WHS and Vista Media Center Combined via 2x Motherboards
One enterprising Home Server user has integrated Vista Media Center (VMC) and Windows Home Server (WHS) in a novel way. Within his customized white case, (which he hand sprayed himself) are mounted two Micro ATX motherboards on top of each other. One is for Vista Ultimate, and thus VMC and the other is dedicated to Home Server. Off course having 2 motherboards within the one case also requires two PSUs and this setup is accomplished with a mixture of four SATA and PATA hard drives. Three are housed in the drive bay and are for the exclusive use of WHS and the other is mounted in a box within the case for Vista’s use.
The custom setup is completed with an internal mounted miniature USB powered auto sensing hub which connects the Ethernet inputs from both motherboards to a single output. And he has also bi-wired the power and reset buttons to the front panel so the switches control both motherboards at once.
Impressive stuff! More details of the build including a 10 minute video of the project is available from here.
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This seems pretty silly. I did almost the same thing, which when complete and successfult I’ll post some info and picks, but I built an HTPC and loaded WHS on it. There’s a few good Media programs that do better than Media Center (support for HD-DVR, etc) and will run on WHS. It’s one machine serving a dual purpose. I also equiped it well enough (gamer board, Quad Core, 4 Gb, 6 Tb) to serve it’s dual function and support Virtual machines if needed.