Monte Milanuk: > > I'm somewhat inclined to go with option 'C': an HP Proliant > Microserver N36L - comes without OS (certified for RHEL5), 1GB ECC > memory + 160gb SATA drive. Move the OEM drive to the optical drive > bay, stuff the four HDD bays with 2TB drives and call it a day. A > little more expensive than the eSATA 4-bay drive enclosure, still a > good bit cheaper than the SAS/SATA 4-bay enclosure + SAS HBA card. > Replaces the old desktop PC 'server' entirely.
I have built a similar system myself. Main components:
- Supermicro X7SPA-HF (Atom D510, 6*SATA, 2*GBit LAN, IPMI!)
- Chenbro ES34069 case w/ 180W external power brick (quite big, but
active cooling needed)
I added 2*1 GB RAM, a slim DVD/RW drive, a spare 2.5" hard drive for the
OS and four 3.5" disks. 3*1TB as RAID10 (yes, that's possible with
mdadm) + 1*750GB as backup drive (obviously, that's too small, but
that's what I had back then).
I have it running 24/7, that's why I opted for a low-power CPU. For the
same price (about 200 Euros for the board + the same for the case) you
may of course get more powerful hardware in a standard-size case.
Performance is quite ok for the task, though. Apart from file/web/mail/
printer serving, I am using this for mail, news and IRC (running in a
screen session). Occasionally, I even transcode DVDs on it. With its two
cores plus hyperthreading, the CPU performs surprisingly well (H.264
High Profile in 250-350% of real-time).
Drawbacks:
- The hard disks need active cooling (two fans are included in the
case). Otherwise, they reach temperatures of 60°C. Thus, the system is
far from being silent. I also added a 70mm fan for mainboard/CPU
cooling.
- The CPU severly limits IO performance because I am using disk
encryption (LUKS).
J.
--
I wish I could do more to put the sparkle back into my marriage.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
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