** Gordon Scott <gordon@???> [2015-08-14 15:44]:
> On 14/08/2015 12:54, A. J. Trickett wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >I need to replace a small home server, and I've come to realise I
> >don't actually need a full desktop sized box, as it won't be
> >running X, and all it needs are a paired hard disks.
>
> That's as I concluded some years back.
>
> I mulled over the pros and cons of a Linux box versus an over-the-counter
> NAT. I've used a couple of the latter in the past, but was never,
> personally, very happy with them.
>
> I built a fanless mini-ITX machine using parts from here:
> http://www.linitx.com.
> http://linitx.com/search.php?keywords=fanless
>
> My machine is a 600MHz single-core via "i686" CPU, which is mostly fine for
> me. I used a single 2.5" WD "Green" and the whole fileserver takes around
> 12 or 15W IIRC. Headless means there're no graphics, so no CPU or
> electrical power wasted there. I used a case that had a fan and use that
> only if things get warm (and my office is pretty warm in mid-summer). The
> fan rarely runs.
>
> If building one again now, I'd probably go for one of the Bay Trail or Atom
> CPUs. I doubt a quad-core would be needed as much throughput is likely
> disc, Ethernet and DMA limited. The CPU/DMA isn't handling bits, it's
> handling reasonable-sized blocks, so I doubt you need huge memory either,
> for the same reasons.
>
> There are better housing/bare-boners now than I bought then ... finned cases
> and the like, that look very promising e.g.:
> http://linitx.com/product/jetway-jbc400p93w-bay-trailm-n2807-barebone-system/14362
>
> But ... only room for a single 2.5" drive, though, and only 4GB Ram!
> Both of those might be a bit small and are smaller than you ask.
> Larger are available, of course, but not finned I think.
** end quote [Gordon Scott]
I did much the same quite a few years ago now. I was given a 48U rack with 5
dual processor Athlon MP2000+ boards. When I checked the power consumption and
found them running at around 180W with a single HD and idling on a minimum
install of Linux I decided they had to go. Sadly I couldn't use the cases, the
cost of getting more power friendly PSUs that fitted was extortionate, although
I did get some right angle AGP adapters for the graphics cards (nothing
onboard).
I ended up with some Intel Atom 330 based motherboards which I'm still using
and dropped the power consumption down to around 40W with twin RAID HDs. I
could probably do better now. Lacking the nice rack mount cases I put some
chipboard into the rack using the slides and am using some spare cases that I
bought sometime in the late 90s :)
I'm thinking of getting some new probably slightly more compact cases at the
moment, mainly because I want to have access to the USB ports from the front to
plug in the odd USB stick or keyboard and it is cheaper to get a new case with
front USB included than a drive bay USB or card reader with USB! I also won't
have the empty slots where the floppy drives used to be (it was the era when
cases had slots and buttons built in covering an internal 3.5" bay so no way to
blank it).
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