Building a home server

Joe

I am looking to build a home server. The main purpose would be a NAS file server, but I also plan on running multiple services on it.

I was hoping you could show me what hardware to buy for it. Here's what I am looking for:

- Must be able to install my own OS. No matter what the stock firmware is, I want to get rid of it and install my own. That usually means that the BIOS allows me to boot from USB or Disk.

- Must be completely silent. Just like my router. I don't ever want to hear it or know it's in the house.

- I have a strong preference for x86 architecture (preferably Intel Atom processors). But I could also look into ARM chips.

- Overall performance is not an issue. I'm not looking for an Intel Xenon or anything like that. I want a single core CPU and 256/512 Mb of RAM. I'm probably never going to need more.

- It should be able to run 24/7. But at the same time, don't forget that I cannot be bothered to buy a loud fan. One more time, just like my router.

- Preferably I need 2 ports: a USB port and an Ethernet port (to plug it to my home network).

- The smallest it is, the happiest I am.

- Ideally it has an internal disk of 1TB. But worse comes to worst, I'll plug in an external disk.

- I'm looking preferably for some finished product, but I am also interested in buying separate parts and assembling/building it myself.

Here's an example of what I'm looking for. The problem I have with this:

- Too expensive. I'm sure I can build one of my own for half the price or less.
- Too many unneeded components. I don't need a video card or a wifi port.

If nothing better appears, I'll probably end up buying this one.

Last remark:
I live in France, so don't worry about the availability of the parts/product. Almost everything is available here, and if not, I could probably ship it easily :)

Thanks!

Samer99

www.fit-pc.com

This company have many models, all are ultra low power x86 machines, they are all fanless, and can run any operating system you like...

The product you suggested have an Atom D525 Processor, so it is definitely not fanless.

The company have a reseller in France, and the prices are around 300$.

MrClass

Get a Mac Mini and you'll be happy. You can really install any OS you like (Mac, Windows, Linux). Very simple yet reliable. Forget Intel Atom, not enough to process multiple services. Check it out: http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
Given that you're in France, you can walk into any Apple shop and get it

Joe

Well Mac Mini is very similar to what I have in mind. However:

1 - Insanely expensive. The low-end costs 600 euros (that's around 800$). That's way more than what I have in mind.

2- It's geared (righteously so) towards graphics use. i5 + 2GB DDR3 + Intel HD Graphic Card ... I do not need all this hardware. Why should I bother to embed it in my server.

3- It has I/O ports that are completely meaningless to me. HDMI, DVI, Thunderbolt, Audio jack, ... I'm not building a PC, I'm building a server.

The Fit-PC Samer suggested (and the Giada I mentioned in my original post) have more decent prices, but just like the mac mini, they are meant to be a 'PC replacement'. The components clearly show that. I like them (the fit-pc seems most interesting since it's fanless), but I'm really surprised to see I cannot find 'home server' hardware.

As for the Atom, I'm not going to start a useless troll. Let's just say that I have been using my old netbook (eeePC) as the server for now. It ships a low end old Atom chip and it does exactly what I need, with very little heating.

This box by Netgear is closer to what I'm looking for. However, I'm a bit reluctant to buy an ARM chip, and reviews seem to complain about the poor linux support.

peekaie

Check this one out

Joe

@peekai:

Very interesting, I like the CPU and memory. But still, the extra HDMI port and the NVIDIA seem useless. I just want to avoid having to pay for these features that are utterly useless for me. I don't feel like buying a whole car, if I'm only interested in the engine.

Which makes me think, what about separate parts?

I could buy the parts and build this myself. Does anyone know a case I could use? Is it difficult to build a "fanless" tower myself?

MrClass

If you want a minimum compact design and need to run the computer 24/7, then you will have to go with factory made solutions.

yasamoka

Ok first of all, a custom built system is always the best. There is no need for factory built solutions, in order to run 24/7 (@MrClass).

@Rahmu: A silent PC is not necessarily a fanless one. Fanless designs are very inefficient in heat transfer. A totally inaudible fan, can provide enough airflow to make a huge difference over fanless cooling, with no additional noise. Trust me when I say this.

Now the choices you have are the following: (sorry wrote this very fast, will elaborate on each item as you ask for it, or discuss it. I mainly want to know what chassis you are interested in. Do you care about the system's footprint?)

Motherboard:

AMD FM1
Zotac Z68 Mini-ITX Wifi

Chassis:
HTPC chassis with room for 2 HDDs.
Stacker case with room for lots of HDDs

Fans:
Thermalright TY-140 (140mm)
Scythe S-Flex SFF21G (120mm)

These, of course, are to be fan controlled and reduced to 5V or @500RPM, 700RPM, all is good.

CPU:
Forget about Item Atom
Get an AMD Llano and undervolt it heavily
Get a dual core Sandy Bridge, or a Pentium Gxxxx and undervolt it heavily.

RAM:
Go for 2GB - 4GB RAM. Incredibly cheap nowadays.

Networking:
should be gigabit networking.

Peripherals:
USB 3.0 support.

Cooling:
Best air cooler you can find, keeps it cool and silent.
HDDs should be cooled by intake fans blowing @500RPM, pretty silent.

HDDs should be rubber isolated, or better yet, suspended. You don't really need hot swap inside the case. You could just use an external enclosure for that. That is because hot swap usually sacrifices some mounting features, for example the suspension mechanism used in the Antec LanBoy Air.

Power Efficiency:

CPU should be power efficient. Single RAM stick is good for power efficiency. Graphics is integrated and can probably be undervolted.

HDDs should be 5400RPM for low loads and 7200RPM for fast loads. PSU should be of incredible efficiency. 350W - 450W is pretty much enough.

Caution: Running Word, on Intel Atom, makes it break a sweat. Forget about Intel Atom. It's too weak for the power saving advantages it provides. As I have said, undervolting a good enough CPU will get you a
good CPU with efficient power usage.

yasamoka

@MrClass: btw, Antec, Lian-Li, and a few companies manufacture premium mini-ITX cases. They are great for custom built rigs. Tomshardware had even tested one of those with a GTX 580 running inside.

Samer99

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=446&name=Motherboard-CPU-VGA-Combo

Above there is all the (motherboards + CPU + GPU) combo available at newegg.com, many are fanless and have minimal hardware... and they are so cheap, but you have to buy a case, Hard disk, RAMs, and a power supply (you can buy the cheapest power supply out-there because the power consumption will not reach 100 watts).

yasamoka

Samer99 wrotehttp://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=446&name=Motherboard-CPU-VGA-Combo

Above there is all the (motherboards + CPU + GPU) combo available at newegg.com, many are fanless and have minimal hardware... and they are so cheap, but you have to buy a case, Hard disk, RAMs, and a power supply (you can buy the cheapest power supply out-there because the power consumption will not reach 100 watts).

No, definitely not the cheapest. Even if it is drawing 100W, some Chinese adapters which provide 1A over 12V (external bricks) can fail with low load. So it's the same issue with the Power supply, which powers much more critical components. Don't forget that such a build includes hard drives, these are sensitive devices, they need clean power the most, and power safety most importantly. Low power (not)= cheapest.

yasamoka

@rahmu: Yes, I hear what you say about the Intel Atom, but a higher end architecture gives you the option to run full tilt with higher power consumption, and lower load with much lower power consumption (power is the square of voltage). These chips allow enthusiast-class cooling (think Thermalright Venomous-X, Thermaltake Frio, etc...) completely air cooled, yet silent. Yes you can build a fanless tower, but it's not efficient. After the fans are silent, the thing you should mostly care about are HDDs. These things can put out noise, so getting 5400RPM drives will give you quietness (maybe silence, you should check). If one of these drives are a bit slow, then you can run 2 or more of them in RAID, provided that you perform backups. These backups should also probably be done in the system. Which drives you to double your HDD quantity. So take that into consideration. Of course, you could shut off the backup HDDs, and turn them on only when need be, so that they don't wear down the same rate as do the main ones, and you can set them up to mirror, and double your read speed, which is what you probably care about the most.

Samer99

Samer99 wrotehttp://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=446&name=Motherboard-CPU-VGA-Combo

Above there is all the (motherboards + CPU + GPU) combo available at newegg.com, many are fanless and have minimal hardware... and they are so cheap, but you have to buy a case, Hard disk, RAMs, and a power supply (you can buy the cheapest power supply out-there because the power consumption will not reach 100 watts).

Ok, I'm quoting my self :)

As @yasamoka said don't buy the crappiest power supply out there... (I thought that a Chinese power supply rated as 300 watts would be good at 100 watt, after some googling, it turns out that things work differently...).

One more thing, the fanless motherboards listed at newegg.com, still need at least one case fan...

Joe

@Samer99: Absolutely not interested in a GPU. Right now, my main concern is to find a case. Motherboards are so easy to find.

@yasamoka:

1- About Atom. I know what I'm doing. The apps I want to run are on average 100 times lighter than Microsoft Word. I said it before, I am currently using my netbook's Atom. It was a low-end Atom 3 years ago and largely enough for me. A modern mid-range Atom will be perfect for what I have in mind, while still allowing me to save money on both the chip and the cooling system. The only thing that might change my mind is an interesting ARM chip, but no way on earth I'm getting an i3/5/7 or anyting like that with all their multi cores and hyperthreading and fancy bullshit.

2- I clearly think that 50-80$ cooling systems is outside of my price range. I am definitely willing to get a cooling system (doesn't have to be 100% silent, but at least very quiet), but spending this much money in order to cool a CPU I don't even need ... It seems inefficient.

Since I have low processing requirements, I want to look into cheap and efficient cooling solutions.

3- I like the case/chassis you suggested. Do you know anything similar but smaller? I don't necessarily need 2 HDD slots. I have other machines that take care of backups.

4- What about Power Supply? Should I know anything about it?

Joe

Okay, I'm rehashing the topic since the project is back on track.

Here's the HP server I'm currently considering. It's exactly what I'm looking for.

However, I cannot find any directly competing product, so I turn to you guys. Do you know anything like the HP ProLiant Microserver?