[I'm deleting the whole thread, since this is a rehash of several
discussions on this list previously - check out the archives, and search
for "ECC RAM"]
These days, for a "home" server, you really have only one choice to make:
"How much power do I care that this thing uses?"
If you are sensitive to the power (and possibly cooling) budget that
your home server might use, then there are a myriad of compromises
you're going to have to make - and lack of ECC support is almost
certainly going to be the first one. Very, very, very few low-power
(i.e. under 25W) CPUs support ECC. A couple of the very-low-voltage EE
Opterons, and some of the laptop-series Core2 chips are about the best
hope you have get a CPU which is both low-power and supports ECC.
If you don't really care about ultra-low-power, then there's absolutely
no excuse not to buy a USED server-class machine which is 1- or 2-
generations back. They're dirt cheap, readily available, and support
all those nice features you'll have problems replicating in trying to do
a build-it-yourself current-gen box.
For instance, an IBM x3500 tower machine, with dual-core Xeon
5100-series CPUs, on-board ILOM/BMC, redundant power supply, ECC RAM
support, and 8 hot-swap SAS/SATA 3.5" bays (and the nice SAS/SATA
controller supported by Solaris) is about $500, minus the drives. The
Sun Ultra 40 is similar. The ultra-cheapo Dell 400SC works fine, too.
And, frankly, buying a used brand-name server machine will almost
certainly give you a big advantage over building-it-yourself in one
crucial (and generally overlooked) area: the power supply. These
machines have significantly better power supplies (and, most have
redundant ones) than what you can buy for a PC. Indeed, figure you need
to spend at least $100 on the PS alone if you build it yourself.
--
Erik Trimble
Java System Support
Mailstop: usca22-123
Phone: x17195
Santa Clara, CA
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