Cheap, low-power home servers

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-02-17 05:51pm

I've been thinking of getting myself a computer to use as a file/ssh/BitTorrent server. Something small that doesn't consume very much power (as this computer will be left on 24/7) that's powerful enough to run a BitTorrent client, NFS/Samba server, and maybe allow me to log in remotely using VNC or remote-X to do basic web browsing and the like.

The Kuro Box would fulfil pretty much all these requirements, however the online store shown on the website charges way too much to ship to Canada and I can't find anywhere else to buy one from. Does anyone have any other suggestions for this sort of thing?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-02-17 07:49pm

I've heard decent things about this box. Should work, unless you want something even smaller. How much are you looking to spend, anyway?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-02-17 08:26pm

You could probably just get a used computer somewhere for super-cheap and use that. Alternatively, you could probably part out a used computer via Craigslist or something. If you need OMG SILENT you could snag a really huge CPU heatsink with a quiet fan.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-02-17 08:49pm

Size and noise aren't the issues (although smaller and quieter are, of course, better,) power consumption is. As for price, the Kurobox I mentioned earlier comes to about $200, so something in that range. I'm going to be running Linux on it and I'd prefer as few headaches due to badly-supported hardware as possible, so that should be taken into account.

Also, I'm going to be running it headless so I don't need any kind of video hardware, but if it does have a video card of some sort TV out would be a real plus as it would allow me to use it as a media station.

That Asus box Beowulf linked to seems like it might be suitable, too. I'd have to supply my own RAM but I've got a 512MB stick from my old computer that I'm not using now so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll have to look into it a bit further, though.

EDIT: Looks like newegg doesn't ship to Canada, so that makes things a bit more difficult.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-02-17 09:44pm

Size and noise aren't the issues (although smaller and quieter are, of course, better,) power consumption is.

Is electricity particularly expensive where you live?

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-02-17 09:48pm

No, I'm just really anal about it.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-02-17 09:52pm

I just used an old 300mhz server. Cost nothing (well, maybe $25 for a RAID card to use proper drives). Runs all the linux services I need.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2007-02-17 10:16pm

Stark wrote:I just used an old 300mhz server. Cost nothing (well, maybe $25 for a RAID card to use proper drives). Runs all the linux services I need.

agreeing with this, just use an old comp that you have you don't need much and you can add more space for less then a new server

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-02-18 12:23am

Stark wrote:I just used an old 300mhz server. Cost nothing (well, maybe $25 for a RAID card to use proper drives). Runs all the linux services I need.

you don't need a RAID card (not that any card you got for $25 would do decent RAID anyway) just a drive controller card

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-02-18 12:26am

Yeah that's pretty much what I use it for - I do logical volume groups in software rather than anything the card might attempt to do for me, but the old Intel motherboard can't even handle 12gb drives.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-02-18 01:47am

Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of old computers to convert into a server. The closest thing I have is my old box that needs a new PSU and motherboard, which would also mean getting a new CPU, which would mean that when all is said and done I'd be spending as much as I would be to get a Kurobox, and substantially more than I would be if I could find a way to get that Asus computer shipped to Canada, and end up with a machine much less suited to the task I need it for.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-02-18 02:04am

Yeah, I'm a hoarder with piles of useless crap everywhere. Those other systems look pretty good and cheap - it's a shame they're so ugly.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2007-02-18 06:13am

My home server is a athlon64 +3500 with 1gb of ram, & 7 hard disks totalling 1.81 TB running win2k3 enterprise (go go MsdnAA!) What it does keeps on expanding; web (ASP.NET, php & static files), file & ftp server, SQL 2k5 Express with ~500mb over 3 databases, a few irc clients, video watching computer and several applications which love hashing stuff.

It only uses about 70-80 watts, since it spends most of it's time with the video card idling (cheapest PCIe gfx card I could get) and the monitor on standby.

You can never have enough computing power & storage