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Energy Efficient and Cheap Servers for Home Use?

Posted by Cliff on from the losing-less-money-down-the-outlet dept.

CapnRob asks: "I just got married, and my wife and I are putting together a home network in the (small) apartment we're now living in. We'd like to set up a firewall/mail server/small-file-server, but all the machines we own right now are pretty big machines that pull a fair amount of power, and that we don't want to keep running 24/7. Since our mail and file server needs are pretty low, our ideal box would be something like a Linksys WRT45G with one of the open source firmwares ... if only you could add a small hard drive to it. We're both long-time FreeBSD users, so installing a *nix system is no big deal, but what I've found so far in this line needs more l337 soldering iron skillz than I've got. Any suggestions for tiny little cheap boxes that won't send our power bills into orbit?"

6 of 594 comments (clear)

  1. old Pentium 166 by Fouquet · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm using an old Pentium 166Mhz for my network server and find that it works great. In fact, it's probably overkill. I've got 128mb ram, some old small (~10GB disks), and a couple of network cards. The machine is running an internal dhcp server, a samba server, an lpd server, and a firewall under RH 7.3. The power consumption is quite low - I think the power supply is 200W.

  2. Re:Ask Slashdot: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What happens is you take pictures and start a new fetish site on the internet and rake in the money.

  3. How about off the grid power? Solar? Wind? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Geothermal? Tidal? Chemical? Cold fusion? Zero point?

    What is the state of the art for power generation? I'd like enough juice to drive a portable or two, light enough to backpack, cheap enough to buy. The last time I checked the solar power options were coming down in price and bulk but weren't quite ready yet.

  4. Married? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Married? This means you not only have SEEN a woman, but TALKED to one. And more than likely you have had sex, or are going to.

    How did you get past security?!

  5. slashdot sucks by acrimony · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    geez.. it's so obvious how some slashdot articles from people claiming to be innocent and naive are actually from vultures attempting to use the /. for what it's worth.. its about time /. started requiring a background check.. :)

  6. WHEN U GET IT RUNNING BE SURE TO by newpath4com · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Be sure to make this page your homepage: http://www.newpath4.com/keystoworldpeace.htm.