Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-bit OEM System Builder - OEM

Pros: Windows. Know that this is meant for a HOME environment and logic should tell you it plays best with Windows machines.
Reasonable price! It is, especially if I consider how many hours I tried to rig up freeNAS just to have fatal errors every time I wanted to watch a movie via my wdtv; almost all I want to do with it.

Cons: I tried installing it for days with one success and then it died when I tried to add a RAID 5, but new RAM solved the problem; not more, just new sticks.

Other Thoughts: AMD Phenom II X3 720
MSI NF750-G55 motherboard
16GB (4x4) Patriot DDR3 1333
2x2TB WD green drives - from previous D-link NAS(awesome, BTW)
2x2TB WD Red drives - new for build
1x320GB WD caviar OS drive - from the way back machine, lol

Pros: Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 works as advertised. It's simple to set up, runs automatic backups on all your home networked computers and handles shared storage like a champ.

Cons: No longer supported by Microsoft. I will be upgrading to Windows Server 2008 soon. I didn't take away any eggs because it works as intended.

Other Thoughts: If you buy this software keep in mind you won't be able to get future support from Microsoft, but if you aren't technical minded and don't need a more robust server system this will fit the bill. There are still plenty of add on aps available.

Pros: Easy to setup, easy to use with general Windows experience. No problems with file sharing, or accessing media from XBMC. Does not require Worgroup to be used, I simply setup users and use users for each user.

Cons: None yet.

Other Thoughts: Still learning and tweaking for my needs. None yet. Plenty of youtube videos and forums for help and ideas. My complete build that has taken about 2 years of getting good sale prices, about 1100 in it.

(Case)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339
LIAN LI PC-Q25B

(Power Supply)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256065
SILVERSTONE Strider Plus ST50F-P 500W

(Power Supply Short Cables)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162010
Silverstone Model PP05 Short Cable Set

(Motherboard)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841
ASUS P8H77-I

(Processor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116775
Intel Core i3-3220

(Memory)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR

(Operating System)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416443
Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-bit

(Boot Drive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211601
ADATA Premier Pro SP900 ASP900S3-64GM-C

(Data Drive X 2)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236344
Western Digital Red WD30EFRX 3TB

(Data Drive X 1)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148901
Seagate SV35 Series ST3000VX000

(Data Drive X 2)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236343
Western Digital Red WD20EFRX 2TB

Pros: It's a windows operating system that is under 100.00

Cons: this product is completely un-userfriendly. It seems like you need to be certified in windows servers in order to figure out how to get it run right. Took it off my computer as quickly as I put it on and replaced it with Ubuntu Server (a free open-source linux server) that was 100 times easier to configure and get up and running.

Other Thoughts: was really hoping this was going to be a nice server to run at home for all my media. But again Microsoft fails.

Pros: Can't think of any - a lesser version of WHS2010.

Cons: Product has been discontinued by Microsoft. It doesn't even support Windows 8. DO NOT BUY.

Pros: Good job for backups of Windows XP (SP3), Vista SP1, and Windows 7 machines.

Passable job as a Media Server.

Cons: Problems with UEFI based OS.s (Win 8 in particular). Need a patch that has not been fully released to handle Windows 8 machines.

So/so job as a streaming media server.

File sharing. .. is so/so as well. It wants to use MS HOMEGROUP setup and does not let you setup a WORK network.

I lock down all my machines anyway and use WORK network on clients w/ account access control.

You need to have the same account names on the server as on each individual machine to make this as seamless as possible.

Once set up, file shairng works very well.

Other Thoughts: Am running this on an HP G7N40L w/ 4 Seagate 2TB drives in a RAID 10 configuration. (mirrored/striped). I only backup the system OS drive to external drive. Have one extra 2TB drive for replacing one of the raid drives.

Once WHS 2011 is setup does a good job of backing up your windows machines up to Win 7.

Win 8 requires a patch that you need to pick up for UEFI based OS's.

I prefer to use Mezzmo for a media server. Does a better job with most media and handling DLNA devices.

But solid for backup & recovery. Once you set it up, and it's running. . it's pretty much set it & forget it.

Have done a couple of restores, one with Windows 8 (with said patches applied). For most home backup needs does a solid job.

Pros: It does what most home users need and then some. It's easy to use, and requires only moderate knowledge to set up. There are some quirks, but not a number of problems like I had with FreeNAS.

Cons: As with all server O/S I've used, permissions can be quirky, but a resetting of the permissions and a restart is usually enough to get things running correctly again. Has "intentional" setup bugs, with Intel's non-server boards, that require editing driver files just to get the O/S running. Other issues that can be averted, if researched, can be a PITA to get around without massive changes. The hard drive has to be a certain size to work, and it only allows for Windows backups within the O/S (makes that backup drive useless for anything else) and I've learned to be wary of Windows backup utilities. I would not rely on them for my personal computers, let alone a server. Finally, it does not lend itself to cloning should a disaster happen.

Other Thoughts: It sacrifices a lot to make it easy for most, and it works. The price is too good to pass up for the relative simplicity when compared to free alternatives. A lot less trial and error and annoyances for those that aren't as inclined to do hours of reading and research.

Pros: Easy to use and setup.

Cons: I had this installed on my home server and i wasn't satisfied with it so i went back to Amahi - Its free and you cant beat it for the money

Pros: Easy installation, solid platform, few crashes. The media sharing is improved over WHS 2003.

Cons: Don't know where to begin, I have a mac in my system so I decided to "upgrade" to WHS 2011 from WHS 2003, as the old method wasn't really a backup and it was the wife's mac so she won't have to "remember" to start the backup. BIG mistake. First off Lyon came out right after I installed and guess what? OS no longer supported. Then MS never bothered to fix it, hell it was one of their MAJOR selling points. Then they removed the drive extender which was fantastic. A bunch of different sized drives seen as one massive drive by the computer. You manage folders not drives. Not sure why this isn't in all MS products. Lastly, they back up service. The old system would back up every night and basically just "sync"/track the changes so it didn't kill the space. Basically, one big backup with a bunch of little "amendments". The new system saves a new copy everyday and you're left with a bunch of large backups. i.e. backing up a 200MB "C" dirve is 1TB every week. MS do the math. And since no drive extender, you are out of space every week. Not to mention if you're backing up music/movies/photos, I mean that's why you do it right?

Other Thoughts: The minor pros do not out weigh the cons on this one. They had a really solid product in WHS 2003. Some minor fixes/tweaks and they could have had a rockstar program here. I'm guessing that really just wasn't their desire. Not sure why they didn't want to make money...

Pros: It will back up Windows 7 and non-GPT Windows 8 (after installing updates to WHS2011), and provides continuous backups as well as a bare-metal restore method that works well. With any Server 2008R2 knowledge at all, you can do a lot of other things too.

Cons: Microsoft has stopped producing Windows Home Server products. I don't believe there will be any service packs or major updates to this product.
Does not support GPT partitions which Windows 8 loves to use natively and will be used on OEM systems.

Other Thoughts: I put this on a bigger system at first, after watching it for a while, I decided it didn't need to be on a blazing machine, so I put it on an old HP ProLiant N40L. It works nicely there for what I am using it for. (Backups, streaming audio, some video, etc.) but I mainly got it for the backup capability.