[Tech] Low power server hardware

[Haven]

So Nostromo died yesterday There's no explanation other than a really unhelpful flashing green light on the motherboard - with no documentation explaining what that means.

Assuming I can't figure out what's broken and then fix it, I'm thinking of replacing it with an E-450 based system. Specifically the Asus E45M1-I Deluxe. I figured I'd see if folks could reccomend anything better/different.

Requirements: Less than £350 for motherboard/CPU/RAM. Minimum 8GB RAM. Low power consumption <65Watts. Ideally Mini-itx form factor but throw any full ATX factor ideas up if they are good enough.

The system will be running as a 64bit Linux Server doing fairly low CPU but high Disk i/o stuff - i.e. a glorified storage server with some routing/firewalling and other services and possibly a couple of virtuals running on it.

Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Haven]

Just found an intel i3-2100T that runs at 35Watts, for £102 that could be the ticket.

Added to the Asus P8H61-I Motherboard (£70) and 8GB of RAM (£40)

Could do the trick, add on 40 for a heatsink and thats £252 overall.

 

[Ronin Storm]

So Nostromo died yesterday

Nooeess! NOSTROMOOOOOO!

I think I might be more helpful if, y'know, power requirements weren't so much of an objective. Feed me powA!

 

[Haven]

Nooeess! NOSTROMOOOOOO!

I think I might be more helpful if, y'know, power requirements weren't so much of an objective. Feed me powA!

Yeah ordered a new PSU on the off chance thats all thats whats faulty. But failing that yeah low power is needed. Worked out that running Saratoga (about 270 Watts) 24x7 was costing just under £400/yr in electricity. Obviously want to keep those costs down for something that sits idle most of the day

 

[Ronin Storm]

Obviously want to keep those costs down for something that sits idle most of the day

Yeah, I can see that. It's a good objective but just not one I have any experience speccing for, especially as I need my machine to fly; mixed software development and gaming is quite harsh on the ol' girl.

 

[Iron_fist]

2100T was what we looked at for out low power stuff at work, however that was when Sandy Bridge came out so there were no ITX boards available at that point.
should be a good little chip.

other option if you're really not using the CPU much might be an E350 board
the Asus-e35m1-i-delux takes 8GB ram and has SATA III, though you'll get less memory throughput due to only being 1066 you'll shave more off the TDP (especially if you underclock the GPU)
I guess it depends what features you need most which will be more useful.

 

[Haven]

One replacement PSU later and it looks like I can stave off the upgrade for now ... phew.

 

[Wol]

Yeah ordered a new PSU on the off chance thats all thats whats faulty. But failing that yeah low power is needed. Worked out that running Saratoga (about 270 Watts) 24x7 was costing just under £400/yr in electricity. Obviously want to keep those costs down for something that sits idle most of the day

270 watts for a day = 0.27kW * 24 hours = 6.48kWh

* 365 days = 2365kWh ~= 2.4MWh ....

Thats the equivalent of something drawing one megawatt..... for an hour.... ouch.

 

[Ronin Storm]

One replacement PSU later and it looks like I can stave off the upgrade for now ... phew.

Hurrah! Nostromo LIVES!

 

[Haven]

270 watts for a day = 0.27kW * 24 hours = 6.48kWh

* 365 days = 2365kWh ~= 2.4MWh ....

Thats the equivalent of something drawing one megawatt..... for an hour.... ouch.

Yep and electricity is somewhere around 17p/kWh so that adds up to £402/year currently. Kinda scary when you think of all the crap you just leave turned on that doesn't need to be ...

Nostromo (~35Watts) + 24 port switch + VDSL modem + UPS system in comparision use ~100Watts total which is much nicer to fund.