Windows Home Server 2011 on MSI 760GM-P34(FX)

dftch...@gmail.com

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Dec 30, 2012, 1:12:35 AM12/30/12

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Hello,

I plan to build a Windows Home Server 2011 box on the MSI 760GM-P34(FX) motherboard.

Any one with some pointers on this, before I begin? I understand that WHS is picky about drivers, hardware, etc.

Thank you.

Don

Paul

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Dec 30, 2012, 9:39:47 AM12/30/12

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You can find two kinds of answers. In this example, a user
manages to find a utility that won't run, because the utility
checked carefully for desktop OSes and didn't find one.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=E35M1-I&id=20120520103703235&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Whereas here, a user installed on a mixture of hardware and
didn't have a problem. Apparently, WHS 2011 is similar
to Windows 7 in terms of drivers.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whshardware/thread/fc477586-42e9-4030-a29e-7b454b0053ba

"I have installed it on everything from an Atom Based Mini server
to a Dual Xeon based server, the only issue I had was when i tried
to run it on a Mac as a virtual machine, didn't like that and after
a few tries gave up on it."

That suggests it's better than some older home server setups.
Some of the previous desktop server OSes were a PITA when
it came to drivers.

Now, this thread on some RAIDs isn't very encouraging.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whshardware/thread/293f7827-a714-4ce3-88e7-384a52708bb5

So it might all depend on whether you used just the chipset
hardware, or "got all fancy" with RAID cards. And this
being the case, maybe Microsoft really should have provided
an HCL for it (hardware compatibility list). I couldn't
find one.

There just isn't enough traffic here, to get some good hints.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whshardware/threads

Paul

Paul

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Dec 30, 2012, 9:57:22 AM12/30/12

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Paul wrote:
> dftch...@gmail.com wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I plan to build a Windows Home Server 2011 box on the MSI
>> 760GM-P34(FX) motherboard.
>>
>> Any one with some pointers on this, before I begin? I understand that
>> WHS is picky about drivers, hardware, etc.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Don

Regarding the NIC on your motherboard...

The 8111E can be run at close to full link rate,
with only a slight CPU penalty compared to an Intel NIC.
I was a bit concerned, because I have a PCI RealTek
card here that only does 70MB/sec. So the 8111E
shouldn't cause as many headaches as the 8169 I bought
in a moment of weakness.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1598/11/

Paul

dftch...@gmail.com

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Dec 30, 2012, 12:12:20 PM12/30/12

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Paul,

Thank you for the links. I will try the latest Win7 / WinServer 2008 R2 driver from Realtek.com.tw for the RTL8111E, and go from there.

Happy new year !!!

Don

dftch...@gmail.com

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Jan 1, 2013, 1:25:34 PM1/1/13

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Hi,

I could not wait for the MSI 760GM-P34(FX) motherboard to arrive (probably tomorrow,) so I installed Windows Home Server 2011 (35 bucks on sale) on a Gigabyte GA-785GMT-USB3. I am writing this note on it now.

Made a bootable USB stick (8Gb,) put WHS 2011 and some drivers on it from RealTek, Nvidia, AMD, AVerMedia, etc., and installed from there.

No problems.

Floppy
NIC
1394
USB3
GT 610
AVerTV Combo PCI-E (White Box) M780WB (Part # MTVCBPCIW)
Video and sound over HDMI to an Asus VH242H
All other drivers ... everything is up to date, and running fine.

Windows Defender, full scan, no problems
All Windows updates (over 125 !)

Pretty cool so far. I probably need to get the Unleashed book to find out what it actually will do compared to my Synology box.

Next step, put the disk on the MSI 760GM-P34(FX) motherboard when it arrives, and see what happens.

Tips and tricks are welcome. I have no idea what I am doing. But it seems to work.

Go BLUE !!!

Don