Re: [Hampshire] OT: co-location

Tom Sykes wrote:
...
> I've been looking in to various options here, but have discovered that
> most colo providers are now imposing power usage caps, usually of
> between 0.5A and 1.0A. This scares me somewhat, as my current server
> (Dell PE1425 - dual Xeon) is using 1.8A.
>
> Where on earth does one find a 1U server that consumes only 0.5A of power??
>
> Tom
>
You can build a server that draws less than 0.5A. It normally involves;

* A single very low power CPU such as VIA's C7, or one of Intel's Low
Voltage Xeons.

* Leaving out the CD/DVD drive (you can always use a USB CD-ROM when
needed).

* Use a correctly sized PSU and don't use a redundant PSU.

* Use only one or two hard disks. Use laptop ones if performance is not
an issue.

* Use a larger server case with fewer but larger cooling fans.

However the above is is often not compatible with servers with heavy
disk I/O such as heavily used database servers. If you need to stick to
high powered readily available servers for co-lo then you basically
have to pay for several server's worth of power for your one server,
which isn't cheap.

There are companies that will make 'servers' that meet most of the above
but I am reluctant to call them servers since they are really low
performance desktops/laptops in rack mounted cases. I do use such
'servers' but only for lightweight duties such as fax servers and data
backup.

I am keen to hear from anyone who has managed to source <0.5A servers
that use multi-core Xeon CPUs with 4+ disk drives.

Simon