Mini ITX Home Server build

t_ski · Feb 28, 2011

OK, so I've been working on another build, along-side my TJ07. I had an HP MediaSmart server that I enjoyed, but I wanted to expand it and was looking for something that used more stadardized parts, not proprietary. Of course, that meant I had to build my own. So after a little planning, I bought these parts:

Lian Li PC-Q08 black mini ITX case
AMD Sempron 140 AM3 CPU
Zotac 880G-ITX WiFi mini ITX motherboard
Patriot 2GB DDR3 1333
Two Seagate 1TB SATA drives

The Lian Li case I got used, but it's in great condition. It was one of the only mini ITX cases out there that can fit a full power supply, a regular sized DVD drive and six 3.5" hard drives.

Four of the six hard drives slide out in this removeable cage:

The former owner sleeved the cables in some nice black sleeving, but I edded up having to redo the heatshrink tubing at the connector ends. The tubing was keeping the connectors from being able to sit next to each other on the motherboard.

Motherboard? Oh, yes: the Zotac...

Motherboard accessories...

The board mounted to the side panel/tray...

In that board I need some memory and a CPU...

CPU and ram installed...

Back in the case...

Right now I have an Antec power supply in the case, but I am waiting on a Silverstone Strider modular PSU with a short cable set. This should make cable management easier.

Since I want to devote all four SATA channels to the hard drives, I picked up one of these Rosewill 2-port PCIe 1X controller cards to run the DVD drive and another drive if I choose in the future.

brandonwh64 · Feb 28, 2011

Nice looking ITX! only complain i would have is it doesnt have a full PCIex slot for add on video but other than that, its very very beautiful

t_ski · Feb 28, 2011

Any video other than the onboard is not needed. Most of the time, if I need to access this, it will be through RDP and not a direct connection. Onboard video will be sufficient if I need to hook it up to a monitor for troubleshooting.

cdawall · Mar 1, 2011

looks nice i like that case but its way to big for mini ITX lol

Disparia · Mar 1, 2011

Nice!

I have that case and the other parts in my Newegg cart for my own home server. Picked up a sweet 2-month contract gig today, starting next week. Can hit the "buy" button shortly thereafter.

codyjansen · Mar 1, 2011

that looks sweet.

PopcornMachine · Mar 1, 2011

Thanks for all the very good photos. You seem to know what you are doing with a camera.

t_ski · Mar 1, 2011

cdawall said:
looks nice i like that case but its way to big for mini ITX lol

There are other mini ITX cases out there that are smaller, but they only allow for external PSU's or one or two HDD's. I needed a full size PSU and four (minimum) HDD's.

PopcornMachine said:
Thanks for all the very good photos. You seem to know what you are doing with a camera.

Thanks. W1zzard has very high standards and some patience.

chuchnit · Mar 1, 2011

So I take it you will be running Windows Home Server on this? Nice looking little build.

freaksavior · Mar 1, 2011

Damn I like that case. Sub'd to see finale'

t_ski · Mar 2, 2011

chuchnit said:
So I take it you will be running Windows Home Server on this? Nice looking little build.

Yes, I will be. I have a copy that is being shipped my way...

chuchnit · Mar 2, 2011

t_ski said:
Yes, I will be. I have a copy that is being shipped my way...

Very cool. I am currently in the process of maybe piecing together something similar. I'm really leaning towards giving linux a whirl but WHS is so tempting since windows is easy.

I just can't decide on m-ITX or m-ATX.

Liquid Cool · Mar 2, 2011

Lookin' Good T!

Best,

Liquid Cool

t_ski · Mar 2, 2011

Hey Steve! Good to see you here. :toast:

I was meaning to send you a link to this (I just started it Monday), but did not get a chance with a couple other things going on...

You start you're build?

copenhagen69 · Mar 2, 2011

I was wanting a home server, but a few of my buddies said it was too much work for little gain. They said just add another hard drive or two to my computer and share them on the network if I wanted to go that route.

What are the advantages to having a stand alone home server? ... Just curious

Great looking build by the way

t_ski · Mar 3, 2011

The bigest issue for me was making sure that my rig was not the center of my home network's universe. Unfortunately, I've had hardware issues, etc. in the past that meant no one could print (to my locally attached printer) or access media/files I had shared. This removes my PC from the mix.

Aside from that, this is one centralized location for iTunes media, movies, downloaded drivers & install files, and most importantly backups.

I received the other two 1TB drives today and hopefully will receive the new PSU tomorrow or Friday. I'll have to look into the status of the OS...

Shou Miko · Mar 4, 2011

nice build, almost look like u can take a nice ITX board and pop in a strong Quad-Core or Hexa-Core with 4gb memory and a strong GFX and u will have a ITX gamer ^^

t_ski · Mar 4, 2011

Yes, this case will allow full-sized video cards. The lower HDD cage can be swapped out for a support bracket that allows larger cards to fit in there. However, I would think if you were going for the gamer version, you probably wouldn't need so many hard drive bays and can go with one of the smaller Lian Li cases or a Silverstone Sugo.

freaksavior · Mar 4, 2011

t_ski said:
Yes, this case will allow full-sized video cards. The lower HDD cage can be swapped out for a support bracket that allows larger cards to fit in there. However, I would think if you were going for the gamer version, you probably wouldn't need so many hard drive bays and can go with one of the smaller Lian Li cases or a Silverstone Sugo.

Probably wouldn't be going itx either if you are building a gaming rig.

cdawall · Mar 4, 2011

t_ski said:
Yes, this case will allow full-sized video cards. The lower HDD cage can be swapped out for a support bracket that allows larger cards to fit in there. However, I would think if you were going for the gamer version, you probably wouldn't need so many hard drive bays and can go with one of the smaller Lian Li cases or a Silverstone Sugo.

SG-05 is a great one the lian li is still to big IMO

freaksavior said:
Probably wouldn't be going itx either if you are building a gaming rig.

i like mine its not hard to get a good gamer in mini ITX form factor

Disparia · Mar 4, 2011

freaksavior said:
Probably wouldn't be going itx either if you are building a gaming rig.

You're right, we need more dtx boards! Hold a nice video card and a PCIe SSD.

t_ski · Mar 5, 2011

freaksavior said:
Probably wouldn't be going itx either if you are building a gaming rig.

cdawall said:
i like mine its not hard to get a good gamer in mini ITX form factor

I agree with cdawall. ITX is a very capable format. Liquid Cool lives on ITX :roll:

cdawall said:
SG-05 is a great one the lian li is still to big IMO

The SG-05 won't hold four (or more) HDD's, which is one of the requirements of this project.

The new Silverstone power supply arrived today. I already modded it! :laugh:

Going to fire it up now...

freaksavior · Mar 6, 2011

I never said it wasn't capable

it's capable for sure.

cdawall · Mar 6, 2011

t_ski said:
I agree with cdawall. ITX is a very capable format. Liquid Cool lives on ITX

The SG-05 won't hold four (or more) HDD's, which is one of the requirements of this project.

The new Silverstone power supply arrived today. I already modded it! Going to fire it up now...

my HDD are external and i modded in some eSATA adapters for the rear of the case.

going to try and unlock the sempy?

newtekie1 · Mar 6, 2011

I would have prefered a board with an x16 slot, but not for a graphics card, so that I could slap an x4 dedicated RAID card in there to run the data HDDs off of, and run the ODD drives and OS drive off the onboard.

Great build none the less though!

Though if you are anything like me, you'll be disappointed with Windows Home Server. I tried it but quickly went back to good ol' Win7 Professional. There isn't anything Win7 Pro can't do that Win Home Server could, and Win7 Professional can actually be used as a workstation if need be.

System Name	My i7 Beast
Processor	Intel Core i7 6800K
Motherboard	Asus X99-A II
Cooling	Nickel-plated EK Supremacy EVO, D5 with XSPC Bayres & BIX Quad Radiator
Memory	4 x 8GB EVGA SuperSC DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 1080 SuperClocked
Storage	Samsung 950 Pro 256GB m.2 SSD + 480GB Sandisk storage SSD
Display(s)	Three Asus 24" VW246H LCD's
Case	Silverstone TJ07
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200
Keyboard	Corsair K95
Software	Windows 10 x64 Pro

System Name	My i7 Beast
Processor	Intel Core i7 6800K
Motherboard	Asus X99-A II
Cooling	Nickel-plated EK Supremacy EVO, D5 with XSPC Bayres & BIX Quad Radiator
Memory	4 x 8GB EVGA SuperSC DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 1080 SuperClocked
Storage	Samsung 950 Pro 256GB m.2 SSD + 480GB Sandisk storage SSD
Display(s)	Three Asus 24" VW246H LCD's
Case	Silverstone TJ07
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200
Keyboard	Corsair K95
Software	Windows 10 x64 Pro

System Name	Moving into the mobile space
Processor	7940HS
Motherboard	HP trash
Cooling	HP trash
Memory	2x8GB
Video Card(s)	4070 mobile
Storage	512GB+2TB NVME
Display(s)	some 165hz thing that isn't as nice as it sounded

Processor	Intel i5-6600
Motherboard	ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling	Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage	Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s)	LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case	Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse	Logitech G700s
Keyboard	Logitech G110
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	First Build 2.0
Processor	AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core @3.5
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev. 4
Cooling	Stock AMD
Memory	16 GB (4x4GB) G.Skill
Video Card(s)	XFX Radeon HD 6870 1 GB
Storage	SSD- Seagate 600 Series ST240HM000 240 GB
Display(s)	Asus VE248H / ViewSonic VA1912wb
Case	Cooler Master Storm Scout
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX550M
Software	7 Ultimate 64

System Name	Vulcan
Processor	i6 6600K
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Z170X UD3
Cooling	Thermaltake Frio Silent 14
Memory	16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Video Card(s)	ASUS Strix GTX 970
Storage	Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 1TB SSD
Display(s)	QNIX 27 Inch 1440p
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	Cooler Master V750
Software	Win 10 64-bit

System Name	Server. Gamer. Worker.
Processor	Xeon 2659 v3 / 9800x3D / m1 pro
Motherboard	Asus X99-E-10G WS / ASRock steel legend x870 / Apple
Cooling	Noctua low profile / Noctua NH-L12 / Apple
Memory	64Gb 2133 ecc ddr4/ T-force 6400 32Gbddr5/ 32GB HBLM
Video Card(s)	Evga gt 7300 / zotac 3070 / m1 pro
Storage	Samsung 970 512 Evo NVMe+3x14Tb /2Tb 990 pro + 1Tb HP 920 ex. / 1Tb
Display(s)	Headless / Acer Predator X34 / Acer X34 Non predator
Case	NZXT H630 \|Rosewill 8bay 4u server chasiss / MacBook Pro 16”
Audio Device(s)	Onboard / Onboard / Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX750 / Corais ax860 \| / Internal 250w
Mouse	Headless / corsair m65 / g502 proteus core

System Name	Graphics Card Free...
Processor	Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX Wifi
Cooling	Cryorig M9a w/ BeQuiet! PureWings 2 ~ 92mm
Memory	Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3200 ~ 16GB(2x8GB)
Storage	Samsung EVO 870 SSD - 1TB
Display(s)	AOC 24G2
Case	Cardboard...
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNova 550w G3
Mouse	Logitech t400 Zone Touch Mouse
Keyboard	IBM Model "M" Keyboard
Software	Manjaro ~ KDE Plasma
Benchmark Scores	She's a Runner!

System Name	ASUS ROG Zephrus M15
Processor	AMD Rhyzen 7 4800HS
Memory	16GB
Video Card(s)	Geforce RTX 2060
Storage	1TB

System Name	Lynni PS \ Lenowo TwinkPad L14 G2
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Raphael (Waiting on 9800X3D) \ i5-1135G7 Tiger Lake-U
Motherboard	ASRock B650M PG Riptide Bios v. 3.10 AMD AGESA 1.2.0.2a \ Lenowo BDPLANAR Bios 1.68
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black (Only middle fan) \ Lenowo C-267C-2
Memory	G.Skill Flare X5 2x16GB DDR5 6000MHZ CL36-36-36-96 AMD EXPO \ Willk Elektronik 2x16GB 2666MHZ CL17
Video Card(s)	Sapphire PURE AMD Radeon™ RX 9070 Gaming OC 16GB \| Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
Storage	Gigabyte M30 1TB\|Sabrent Rocket 2TB\| HDD: 10TB\|1TB \ WD RED SN700 1TB
Display(s)	KTC M27T20S 1440p@165Hz \| LG 48CX OLED 4K HDR \| Innolux 14" 1080p
Case	Asus Prime AP201 White Mesh \| Lenowo L14 G2 chassis
Audio Device(s)	Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless
Power Supply	Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W Goldie \| 65W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeedy Wireless \| Lenowo TouchPad & Logitech G305
Keyboard	Ducky One 3 Daybreak Fullsize \| L14 G2 UK Lumi
Software	Win11 IoT Enterprise 24H2 UK \| Win11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 24H2 UK / Arch (Fan)
Benchmark Scores	3DMARK: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/89434432? GPU-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details/v3zbr

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

Mini ITX Home Server build

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