Recommendations for a small, power-saving homeserver?

trapperjohn

Hello,

I used to have a K6-2 450 configured as NAT-Router-DSL-Gateway-Webserver-FileServer-SSH-Imap-Whatever for 2 years now, but I recently bought a small WLAN-Router as it is silent and saves power.
So I sold the K6 ... but I really miss some of the old server's features like fetching mails automatically, having mails, mp3s etc. in one place and SSH-access from outside.

Can you recommend me any hardware or device which offers REAL server functionality but is also silent, small and power-saving? I thought about recycling my old iPaq by using a PC-card jacket with PCMCIA LAN-adapter - but its flash-space is really limited (maybe I could connect a USB-HD to its USB-cradle?).

adaptr · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 12:46 pm Post subject:

You want a VIA EPIA board.

CPUs soldered on (yes really!) and so cool they run without fans...
Available from 533 MHz through 1000 MHz and up...

Check the site: www.Mini-ITX.com

You read that right - 533MHz in a mini-box for $125
If that's not okay then get 1 GHz in another box for $169 ;-)

These boards have everything - vga + TV-out, sound, USB, 100mbit LAN, either SDRAM or DDR slots, and one or two IDE ports.

Have fun!

trapperjohn · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 12:50 pm Post subject:

I know them - but aren't they equal to standard-x86 when it comes to power consumption?

gwlinden · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 12:56 pm Post subject:

adaptr · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:01 pm Post subject:

trapperjohn · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:03 pm Post subject:

well, nice device ;-)

but a lil bit expensive, because you have to buy RAM, HD etc. bundled (min 663 Eur).

adaptr · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:20 pm Post subject:

You have to buy bundled?
Don't be silly - let me spell it out:
- One (1) Via EPIA 5000 - the cheapest box set they offer = 150 pounds, rougly 220 Euro
- One (1) HD of say 120 GB = 105 Euro
- One (1) stick of PC133 256 MB (what more do you need for a *server* ?) = 50 Euro

Total: 375 Euro MAX - for a bigger fileserver than I have at the moment.

trapperjohn · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:21 pm Post subject:

I meant gwlinden and the hush-itx pc.

zfc-tinkerer · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 126

take a look at the Shuttle computers. I have one acting as a server box (inside the router, I just have ssh forwarded to it), and I love it. It may be a little larger than others listed here, but it has two card slots in case you decide to add something in (one pci and one agp). It also has two ide channels, for 4 devices, rather than just 2. I have one with an nForce2 motherboard and a built in NVidia video card which it has been painless for me to get working. In terms of power, I would think it would be at least a bit lower because of having fewer card slots and using a heat-pipe together with the normal case fan to cool the processor. It will be quiet as long as you don't use a really hot processor ( I just switched my athlonXP processor to a Barton core in order to cut down on the heat, and cut the noise down to 1/3 of what it was). Depending on what you're looking for and how you balance the different things you listed with functionality, you might want to look into one of these systems.