Datasheet

The other, official minimal requirements are — truly — minimal. Every PC
made in the last five (maybe ten) years should be able to handle the load: a
Pentium 3 running at 1 GHz; an 80GB hard drive; a network adapter; and the
motherboard has to follow the ACPI power-saving spec.
Choosing a Great Windows Home Server
If you’re in the market for a new Windows Home Server computer — or if
you’re going to cobble something together with the Frankenstein pieces sitting
around your house — you may be pleasantly surprised to find that WHS doesn’t
need much at all. You may be equally surprised to find that spending a few extra
zlotys on some unexpected pieces of hardware can make a big difference in how
well your system works.
From my (admittedly jaded) experience, these bits and pieces make a real
difference in how well WHS works now, and will work in the future:
 Cooling: Really. WHS servers typically pack a lot of hot components
inside a small box, and you need to keep them cool. With WHS up 24/7,
and many WHS servers stuck inside stuffy closets, heat can rapidly
become enemy #1. Recent studies show that hard drives aren’t as sensi-
tive to heat as once thought (see “Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive
Population” at
labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf),
but other parts of your computer will wear out faster — if they don’t
melt down literally — when they run hot. The solution? Fans. Lots of
them. You might even consider putting a high-quality desk fan next to
the box, to keep cool air flowing.
 Multiple hard drives: Given a choice between one big hard drive and
two small ones, go for two — or, better, three — smaller drives. WHS
works better when it has two drives to “mirror” data stored on the
server, and it works best with the system itself stuck on a third drive.
You can always add more hard drives later, but you’ll get maximum
protection from the get-go if you start with two or more drives.
If you stick USB hard drives on your WHS server, don’t attach them to
USB hubs — you know, those cheap little gizmos that let you turn one
USB port into four or eight. USB hubs work fine for mice and electric
coffee warmers, but they’re really slow when two or more attached
pieces of equipment are vying for attention. One USB hub controlling
two overworked drives performs about as well as one guy playing both
parts in
Dueling Banjos.
 UPS: Nope, we’re not talking big brown trucks here. No matter where you
live, no matter how reliable your power supply, you need an
uninterrupted
power supply
(UPS), both to keep the WHS server running in the event of
a power hiccup, and to minimize weird power disruptions.
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Part I: Getting Windows Home Server to Serve
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