Intel heatsink for another day. The heatsink and fan are there to extract the heat from the rpocessor. Processors get hot, and when they get too hot, they go splat. So we have to keep them cool. We’re using the Asus one because unlike other PCs which often have multiple fans, the Asus just has the one, using a smart application called Q-Fan to control how fast it should spin depending on how hot the processor is. So, it’s big AND it’s clever, so we’re going to use it.

Here it is:

Some articles will tell you at this point to apply a little bit of thermal paste to the top of the processor to improve cooling. The Asus manual didn’t, so I’m sticking with that at this point, although I may go back and do this if I think the processor is a little hot. Your mileage may vary.

Okay, to fit the heatsink, carefully place it on top of the processor, and align the four screws at each corner to the screwholes in the motherboard. Then screw down.

Finally, and very importantly, plug the fan’s power cable into the motherboard. No power = no fan = no cooling = PC shuts itself down before the processor fries – you’ll find the socket just below the memory sockets (it’s labelled on the motherboard).

Step 7 – Fitting the Memory

Great stuff, that’s (hopefully) all the playing around with the processor you’ll need to do. Now it’s time to get the memory in place. Now, as we’re building a server, we don’t need lots of memory. The Asus Pundit can use up to 4Gb (1GB in each of it’s four DIMM sockets) but there’s noway you’ll need that amount of horsepower. We’re just going to slot in 512Mb of PC4200 memory into one DIMM slot (they’re the ones just above where you plugged in the fan).

Okay, here’s the memory.

Unpack the memory – again, be careful with it as it’s delicate – no rubbing balloons on your jumper whilst holding it, okay? Take a look at the DIMM sockets – you’ll see each socket has a white button at either end? Select the socket you want to install the memory into (any will do) and push back each of the white buttons – these are acually clips which will hold the memory in place. Carefully place the memory in the slot (it will only go in one way, again, love those notches) and given it a gentle but firm press down. You’ll know if it’s in properly, as the white clips will snap back into place and will partly cover the corners of the memory. If the clips are still at an angle – give the memory anther gentle push down until you hear a click.

Step 8 – Fitting the DVD-RW

Next up, fitting the DVD drive. Now, I purchased a cheapish DVD-RW just in case there were any files on the server in the future that I wanted to burn to DVD there and then. The main reason you need a DVD is for installing the server software, plus motherboard drivers, so a very cheap DVD-ROM may be fine, if you’re on a budget. Take your DVD drive and the IDE cable and packet of screws that came in the Asus box.

Screw in one of the screws onto each side of the DVD drive – if the front of the drive is facing you, you need the screw in the top left ad top right hole nearest the drive door. Next, plug the IDE cable into the motherboard. Do this before you insiert the drive, as once the drive is in, it obscures the IDE socket. Run the IDE cable through the DVD drive hole in the case and plug it into the back of the drive. Then slide the drive into the hole in the front of the box – you’ll hear a click (thanks to those screws you put in) when it’s in properly.

Then, all you need to do is to take a 4 pin power lead (it’s one of the tangle leads coming out of the power supply) and plug it into the back right hand side of the drive. And that’s the DVD drive sorted!

Step 9 – Fitting the Hard Drives

I went for two Western Digital 500Gb SATA hard drives – three reasons for this. Firstly, I want lots of storage space for all those MP3, photos and vdeos that I have now and in the future. 1 TB should be fine for now. Secondly, I want the drives to be fast – SATA speeds will help get backups done as quickly as possible. Thirdly, multiple drives. Windows Home Server includes technology that duplicates your files to more than one drive – therefore, if one drive fails, your files are safe on the other drive. Hurrah! So, two drives it is.

Fitting the drives was the fiddliest part if the installation – mainly because we’re dealing with a small form factor PC, and space was a little tight. First thing to do, fit one screw (again supplied with the Asus box) into each side of each drive, nearest the front of the drive (ie furthest away from the sockets at the back of the drive). These screws will sit in runners which guide the drive into place.

Next, take one of the orange SATA cables supplied with the Asus box, and plus it into the back of one of the drives. As you’re accusomed to now, it only fits one way. Plug the other end of this cable into the motherboard (there are two attractive orange SATA sockets). Again, one way only.

Now attach a SATA power cable to the drive – like with the DVD drive, this cable is leading from the power supply. Then insert the drive into place on the runners provided in the box. If you’re fitting two drives, make sure this first one goes into the lower of the two slots! It’s fiddly as there’s lots of cables in the way, but jiggle it around, and you’ll be there.

Repeat the above for Hard Drive 2, using the uppermost slot in the box. One the drive is in place, screw in a second screw to the right hand side of the drive (towards the back) to ensure the drive rests correctly on the runner at the rear of the drive.

Hey, guess what? You’ve just built yourself a server!

Step 10 – Reassemble the Box

So, all we have to do now, is retrace the steps we made when openng up the box.

Firstly, re-attach the front panel, by inserting the “hinges” on the right hand side into the appropriate holes and clipping the front panel back to the metal frame. Ensure that all three plastic clips are seated correctly.

Now for that bar we removed earlier – open the metal lever at the back of the box, and insert the protruding parts of the bar into the holes at the opposite end of the box. Then rest the bar down on the frame. You may need to press down a little of there are cables in the way. Click the bar into place, then close the lever – this too should click into place.

Now, slide the cover into place and do up the screws at the back, and there you have it, you’ve definitely built yourself a server!

Don’t forget to stick on your Intel sticker, and why not sing the Intel inside jingle when you do so?

Now, find a location for your server – it needs power, an ethernet cable to attach to your router, and that’s it! I’ve tucked mine away at the side of the bookcase, well out of the way.

Step 11 – Switch On!

Okay, once it’s all wired up, plug in a monitor, mouse and keyboard and press that power button. If you see this you’re ready to rock.