Friends will know that I got an amazing deal on a server machine from Ebuyer - £149 for a Xeon-based Acer Altos G330 Mk2 – currently available from Memory Express for £445!!  I’m still not certain that the deal I got wasn’t a pricing error!

Getting a server PC is better for Windows Home Server because you want something expressly compatible with Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 on which WHS is based.  I have to tell you, my server – even with 1gb of RAM – EATS WHS alive.  It’s a wonderful experience.

Well, I got my Ebuyer email today, and there’s another special on a server at the moment which would also make a superb, if not rather overpowered, WHS box:

HP Proliant ML115 G5: £199.99

Team that with WHS: £99.99 (has become MORE expensive over time?!)

Then you would do well to shove in a couple of Western Digital GreenPower HDD’s to supplement the 160gb system drive:

2 x 640gb Western Digital GP: £105.88

That’s just £405.86 for a machine with a QUAD core Opteron, and ready to run WHS and the new WHS2 (‘Vail’ - when it becomes available) for many many years while breaking no sweat!  Compare that to the undeniably lovely HP Mediasmart, which tends to come in at around £350 with 512mb or RAM, 500mb storage and a 1.8ghz SEMPRON CPU, although newer models have been announced.  This self-build is therefore amazing value.  I suppose the one thing that the HP has is it’s size – it’s tiny!

Let me know if you’d like a Proliant WHS though, and I’ll build it for you for a very reasonable premium

Dan