bandon

New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

By on October 25, 2009 in Hardware, Under the Hood

I have to admit that this one sneaked under the radar here at WGS, but a few weeks ago at Intel’s IDF 2009 forum, the chip maker showcased two new hardware platforms for Windows Home Server  utilising the forthcoming Intel Atom “Pineview” processor.

Codename “Bandon”

bandon thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Intel)

The platform utilises Intel’s next-generation Atom Processor (with integrated memory controller and video) alongside the ICH9R Southbridge to provide up to four SATA 300 ports for hard drives. Two memory slots are included and an LCD display is also catered for, to provide messaging to the user on system health and performance.

idf2009bandon thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Hardware.info)

Codename: “Little Butte”

Whilst the Bandon platform uses the Mini-ITX form factor (which is small enough for today’s home servers), Intel reckon there’s an even better way for home servers ahead of us in the form of the “Little Butte” platform, which has been developed in conjunction with Gigabyte. Mini-ITX is designed for PC, isn’t WHS logo compliant and, when tweaked for home server usage, adds in cost which has to be passed on to the consumer.

miniitx thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Intel)

butte2 thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Intel)

Little Butte is shaped and sized at 5” x 8” to follow the 3.5” hard drive form factor. Utilising the same “Pineview” Atom processor as the Bandon platform, Little Butte offers a single DDR2 (667/800 MHz) memory slot, 4 x internal SATA ports for hard drives, 2 x eSATA external ports, 4 x USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet – everything you need for a great home server with low power and huge expansion opportunities. You’ll notice a WHS Recovery switch on board which places the home server into a WinPE environment to recover the server.

butte3 thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Intel)

Here’s a prototype of Little Butte, courtesy of Gigabyte:

idf2009littlebutte2 thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Hardware.info)

and the corresponding (prototype, remember) home server:

idf2009littlebuttecase thumb New Intel Windows Home Server Platforms Showcased

(Source: Hardware.info)

Whether the two platform reference design will catch on, who knows, but they certainly take home server hardware design forward in a way which means that next year’s WHS hardware could be smaller, cheaper, use less power and greater expansion opportunities. For more advanced/media-centric home servers, it’ll be interesting to see how the new Atom processors compete with the Celerons and Pentiums selected by HP this year for their MediaSmart Servers – but it certainly seems like Intel and partners are building a range of options for Windows Home Server that’ll cater for a wide range of user requirements.

More Info: Designing a World Class Windows* Home Server using Intel® Atom™ Processors


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Kirill

    4 SATA isn't enough for a home server

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      Yes it is. and with 2 eSATA ports you can add multi-drive enclosures very easily for expansion.

      • Chris

        "… with 2 eSATA ports you can add multi-drive enclosures very easily for expansion."

        Assuming those eSATA ports support port replication.

        That said, it does seem attractive. What it seems to lack is video, necessary for the DIY crowd?

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

          I just don't thing the DIY crowd is their intended market.

      • BossDrum

        No it isn't. At the time I built my WHS, 750GB drives were $150 and the "biggest" I could reasonably do. I got 4 of them. I put a good dent in it on day one and completely outgrew my 3TB server within 18 months! Thankfully, extra SATA pprts on my mobo have allowed be to inexpensively double to 6 TB with the addition of 2 x 1.5 TB drives. Why make me spend another $100 on an eSATA or USB external inclosure to add more drives? I love my headless WHS is a simple case with a power cable, and Ethernet cable and that is it. I definitely don't want another box around.

        I'll note that I had to build my WHS rather than convert an old PC due to storage considerations. PATA drive sizes are too small (and now PATA drives are becoming expensive). At the time, I couldn't find a way to cost effectively add more than 2 SATA ports to any of my existing machines. I'm glad that is the path I used.

        My new PC has NINE SATA ports – I'd argue that a, server, even a WHS should have the drive interface capability of current "enthusiast level" motherboards.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Dieharder Dieharder

    Little Butte is shaped and sized at 5” x 8” to follow the 3.5” hard drive form factor.
    This is good, looks like competition to Via's NSD-7800, although Via has 8 sata. I'm being selfish here, but if Via can get 8 sata ports on this form factor, if it doesn't reduce transfer speeds then add 8. This way you can use the same board for a 4 & 8 bay model.
    2 x eSATA external ports
    This is sweet, beats Via.The ports are stacked so this minimises the PCB footprint. Now you can add a Sans Digital 8 bay esata. Would have been nice to see HP do this.
    Since Lenovo & Acer have the mini PCIe, you can add the esata card that comes with the 8 bay esata enclosure and also use the 1 built in esata port so now you can have a total of 12 external drives, but 8 here is pretty good.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Dieharder Dieharder

    I’ll be interesting to see how the new Atom processors compete with the Celerons and Pentiums selected by HP this year for their MediaSmart Servers
    Yes, i'd like to see HP's reaction. To bad the x510's are clones of the EX495. It would have been nice if they had thrown in a stacked 2 port esata port or video ( they video connector is already on the board.) Via sells a cable with their NSD-7800,
    A nice little 1×5 scrolling LCD for system temp & storage would be excellent. Also a 1 touch USB backup like the Lenovo & EasyShare.
    Just my wish list for a great server.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

    Hmm whats is the release date on this, seems a little late to be bring in new SATA/USB 2 board to the home server market; that just won't do for vail.

  • nlitend1

    Not to hijack the thread, but just saw this barebone ITX atom based deal for $86 shipped at newegg.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=…

  • http://twitter.com/dancingbear1965 @dancingbear1965

    Not sure about "Little Butte" but "Bandon" looks ideal for a low-power WHS system and the Atom is 64-bit compatible so will be ideal with WHS V2.
    As for availability I have now heard that the next gen Atoms are V. early 2010 and MB's during Q1.

    I need to build a new box sooner rather than later so I for one will be looking out for "Bandon"

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      Again with such an old southbridge it won't be the best choice for WHSv2

      • http://twitter.com/dancingbear1965 @dancingbear1965

        What part of the ICH9R Southbridge is not good for WHSv2?
        According to Intel the ICH9R has:
        Six port SATA controller with RAID, eSATA, and port multiplier support, providing storage benefits of Intel® Matrix Storage Technology, Intel® Rapid Recover Technology, and Intel® Turbo Memory
        I would have thought 6offSATA and eSATA would be good enough for most users.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

          By the time WHSv2 is released 3.5" HDDs will have saturated SATA2, they have already saturated USB2 and SSD may even be well established meaning those standards will no longer cut it. It’s not bad for a build right now but in a year’s time I’m sure the cracks will show.
          I don’t usually link in comments but imagine the read a write rate of a disk with this density:

          http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-component…

          • sbrown23

            Sorry, no. 3.5" HDD will NOT saturate SATA 2 anytime soon. If you are talking SSD, then yes. But spinning hard disks that saturate SATA 2 are way off. The fastest 3.5" disks today peak at about 140MB/s sustained sequential transfer. There is still plenty of headroom in SATA 2, probably a few years worth. The reason SATA 3 (6Gb/s) is needed is SSD.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

            Sorry bad wording there, maybe not by the time WHS is released but when it begins to reach saturation. You wouldn't want your hardware dated. Another point is port multipliers do saturate SATA2; a lot of WHS owners will use port multipliers to increase their storage but currently 2 fast drives or 3 normal drives will saturate the controllers.
            SATA3 will double that limit making port multipliers much more useful for pooled storage. And SSD may become a much more viable option one that cannot be considered properly until SATA3.

            were talking about hardware for an OS that seems at least a year away.

  • J B

    WHS v2 with the TV Tuner support, then we can start over again – right now I'm just waiting it out, using an old desktop with 4 external usb hdds.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      Aye, im sticking to the EX475 until WHSv2. Must admit the EX495 was tempting but it's not even available here so oh well.

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