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Low-Powered Personal Servers?
antifoidulus asks: "Being the proud owner of a PowerBook, I have but one complaint when it comes to my computing experience: the lack of an 'always-on' web/database server that would allow me to work on some personal programming projects, since I don't like having my PowerBook on 24/7. I could just buy an Intel box, but looking at some of the horror stories of how much power P4s consume, and living in Germany where electricity is not cheap, I wanted to see what suggestions the Slashdot community has for low-cost, low-power, headless servers. My only requirements are that it can run Linux and preferably cost less than $500. Is this possible? What architecture should I go with?"
small, cheap, lower power consumption.
It's at Newegg for 107USD.
2 E16856110030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
Add a few bits and you've got a complete low power system.
Stop the world; I need to get off.
I'm sure you mean Pentium M. P4-M is practically the same as P4, but Pentium M is the sane choice when you're talking low power with high performance.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Get a linksys NSLU2. It's a network attached storage unit, but it can be flashed with a firmware that lets you basically run Debian on it. Right now, one is serving mail, web, and storage for my domain.
It's no 4-way Xeon when it comes to performance, but at 8W power consumption and a $75 pricetag, you can't go wrong.
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
I'm actually writing an article on how to run a domain from one of those things for AnandTech, so in a few weeks you can read about it there. (Tom's Hardware did an article, but it isn't very good or accurate anymore. Stick with the nslu2-linux site.)
My other car is first.
Last time I checked, Silverstone is retooling to produce modified cases, but the nano-ITX/LC0[7|8] combo will not be silent: Via nixed the option to let Silverstone use the nano-ITX moniker unless their case accomodated a fan and not a heat block (like their original LC-07 and LC-08 designs). (The new LC-07 nd LC-08 cases supposedly will have vent holes in the top -- ugh!).
These specs are subject to change, and should not be considered definitive. Contact Via and or Silverstone yourself if you want to pursue this option.
You could've hired me.
yeah, that's what I was wondering, check out http://www.apachefriends.org/
Use the Wake-on-LAN feature of your network card.
I have a computer that remains in hibernation until it receives network traffic. I have it set up to only wake-on-lan when it receives a magic packet (I configured my router to accept these packets over the internet). So when I need to work on my webprojects I usually run through this:
1. Send magic packet to my home IP (the router takes care of the rest)
2. wait about 20 seconds for my server to awake and acquire an IP
3. go on with my work as if the server had never been down.
I also have the server set to hibernate if it's been idle for 10 minutes, so I don't use very much electricity at all.
I just pooped your party.
Are these personal projects that you need to access from computers other than your PowerBook? If not, why not just run them on your PowerBook when you're using it? The built-in Apache and PHP work great, and it's simple to add a MySQL database. I wrote a little script that makes it possible to host multiple virtual hosts under Mac OS X, though they're only accessible from that computer by default. (I use NetInfoManager to add additional host names that point at 127.0.0.1.)
Why not pick up an old pentium and throw in a large HDD?
It's really quite simple. The buy a slightly faster pentium (they're a bit more efficient in terms of power per cycle). Clock it down. Clock down the RAM speed. I have a 2x550MHz machine running at 2x350 (or so) with slghtly lower core voltage. It doesn't even need fans (well I haven't tried in the warmer weather but that is coming up, so we will see).
One place that uses quite a bit of power is DRAM. It is continually drawing power to do the refresh as charge is lost from the cells. Take out all the RAM you don't need.
Bigger hard disks use more power. It's an unavoidable fact. The platters are more densely packed with magnetic material. Faster hard disks use more power. If you want to minimise power, a 2.5" 4800RPM disk is the go. You can easily make an adaptor for the 44-pin -> 40 pin + floppy power connector. They retail for quite a bit if you can find em.
If you can't (or don't want) a 2.5" disk, a 3.5" disk at 5400RPM will use quite a bit less power than a 7200RPM job.
Don't put in a kick-ass video card. What's the point? Shitty old PCI S3 or something that doesn't use much power will suffice. In fact, if it's just going to be a simple server leave out all the cards. Why have sound, and all that other crap you don't ever plan to use? Disable it all in the BIOS if its built into the chipset.
Fans... if it's on 24x7 you need to be careful with fans. Go out and replace whatever fans are in the machine you get with expensive ball bearing fans. It's worth it in the long run. They are quieter and last longer.
Turn on APM and let it go to it's idle mode. It'll shut down the video and the hard disks but leave the CPU responsive so that you can bring it back up pretty quickly. You probably won't notice the delay while the hard disks spin up if you're accessing it over the network.
I drink to make other people interesting!
Since you are already familiar with the Mac OS, the mini sounds like the most logical choice to me. I strongly doubt that a mini-itx will have as low of a draw as the Mini.
Ok,
;-)
.html ( written in Java )
Weighing in with my two cents worth, for what it's worth, I'd like to brain dump what I would consider worth while options for your needs. All of these are solutions I either have used in the past successfully, or am currently using for various purposes. So bear in mind that this is not just the causal musings of a thread cruiser, but actual tried and proven solutions
First some basic assumptions:
1) You want to run some form of Unix or Unix like system ( i.e. Linux ) - you've noted you currently use your Apple PowerBook laptop, so one has to assume you're running Mac OS X 10.x.x natively ( more power to you ).
2) You want complete control over the system including "root" access 24/7 - this is of course the whole point of having your own system, you can beat it up, break it, rebuild it, and all that jazz.
3) The system should be able to be run remotely, even if just headless on your LAN, or perhaps more ideally remotely from some external 3rd party in a hosted solution so you don't end up having to host it behind your link at home ( also making it easier for you to provide access to other parties should you want to either share it with friends and family or if you just want to make it world visible for whatever reason - i.e. your own mail and web server et al ).
4) You want an "always on" solution, so this should be something that, as you state, should not suck too much juice power wise, is able to be built with a "standard build" style hardened platform, which in the case of power loss would ideally recover nicely, quickly, and be back on line ( I'll touch on this later as standard builds are going to make your life so much simpler and fun ).
5) The performance of the system ideally should be such that it will cope with the key elements you've noted in your post, such as:
a) remote access such as remote sessions via SSH won't kill the system
b) able to run a web server such as:
thttpd: http://www.acme.com/software/thttpd/
Apache: http://www.apache.org/
mathopd: http://mathop.diva.nl/
Roxen: http://www.roxen.com/
Boa: http://www.boa.org/
Jigsaw: http://www.w3.org/Jigsaw/ ( written in Java )
Acme.Serve: http://www.acme.com/java/software/Acme.Serve.Serve
CERN: http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Status.html
NCSA: http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
Netscape FastTrack: http://home.netscape.com/ ( not sure if it's still available )
Netscape Enterprise: http://home.netscape.com/ ( not sure if it's still available )
Zeus: http://www.zeus.co.uk/
source: http://www.acme.com
--- Dez Blanchfield http://WebSearch.COM.AU "Will work for bandwidth.."