First Home Server

[Pierre Dabrunst]

I just want to comments on my first home server.

It's not rack-monted or rack-based it's a old computer i picked from the crapyard and got it working really well, it was nothing wrong with it exept the harddrive was broken and the on-board gpu was broken as well, but I got those replaced with an external GPU and a 2TB SSHD...

 

It has:

Pentium 4 SIngleCore (with hyperthread to DualCore) 3.0GHz x64 CPU 775LGA

2.5GB DDR2 ECC RAM

2TB SSHD

External Paralells NIC + On-Board NIC both 1Gbps

GeForce GT 460 (had it just laying so why not )

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64

 

How would you think about this as a home server to use with a Network Boot Software + storage server and also as a Domain Controller with IIS?

[Ben Potter]

2 minutes ago, Pierre Dabrunst said:

I just want to comments on my first home server.

It's not rack-monted or rack-based it's a old computer i picked from the crapyard and got it working really well, it was nothing wrong with it exept the harddrive was broken and the on-board gpu was broken as well, but I got those replaced with an external GPU and a 2TB SSHD...

 

It has:

Pentium 4 SIngleCore (with hyperthread to DualCore) 3.0GHz x64 CPU 775LGA

2.5GB DDR2 ECC RAM

2TB SSHD

External Paralells NIC + On-Board NIC both 1Gbps

GeForce GT 460 (had it just laying so why not )

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64

 

How would you think about this as a home server to use with a Network Boot Software + storage server and also as a Domain Controller with IIS?

 Honestly, it would work just fine as a Network Boot, Storadge Server, and Domain controller. If power efficiency isn't sere a problem for you with the Pentium 4 (you could get a slightly newer processor to take less power from the wall), the server would work just fine. I have a server with a Pentium 4, 2G of RAM, 500GB HD, with Windows Server 2012 R2 and it works great, but the GUI itself freezes up a bit when I am multitasking. However, with 2008 you should be fine with 2.5G of RAM. 

 

However, I would suggest your first upgrade be more RAM rather than anysthing else

[leadeater]

Windows Server 2008 R2 is pretty much the max a P4 will run, not quickly either but should be fine for a Domain Controller. What do you plan to use IIS for? Shouldn't really run a web server role, or a file server, on a DC but if it's for internal personal use only then it's not that bad. I would say use VMs but you are very hardware resource constrained.

 

Also be aware that when you enable the Domain Control role signed and encrypted sessions is enabled by default so file copies will likely be very slow due to the CPU, you can disable this but refer to previous comment about not recommending running a file server on a domain controller.

 

You can of course set up what you want now, although slow, and plan to move to better hardware if you are happy with functionality. Proof of concept it first before spending money.

[Pierre Dabrunst]

1 minute ago, Ben Potter said:

 Honestly, it would work just fine as a Network Boot, Storadge Server, and Domain controller. If power efficiency isn't sere a problem for you with the Pentium 4 (you could get a slightly newer processor to take less power from the wall), the server would work just fine. I have a server with a Pentium 4, 2G of RAM, 500GB HD, with Windows Server 2012 R2 and it works great, but the GUI itself freezes up a bit when I am multitasking. However, with 2008 you should be fine with 2.5G of RAM. 

 

However, I would suggest your first upgrade be more RAM rather than anysthing else

I am planning in the future to upgrate to 8GB RAM, that's the max the motherboard can handle.

About the CPU power, I have a static power bill, so I only pay $40 per month no madder how much power I use.  I can setup a Datacenter at my appartment without higher power costs.

I am not planning to multitask on the server, it will basically just run the network boot software, Domain Controller and then I will remote access the disks in Windows over Network Share when I need to.  It will basically work just as a backup server and a streaming server with some extra funtions.

The CPU will be upgraded to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 soon, I have orderd one from eBay and it should arrive within 2 weeks.

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Pierre Dabrunst said:

The CPU will be upgraded to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 soon, I have orderd one from eBay and it should arrive within 2 weeks.

A Core 2 Quad will be muuuuch better .

[Pierre Dabrunst]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Windows Server 2008 R2 is pretty much the max a P4 will run, not quickly either but should be fine for a Domain Controller. What do you plan to use IIS for? Shouldn't really run a web server role, or a file server, on a DC but if it's for internal personal use only then it's not that bad. I would say use VMs but you are very hardware resource constrained.

 

Also be aware that when you enable the Domain Control role signed and encrypted sessions is enabled by default so file copies will likely be very slow due to the CPU, you can disable this but refer to previous comment about not recommending rule a file server on a domain controller.

 

You can of course set up what you want now, although slow, and plan to move to better hardware if you are happy with functionality. Proof of concept it first before spending money.

IIS is basically just for personal website creation work basically... I am not planning to open the port to my server, so basically just have it as a website workspace to work on websites.

I am not planning to transfer big files at all, max 2GB files, and I don't really care if it takes 15 minutes to transfer a 2GB file.  It's just for personal use, nothing else.

 

And the server is currently running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 without any problems.  Watching 1080p movies at the moment.  SOME glitching occurs about 10 minutes apart for like 3 seconds.  I think that might to do with that the GPU has 2GB VRAM.