It has to be energy efficient, and more or less future proof as I don't intend to buy new hardware each year.
Now, it took me quite some time to pick out the hardware, but eventually it is this setup that is now running perfectly silent in the garage.
Case: Antec Sonata (old case I had lying around)
Motherboard: Asus P5QL-EM iG43. The onboard video saves some power compared to using an add-in card. It has 6 sata2 connectors, so there's plenty of room to add discs.
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual E5200. Gives me more than enough number crunching power to use at home.
Memory: Kingston 2x1GB DDR2 SDRAM PC6400. I know, way too much memory for this small server, but it was dirt cheap.
Power supply: Seasonic S12II-380 380W. Quiet PSU with good reviews allround.
System drive: WD Caviar RE WD3200YS (spare drive used as system disc).
Storage: WD Caviar Green 1 TB ( WD10EACS ).
At first I wanted a raid configuration, because I hate loosing data because of disc failure.(Noooo really?) But after giving it some thoughts, I decided I didn't need RAID. It only adds to the power usage and overall cost of the system.
* You have 2, 3 or more discs spinning, that eat away power instead of just 1
* The initial costs would be a lot higher since I had to buy more discs.
* When done right, RAID performance could be faster than a single disc, but for my family needs, a single drive easily keeps up. I get between 30-60 MByte/s over the Gbit network, depending on the file size.
* The initial costs would be a lot higher since I had to buy more discs.
* When done right, RAID performance could be faster than a single disc, but for my family needs, a single drive easily keeps up. I get between 30-60 MByte/s over the Gbit network, depending on the file size.
Instead of relying on raid to tackle the disc failure problem, I now do a weekly rsync of my files from the server to my desktop. This is good as long as my desktop drive has space available. If the desktop runs out of space, I'll probably add an extra drive in the server that only spins up 1x a day to execute the rsync, and weekly hook up an external drive to create a backup.
The system currently draws more or less 45-50W from the socket while idle or just serving files. It needs 65W when booting or under heavy load.
So, is there anything I don't like about this setup?
Sadly yes, first, the power supply is maybe not the best pick. The system only needs 65W at full load, it would have been more energy efficient to buy a 100W power supply for example.
The system currently draws more or less 45-50W from the socket while idle or just serving files. It needs 65W when booting or under heavy load.
So, is there anything I don't like about this setup?
Sadly yes, first, the power supply is maybe not the best pick. The system only needs 65W at full load, it would have been more energy efficient to buy a 100W power supply for example.
Second the current system drive (an old 3.5 incher), is probably the first item to be replaced by a low power 2.5 inch laptop drive.
The system is currently running Ubuntu Server 8.04.
I'll document the setup of the services and applications it is running in future articles.
The system is currently running Ubuntu Server 8.04.
I'll document the setup of the services and applications it is running in future articles.
