RobbieH

Another advantage of Drivepool is that if you have a specific folder that you want extra protection for, like pictures, you can set it to duplicate across more than just two drives. So you could have three copies if you wanted.

And that's nothing compared to my history with PCs.  My first PC (as in DOS machine) was a Compaq Plus portable (4.77mhz 8088) - 512k RAM and a 10 MB hard drive. I ended up donating it to my dad, where we made it the server in his real estate office. I networked 4 PCs together using Artisoft LANtastic on their old DB9 2mbps cables. Those cables were a pain to build. But all that got me into IT, that experience moved me into network installations and maintenance for a software development company which built turn-key systems for law enforcement departments and municipal courts. I have never looked back, been in IT ever since.

My first HTPC I built used an ATI All in Wonder, on XP, using GBPVR. That dates me a bit.

WHS 2011 actually goes end of support on 4/12/2016, not 2020.
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=Windows%20Home%20Server
 
Windows Server 2008 R2 has already gone EOS for mainstream, 1/13/2015. I don't think many home users will purchase extended support, it's very expensive.

I have a really good cooler on it. When the server had a 610 in it, I way overbuilt the cooler because I wanted it to be as quiet as possible. Of course now with 6 drives in there, it's all moot now, the drives are louder than any of the fans. And I have it in my wiring closet now anyway, so I don't care about the noise.
 
I made it through last night too. So, I think I fixed whatever was acting up. Previously, I had the RAM in the second two slots (the black pair). When I was looking at motherboard specifics the other day, I noticed that the manual says if only two slots are used, to use the blue ones, so I switched them. This is when problems started. So a couple of days ago after thinking about what had changed, I moved the RAM back and ensured all connections were firmly seated in both RAM, and power connections. All seems to be well now. I think it had to do with either where the RAM was, or maybe it was not seated well. 
 
Here is what I ended up with on the new server:
Xeon E3 1246V3 240.00 MicroCenter
Intel Server Motherboard S1200V3RPL 220.00 NewEgg
2x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 156.00 NewEgg
WD Red 5TB 214.00 Amazon
Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower 43.00 MicroCenter
CORSAIR CSM Series CS450M 450W 40.00 NewEgg
 
I already have one WD Red 5TB that I'll pair up with the one that I just bought, and I have an SSD for landing and processing of files. I'm going to boot ESX off of a 32GB USB 3.0 thumb drive. The new 5TB drive arrives today, so I can start transferring data. I have the case and processor sitting on the desk behind me. The rest of the parts will be here tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to see how heavily I can load this system without maxing it out. 
 
As you can tell, I don't care so much about this or that case or power supply. I don't have a rack anymore (had a Chatsworth I used for years) and just want something I can sit on a shelf in my wiring closet. I see enough pretty racks and 1u servers and blade systems in data centers as part of my job. I don't need that at home.

On the greens you need to run WDIDLE3 and set it to disabled or 5 minutes. Otherwise they are going to have too many Load Cycles (head parks). I have heard of this causing premature failure of these drives when used in a 24/7 environment. I have also heard of WD denying warranty when the rated number of load cycles has been exceeded.
 
Scanner or any SMART reader will tell you how many cycles the drive(s) have. I didn't know about this issue for almost a year, so I'm at over 143,000 load cycles on my green drive. Scanner keeps track of what the manufacturer rates these drives at, and Green drives are rated for 300,000 cycles. Reds are rated for 600,000 cycles.
 
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hacking-wd-greens-and-reds-with-wdidle3-exe.18171/
 
And so that Christopher doesn't have to say it, this is flashing your firmware so you do run some risk of losing the data on the drive, or even bricking your drive. I have not heard of anyone having issues with it though. 
 
When you find out how many load cycles you have, post it up. I'm curious.

Hey jandrews, I recently switched from DP 1.0 to DP 2.0 on my WHS 2011 box. Couldn't be happier. I like some of the features in 2.0. There is still integration into the dashboard, if you care about that. 

Parts ordered today. Hopefully by Friday I'll be assembling my new server. My current one crashed again last night. I'm about to go change out the memory and check all the connections to see if that's the problem. Also going to turn off the 10% overclock, although it's been stable up to now.
 
I bought another 5TB Red drive, so I'll have 2 5TB in the new server, along with the SSD boot. In the existing WHS 2011 server, I have two WD Green 3TB drives. That'll work. 
 
I'm going to need more copies of DrivePool and Scanner. How do I add new licenses to my existing license?
 
My plan is to move all the media that is going to the new server using the WHS dashboard to the specific 5TB drive letter. No issues with that, right? Then once it is migrated and in the new server, I add the second drive and create the pool on the new server, and all is good.

I'm starting to see 500GB SSDs for $199. That's pretty amazing. Certainly not as cheap as spinny drives, and not necessary for streaming movies, but they are getting cheap(ish).

Since you asked, I'll add to the thread even though it is not a rack mount system. 
 
Case - Rosewill Blackbone - http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Steel-Plastic-Computer-Blackbone/dp/B004A9XB6W
PSU - Seasonic 80+ Platinum 460w, fanless (I wanted as low power use as I could get)
CPU - AMD Athlon II X4 610e, 45w TPD  Had to upgrade last week, now is a Phenom II X6 1090T, more on that at the end of post.
Cooler - I don't remember, I built this thing several years ago. It's huge and the giant fan is quiet.
Memory - 8GB (I don't really care about brands, it's Corsair though I think)
OS - WHS 2011
NICs - using an Intel Pro gigabit for the network, onboard Realtek gigabit for video cameras
Drives:
1x Hitachi 500GB boot drive
1x WDS WD5000AAKS - boot backup drive, and yes it's PATA
2x Samsung ST32000542AS 2GB
1x WD WD30EZRX 3GB (Yes, that's a green drive, and it's been solid as a rock)
1X ST3000DM001 3GB (yes it's been replaced once)
 
No, it's nothing special, but it works for what I'm running on it.
MediaBrowser Server 3
BlueIris 4 controlling 8 3MP cameras
Plex
Subsonic Server
SabNZB
SickRage
CouchPotato
 
And of course, DrivePool and Stablebit Scanner.
 
BlueIris is quite the processor hog, even with everything optimized to be as efficient as possible. I was having some CPU overload issues when SabNZB went to unpack files, so I upgraded the processor.
 
My plan in the near future is to build a second server, run ESXi, and start working with some of the open source data center tools. I have a long IT background, but moved into IT security audit about 3.5 years ago. My home stuff is the only thing that keeps me hands-on current. This server will get the 610e back, remain my disk space server, and will most likely keep BlueIris until I add so many cameras that it can't keep up. 
 
New server is going to be an i7 4790 based system on an ASRock Z87 Extreme6 board. Gobs of memory, ESXi, and solid state drive.
 
I won't go into all the network gear, but it is all enterprise stuff - lots of APs (long 1954 ranch style house dictates it), Juniper gear throughout, etc. Cameras and some of the APs are PoE, you get the idea.