Windows Home Server on an MSI Wind Desktop, Part 1 – Cost & Power
October 18, 2008 – 1:10 pmAs previously mentioned, I decided to rebuilt my WHS using more appropriate hardware. I decided to use the MSI Wind Desktop. The Wind Desktop uses the Intel Atom processor (as used in Netbooks) and also uses laptop memory and a laptop PSU. The result is a near silent, very low power desktop, which makes it the perfect candidate for a Windows Home Server.
Cost
The Wind Desktop is not available in the UK, so I had a mate buy it in the US, and another mate bring it back for me, the cost of the barebones system was £92 (purchased from NewEgg). The system then required memory and some storage, I opted for a 2GB SODIMM for the RAM, this is overkill for WHS, but as I might use the Desktop for WinXP in the future I decided to go for 2GB. I also bought a 500GB SATA HD from a mate for £20, and then borrowed an identical HD so I could test the WHS with 2 drives. The Wind Desktop only has 2 SATA channels, one for a HD and one for an optical drive, I wanted to make sure there were no issues when 2 HD’s were used. The hardware details are listed below (all prices include VAT and delivery)
|
Hardware/Software |
Price |
Supplier |
|
£92 ($165) |
NewEgg.com |
|
|
Seagate Barracuda 500GB |
£20 |
2nd hand |
|
Seagate Barracuda 500GB |
borrowed |
2nd hand |
|
£20 |
Ebuyer.co.uk |
|
|
£28 |
Crucial.com |
|
|
MS Windows Home Server |
£95 |
Ebuyer.co.uk |
The DVD drive was only required to install WHS, so this can be deducted from the total. The total is therefore £235 (Hardware £140, Software £95). You can see from this that if you wanted to build a Linux server, or just a Linux desktop, the MSI Wind Desktop is a nice cheap platform. It’s a pity that WHS costs so much.
Power
To test the amount of power being used I run with a single Hard Disk and with 2 Hard Disks, for both configurations I tested it idling and while performing a backup.
| Configuration/status | Power |
|
2 HDs, idle |
42W |
|
2 HDs, backing up |
44W |
|
1 HD, idle |
33W |
|
1 HD, backing up |
35W |
Initial Conclusions
After doing some reading online I was expecting the power when idle to be closer to 20W, even so, it’s using about a 1/3 of the juice as my old WHS. I think my next step will be to have a look in the bios and in Windows Power Management to see if I can shave a few Watts off.
Photos
WHS console showing 2×500GB Hard Drives
Open case showing the Motherboard and the 2nd Hard Drive
Closed case running with a single Hard Drive, sitting on top of my 2 Shuttle SN41G2s
5 Responses to “Windows Home Server on an MSI Wind Desktop, Part 1 – Cost & Power”
Glad you finally got your hands on one. Let us know how it works out long term.
By SKFox on Oct 18, 2008
I switched from an old pieced together box to this same MSI Wind PC about 3 months ago and I love it. Low power, great performance and very inexpensive.
By Keith on Oct 20, 2008
Nice set up with a big difference on power requirements. Just a note worth sharing that Intel has released a new 330 dual-core Atom in a Mini-ITX form factor, called the D945GCLF2. It can be purchased online and includes a 10/100/1000 Mbps network interface, along with other upgrades. MSI has not upgraded their product line with it, but would suspect it will happen in the next month or two.
By Brian on Oct 21, 2008
I also build a WHS using the MSI Wind Desktop. I only have a single hard drive in the system. The drive is a 1TB WD GP Green Power Drive. Power consumption measured using Kill-A-Watt averages 27w (25w idle, 29w during backups). I’m very happy with the system. Very quiet and low power. I replaced a Buffalo Linkstation NAS with this server. It uses a bit more power than the NAS but has much more functionality.
By Norman on Oct 22, 2008