Server for me and idea for a desk

[Fuganater]

Can you explain a few things about WHS for me?

-Can it host a website? I used to have one on a Windows 2003 box a few years back and would like to get back into it.
-Does it support Windows 7 machines? I saw a write up that it only works with Vista but I think thats an old statment. I have several Vista 32-bit and 2 Windows7 64-bit machines and want to make sure they will all work with this.
-What is the WHS Power Pack 3? I see this everywhere now and have no idea what it is.
-What size disk do you use for the OS? Or do you not run this like other servers/desktops?
-Any other usefull tidbits would be great.

[slaveofconvention]

It can be hacked to host a website - it isn't something if offers natively. Personally I wouldn't bother - there are hosting packages out there now so cheap it's barely worth the hassle, and chances are, your ISP would frown on it anyway....
It supports XP, Vista, and 7. x86 and x64 on all platforms too.
Power pack 3 was a patch released a while back - it added lots of support for windows 7 which was it's main purpose I think but I'm sure it did more than that - it DID apparently fix an ongoing data corruption bug too.
WHS recommends using the biggest drive you can for the main or first drive. I'm not sure I agree. You NEED 40gb for the C drive partition, there's no modifying that - it's set in the install (full install in part 2 btw which is real close to finished) - the rest of the first drive becomes the start of your storage "pool" which you expand by adding extra drives - personally I have a 320GB IDE drive for my C and pool start - leaving all 10 sata ports free for storage drives.

[Fuganater]

Anyone got some sugestions on the case? Guideance?

I think I will do a Orange and Black theme. Orange fans, Orange sleeving and Orange/White lights inside. The top, back and bottom pelxi will be black and the 2 sides and the front will be clear. All of the inside plexi work will be black as well.

[Fuganater]

Ok worked on the case some more. Made some changes to reflect the color choice (Orange and Black). I also moved the mobo to the top and bottom mounted the PSU for cooling reasons.

In the front you can see the LCD, DVD Drive and 8 channel fan controller.

Rear view

Mobo side. You can see the cover over the back side of the PSU. I took that from the HAF X case to hide the cabling.

You can see where the opening is on the HDD side of the case. There is an opening above that where the SATA cables will pass through to the mobo.

So I've just been piecing together features from different cases that I like to make the ultimate dual width server case.

I think I will make a WC version of the case just in case someone decides to sponsor the build and give me free stuff

[slaveofconvention]

right now, you're about 90% of the way to a Lian Li 343b heh - look one up - you may get a surprise - that's actually the case my server is currently sitting in

[Fuganater]

What size pelxi should I use? 1/2" or 1/4"? I think 1/4" will be sturdy enought to have screws in the side of it but I'm not sure, never used it before. And what about 1/2" for the center?

[slaveofconvention]

Why not consider small cubes of plexi for the corners as reinforcers - that'll help with the strength aspect

[Fuganater]

Good idea. I'll look for some 1"x1" cubes.

[Fuganater]

SOC or anyone. Does the new version of WHS have Drive Extender? I thought I read somewhere that they took it out in Power Pack 2.

[Fuganater]

Bump again for WHS help.