Slashdot Mirror
Notebooks and Mini ITX Machines as Home Servers?
An anonymous reader asks: "I recently moved into a townhouse (the first time on my own, actually) and need to get a server up and running before the other trivial stuff (furniture, getting food in the fridge, *getting* a fridge, etc, etc). I need the basic set of services - HTTP, FTP, DNS, SMTP/POP3 for any self respecting geek. The drawback is that I'm on a limited budget (money and space wise) and need a server that is *extremely* energy efficient, takes up little space, makes no noise, and generates very little heat. A basic P4 notebook seems to fit the bill - small, low power consumption, built in screen/keyboard/mouse (no need for KVM), wireless so I can stick it on the top shelf of my closet, and generates less heat and noise than your average desktop. Is there any reason to consider, say, a mini ITX rig (such as a shuttle) over this? Any drawbacks?"
A mini-itx setup should be signifigantly cheaper than a P4 laptop. It also is somewhat upgradable, though that depends on the exact MB you get. I would look into the VIA Epia/Edens, as they are extremely enegery efficent and produce very little heat.
Twostep
There are 10 different types of people in this world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.
I did this with an old P120 laptop, and I had over 500 days of uptime (well, it rolled over at 497).
Some cautions to consider: laptops aren't designed as servers. I've heard stories of hard drives not surviving continuous use. Newer systems with fans still generate noise and heat--be sure it's ventilated.
I remember when a previous employer had four servers set up in a mini-rack. It was a very efficient use of space. As far as a laptop goes.
Options:
Get an old pentium and make do, for 350.
Best Buy has HP 1.8ghz celeron lappy's for 699 and up
If you do need the power of a P4, then you will probably have to pay for it.
Pros of the laptop:
Built in UPS
Very low power consumption
Cons:
compatibility may be an issue if you run linux
longevity not as good as server
bang per dollar
OTOH, you mention the mini-itx cases. Why? Because they are cool? I don't think they use any less power than a full size. Is there a space constraint?
with the mini itx
Pros
Cheaper
sort-of expandable
cheaper replacement parts
looks cool -- chicks dig it
Cons
more power usage
I guess my big question is what are you gonna do with it? "The usual geek stuff" can be handled with a P-300 last I checked-- just buy an old laptop. But also, is power that expensive? You are *buying* a house, the ten bucks a month in electric surely won't bust ya. I don't get it.
www.avacal.com -- the home page of pete shaw
The laptop has a poor CPU/$ ratio and those little laptop drives aren't very speedy compared to the average 3.5" disk.
Best bang for the buck is probably an off-the-shelf compact system with a low-end processor in it. Use power management and a LCD screen and the power consumption/heat won't be too bad. Replace the fans with quiet ones and tuck it in a corner somewhere. Go see what's available cheap at the big chains, or check out the compact machines that Dell is making these days...
-Bill
...and dont forget the built in UPS to boot...
Also consider an Athlon XP system with a micro-atx motherboard and a zalman cpu cooler (very quiet). If you go for a low-end Thoroughbred based Athlon XP, the peak wattage is only 45W - much less than a P4 based notebook. Plus, the XP 1700+ is going for $42 including shipping on NewEgg, and you can get a micro-ATX motherboard with LAN, audio, GeForce2 graphics, 3xPCI, 1xAGP, and 2 DDR slots for about $70. Add a laptop drive ($50), some DDR ($30 for 256M), a couple of NICs ($10 each), and a cheap case ($40) and you've got yourself a sweet router or server. Much cheaper and smaller than an old iMac or a P4 based system. Also, you can add gigabit lan if you want, PCI RAID for NAS, or use it as a backup system for LAN parties. The problem with the iMac is that it doesn't offer much in the way of expandibility.
I can tell that you came into servers late...
ISPs used to regularly run high-volume email/DNS servers on machines ten times slower than that ITX box. It should be able to handle anything an individual might want to do.
Oh bollocks.
Sparc 5s and Sparc 10s ran on CPUs that would be considered underpowered in a PDA these days.
Sure, they got good throughput compared with PCs of the time thanks to their more sensible bus, but they don't stand a hope in Hell of keeping up with any modern CPU (and that includes C3s).
How about an XBOX? $180, stylish, small, and a game console to boot (no pun intended)!