Had a busy weekend this weekend. A while back my main server’s power supply blew. I hoped that it was only the power supply and that it didn’t affect the motherboard, RAM, Hard Drives etc. as there was a big bang and smoke involved.

So a last week I ordered a new PSU from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-750w-Certified-Power-Supply/dp/B000X2677A/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1228756781&sr=8-1)

My previous power supply was only a 500 watt supply so I went for a 750W this time. Amazon had a good deal with a $20 rebate making it slightly under $100 for the supply. I’d forgotten how much time it takes to do things like this. This server was a server I built from scratch a couple of years ago and it had been lying dormant for the past 3-4 months due to the blown power supply.

Well this weekend fixed all that.

Case open and all the power leads unhooked.

Power supply removed

The new power supply unboxed. Comes in a neat little carrying pouch.

Here it is, the new power supply, complete with a whopping great fan

New power supply inserted. Now just had to reconnect all the wires.

Wires hooked up

It worked. Everything else about the server was fine. Turned out just to be the power supply. Phew!  Just replacing the power supply took roughly 2-3 hours. The new Corsair has a great number of connectors for just about any type of system, number of drives, number of graphics cards (it’s SLI certified) etc.

The next thing on my list was to add more memory to another server. This time my brand new Windows Home Server.

Fellow MVP Donavon West has an excellent article about it here.

That took less than an hour but after that I had to install and configure it (which I’m still in the process of doing).  One of the next things on my list is how to extend it. Using the WHS API, adding a Sharepoint site to it and also my own web sites.

There was various other projects I carried out this weekend, but the two above were my main ones which I’m happy to say, both succeeded.