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Low-power home server, for linux, with RAID

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  • 25-01-2008 5:43pm
    #1
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭


    I've been looking for a prebuilt low-power machine to use as home server for yonks, but if I try any of the obvious keywords - low power, fanless, silent, etc - I end up with either tiny dinky things with a single hard drive or no hard drive, larger yokes more suited to desktop use, or machines built with Windows Home Server in mind.

    In my case size doesn't matter (*koff*) as long as it has room for 2-4 SATA drives. Hardware RAID would be cool, but if that adds too much to the price, I can do software RAID in linux. The CPU doesn't matter a damn since you can't buy a modern CPU that isn't powerful enough, and RAM can be quite small as long as it's expandable. It doesn't need fancy graphics or sound, however it does need onboard or PCI wireless that's directly supported by Linux, so I can put it in a cupboard and forget it. Again, low power is critical, if it wasn't I'd just leave my own desktop on.

    Does such a thing exist? My budget is around €500, but I'd pay more later in the year if something was available. If something prebuilt isn't available, would any builders in here be willing to take on the job? (While I'd love to build the machine itself, I don't have the time or the interest to spend sourcing parts.)

    Thanks,
    adam


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    #2
    PogMoThoin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,874 ✭✭✭✭PogMoThoin


    Why do you think you need a new pc to do this. I turned a 3 year old pentium 4 Dell Xps in2 my home server running ubuntu server using this guide.

    Can build ya a new 1 if ya want :p but why splash out for new parts when all you need is an old pc.


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    #3
    Hal1
    Registered Users Posts: 8,720 ✭✭✭Hal1


    Head over to the bargins alerts forum, theres a link for cheap dell servers and you can customise it to your specs.


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    #4
    bushy...
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭bushy...


    Unless you want to have a server to mess around with and run other stuff on , there are loads of ready built boxes out there with raid etc. You might have to add a wireless--> ethernet converter on most though.

    http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=raid+nas&btnG=Search&meta=


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    #5
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Lads, no offense but every one of ye have completely missed the point of the thread. Cheapie Dells and the crusty old rigs hanging around my lab are not low power. The clue's in the title. :)

    adam


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    #6
    PogMoThoin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,874 ✭✭✭✭PogMoThoin


    That Dell Xps i used has a 350W psu, won't get much lower power than that :p


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    #7
    bushy...
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭bushy...


    http://www.infrant.com/download/ReadyNAS_NV+.pdf

    About 55watts with 4x 250 disks


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    #8
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Yeah you will PogMoThoin. Dell PSUs are bog standard and not particularly efficient, as far as I'm aware. I'm sure that'll change, but I doubt the cheapies have efficiency in mind.

    That's the kind of power usage I'm looking for bushy, under 100 watts anyway. Although I do actually need a server with my own OS, this won't be a simple NAS.

    Thanks,
    adam


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    #9
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    Interesting little project. You be looking towards Low Voltage processors and the like. I was thinking of a home server to replace my external USB disks.

    http://www.supermicro.com/newsroom/pressreleases/2006/press031406.cfm
    http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=3039
    http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2097765,00.asp
    http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2004/12/balancing_server_power_speed_w.html
    http://www.earth.org.uk/low-power-laptop.html

    You could get a Dell 1720 laptop, lowest CPU you can get and stick two 250GB drives into it. Hang a couple of more USB powered 250GB's off it externally. Wait for a cheap one to come up on the Dell outlet.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/2002/03/01/ide/page2.html
    http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/04/21/the_2/page10.html
    http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11037


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    #10
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Nothing available in this category then?


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    #11
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    What about an old shuttle off ebay or similar, a turion cpu and board to match - very low power, some of them lower then Core 2 mobile. Max consumption 30-35w. Can be gotten fairly cheap too, I know someone was selling one + compatible board for 50 or 60 euro lately on adverts. and shuttle power supples are very efficient.


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    #12
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    I've looked at Shuttles before for desktop usage, but not for server usage. Do they have fans? Could you put 2x SATA HDDs in one?

    adam


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    #13
    savemejebus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,543 ✭✭✭savemejebus


    What about a mac mini with some external drives raided?mini_raid.jpg


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    #14
    towel401
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,917 ✭✭✭towel401


    Pick up a Nano-itx board on ebay. getting these things pre-built is hard. I use a pico-itx but that only supports two hard drives one IDE and one SATA and it has a noisy fan


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    #15
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    dahamsta wrote:
    (While I'd love to build the machine itself, I don't have the time or the interest to spend sourcing parts.)
    .....


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    #16
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    dahamsta wrote: »
    I can do software RAID in linux.

    You /should/ do linux software raid. It has a number of advantages over hardware raid. Raid 5 is where it's at. I get 150MB/s on my software raid array at home. Love that sh*t. :D

    On your hardware problem: I would suggest that you get some old crusty box and underclock everything in it, lowering the voltage etc. until you can passively cool it. This will keep total power way way down. If it's just going to be a softraid based fileserver, you're going to need feck all compute power anyway.


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    #17
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    What advantages are there in software RAID Khannie? My business servers all have RAID cards simply because I assumed hardware RAID would be more redundant, which is kind of the point of RAID I reckon? :) If there's a reason to save myself a hundred bucks a box, I'm listening!

    On the box, while I appreciate the suggestions, I'm just not going to get into building or tweaking. I'm in the middle of opening a data centre in Cork, I'm a wee bit busy for it atm! I'm really, honestly, seriously, looking for something out of the box, or failing that a system builder.

    adam


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    #18
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    Specifically what sort of space are you thinking? Because in the low powered world, theres more 1 and 2 disk systems than 4. Also which level RAID and what sort of I/O do you want?

    Have you seen the Hush Systems?
    http://www.hushtechnologies.net/


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    #19
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Given the size of modern disks, I reckon 2x would be fine in a RAID1 array. The system would be used for storage (shared music, etc), backup, and also as my development linux box.

    I was looking at the Hush systems, particularly like the fact that they can be ordered with wireless, but they're quite pricey: you'd be paying well over a grand for an Intel CPU (wouldn't trust the VIA), a DVD drive and decent size disks. You could save a couple hundred by buying the disks yourself, but I reckon you'd still need to budget 1200+ for a nicely specced machine. I may do that yet, but I'll keep asking around for a while yet.

    adam


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    #20
    BostonB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    I'll think on it. Busy at the moment. If I was doing it myself, and short on time I'd go with a laptop. Cheap, and yu can hook an external monitor, full size wireless/bluetooth keyboard/mouse. Lots of people using laptops as low powered servers. . Powersaving built in, a UPS (battery), and on some of them with RAID internally. Though you can add bus powered USB or FW drives.

    http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11037
    http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/04/21/the_2/


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    #21
    Khannie
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 37,485 Mod ✭✭✭✭Khannie


    dahamsta wrote: »
    What advantages are there in software RAID Khannie? My business servers all have RAID cards simply because I assumed hardware RAID would be more redundant, which is kind of the point of RAID I reckon? :) If there's a reason to save myself a hundred bucks a box, I'm listening!

    Sorry about the delay, didn't see your responses. The biggest problem you're facing is that you're now tied to a specific controller card. You can't just replace it with a different brand that supports the same RAID level because they'll have different hardware implementations.

    So...picture this: It's 5 years down the road. Your RAID controller card has a fit and dies. Access to all your data now relies on you getting a matching controller card. :eek:

    If you use linux software raid, you just bang in another controller card of any brand that you run out and buy in the nearest computer store (or have lying around, or take out of another box temporarily, or whatever), configure the drives as single units and let the kernel software raid do the rest.

    To my mind, especially in business, there's no substitute for the software RAID if you're using RAID on linux.


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