Server PC

Things used in this project

SilverStone Technology Home Theater Computer Case (HTPC) 

AMD FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition Processor 

MSI Extreme Gaming AMD 970 AM3+ DDR3 USB 3.1 ATX Motherboard 

MISC RAM sticks

SYBA 2 Port Ethernet PCIe x 1 Card, Realtek RTL8111 Chipset 

CORSAIR - RM Series 750W

Introduction:

This project has grown and changed a lot. It started out as just a PC to host (Modded) Minecraft servers and a FiveM server. It now has become a full blown Windows 2016 server running Hyper-V and Windows Deployment Services (WDS). I was running ADDS, DHCP and DNS but it ended up killing my home network so I removed it. Please check embedded links for explanations.

Phase 1: Order new parts [Complete]

Simple, I just needed a new case for my server PC

Phase 2: Put server PC together [Complete]

I built the server and did a test boot

Phase 3: Buy Windows Server 2016 [Complete]

I was able to get a relatively cheap copy of Server 2016

Phase 4: Basic Server set up [Complete]

I got the basic server set up, I set the domain and the IP of the server and installed the needed add ons I want to use for the next steps

Phase 5: Intermediate set up [Complete]

At this point I have installed Hyper-V so I can start setting up virtual machines to run my game servers.

VM A.  Is running Windows 10 Pro. I am using it to run my game servers.    

VM B.  I'm using this to build custom Windows 10 Pro images on. Also read below

I will explain VM B in a Phase or 2

Phase 6: Setting up game servers [Complete]

At this point I have a Windows 10 Pro VM running. The games I host are Vanilla Minecraft, Modded Minecraft and FiveM with others on the way.

I have a domain that I am using for friends and stuff to connect and play on the servers.

Phase 7: WDS and custom Windows Images [Complete]

Ok time to talk about VM B from Phase 5. With WDS I can Deploy and Capture custom Window Images. For example, If buy a new laptop and I don't feel like installing all the programs I usually use, I can plug the laptop into my network and install my custom Windows Image from my Server. I like to have my own Windows Images so that when I do an install of Windows I have all the programs I want already installed so I don't have to go looking for then. I can also save network storage locations to it so it auto connects to them among other things its a great learning experience.

Phase 8: FUN and more info!

Building this was just fun. Later on I want to put a new CPU, Motherboard and Ram into the Server to make it fast and better. I would like to add an all in one water cooler to it just because, I have more things I want to do with it. Like I said in my into. I have a lot to learn but I also want to put more money into this project.