Energy and noise conscious server recommendations

lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
edited June 2005 in Hardware
I'm looking to piece together a very basic server to tinker with at home, but I really want to make sure that this 24/7 system will not keep me up and night with noise, and makes a minimal dent in the power bill. Since this system does not need to be fast, I don't think it'll be too hard to fit into the below criteria.. :D

- Inexpensive
- Very low power consumption
- Very low heat and noise

It will be running some flavor of linux or bsd, and it really does not need to be quick. Something comparable to a P3 1GHz would be plenty of power. I already have a spare DFI NF3 250GB board, so I was thinking one of those low power 90nm entry level 754 sempron procs would fit the bill. I'm open to just about any configuration, so I don't HAVE to use my 754 board.

Parts I have:
DFI NF3 250GB
Almost completely silent 330W enermax & a slightly louder Antec 430

Things I need:

Quiet hard drive, does not need to be fast, reliability is key. I was thinking of an 80GB Seagate 7200.7. They are on sale for only $69CDN at ncix.

Low power CPU equivilant to P3 1GHz or faster. Open to AMD or Intel.

256 or 512MB of memory (reputable name preferred, timings matter little).

Inexpensive graphics card (AGP preferred) with good 2D picture quality.

Anyone have any other ideas for components?

Thanks

Comments

  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited June 2005
    If you've got money to spend .. how about via :). I just bought a MII12000 as a devel platform. The mini-itx board + proc will run you about $260 cdn on ebay (not cheap!) but the system was only drawing (from the wall) 55W with a HD installed. It actually folded @ a comparable rate (per clock) to my XP's. The board is only 17cmx17cm and its really cute :P. Here's some pics:

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33308&highlight=smallest+folder

    For the HD the 7200.8's are a lot faster and single platter and they go on sale for the same price @ ncix on odd weeks. I've found the seagates are pretty much the quietest when reading / writing but not neccessarily the quietest idlers.. that's totally subjective though.

    If you want the king of 2-d graphics you can pick up Matrox G550's for really cheap used (like $30), but I believe they're analog only.

    The low power sempron idea sounds like the most reasonable idea, you'll always find use for the power. I've been considering putting together a bunch of those systems as I'm pretty sure they'll provide the best folding output / $ once overclocked.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Pentium M's are really energy efficient. You can put a really quiet HSF on them, and they'll do what you need to do - quietly and at low temps.

    You mention that you need a decent 2d graphics card - what are you looking to do with the server?
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Seeing as you have a nForce3 Athlon 64 board, why not hunt out a mobile Athlon 64 and a low noise heatsink :)

    I run a server off an Athlon 64 3200+. Works like a stormer! :D
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2005
    Shorty wrote:
    Seeing as you have a nForce3 Athlon 64 board, why not hunt out a mobile Athlon 64 and a low noise heatsink :)

    I run a server off an Athlon 64 3200+. Works like a stormer! :D


    I agree, a mobile A64 works fine on that DFI board and you can cool them very effectively with an XP90 and quiet 92mm fan. For a cheap graphics card that has decent video output, I've been using Sapphire Radeon 7000 AGP cards in my folding rigs. Only cost around $30-35 from Newegg; I imagine they should be fairly inexpensive up there in Canada too.

    Shwaip's idea is very good too, but a bit more expensive route to take. The performance of the Dothan P-M procs is really good and are very overclockable while still keeping noise levels down. They have a guy over at the overclockers forums that is running a 1.7 on a P4P800 SE board with the Asus CT-479 adapter at 2805 MHz in a folding machine and even at that speed the proc only calculates out to using around 50 watts full load.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    I'm sure you already know it, but the easiest way to lower power consumption is to turn the monitor off. They use as much as the computer itself at 100% CPU utilization.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited June 2005
    Thanks for the recommendations. That VIA system looks really cool, but it doesn't fall into the inexpensive category :). I considered the P4M and the A64M as well, but both are a bit too pricy, and hard to get up here in Canada. I may keep an eye out for a cheap 2800+ Mobile on ebay or something.

    I saw some Sempron 2600+ procs (1.8ghz w/128k L2). They are 90nm, and my guess is that they would have some really low power consumption. Cost is about $100CDN, which is not too bad I suppose. That is more horsepower than I'll need for this system.

    For 2D cards, I saw some Matrox G400's for like $20 on ebay which I may spring for. I couldn't find any of those 7200.8 drives with less than 200GB, which is way too much for me. I think the 7200.7 should do nicely.

    I think I'm going to start putting this machine together! I'll keep you guys posted :thumbsup:
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