Somewhat Energy Efficient Server Build Advise Needed

F

Funbags

n00b
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Nov 29, 2004
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17
Hello All,

I just moved into a new(old) house and went to fire up my old server, it it seems to have taken its last breath.

I would like to build a new somewhat energy efficient server that can handle the following:

fileserver
dev server
security server - running zoneminder - (I have 3 outside camera's)
x10 / insteon server - controls home automation
web server
And a few various other things like monitoring temps in the house etc...

With that said, I'd like to do 1 to 2 Gigs of ram (why not its pretty cheap), either a Core 2 Duo or AMD X2 (65w) - Any Suggestions??

I have not built something in over 2 years, so I am not in the loop with the hardware and thats the reason I am asking for some assistance.

The motherboard should be able to support a bunch of PCI slots, I have a 3ware Raid card, a video in card for the camera's, and a TV card (not in use now, but might in the future).

I believe I would like to have a dedicated gfx card (low power consumption).

OS will be Debian lenny.

Thank you all in advance, and please let me know if you need me to clarify anything.

- John
 
- Budget?
- What parts do you need for that budget?
- Amount of storage you'd like?

Since this is a server, I'm going to recommend against getting a dedicated video card. Even the lowest end video card out there is still going to take more power than a mobo with onboard video. So save some money on the electricity bill and go with a mobo with onboard video.
 
Danny,

Budget - under 1K

Storage - not needed - I have a 3ware card running raid 5 w/3 400 GB drives in the machine that needs to be replaced.

Is there a good mobo w/dedi gfx that has plenty of PCI slots?

Thanks
- John
 
But what parts do you need for that $1000 budget?

Though here's a prelim build so far:
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2300 CPU - $80
Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX Motherboard - $75
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $50
Corsair 620HX 620W PSU - $147

The AMD mobo I chose above has 4 PCI slots, which is more than enough for you I believe. The X2 BE-2300 is a 45W CPU. So it's very efficient.

The Corsair PSU is 80Plus certified which means that is an energy efficient PSU since it wastes less than 20% of electrical energy as heat. Also, the PSU is modular meaning less cables lying around in your case, comes with a 5 year warranty and should provide plenty of power for future upgrades and hard drive additions.
 
Nice, thanks! Thats a good start.

I need everything except the hard drives basically. 4 PCI slots is perfect for expansion!

How much of an energy savings is the 45w version over the 65w version? I need to research this when I have some time :)

Thanks guys
- John
 
The reason why im asking is because i have an old pc at home (p4 2.6ghz) all i need is a new mboard, and some more ram and i want it to be a server. Im taking linux class (multiuser OS is what its called) now for my IT degree, but you have to be an advanced user to be comfortable with linux. I want to know is it brain surgery setting it up to be just a file server. Or should just i spend those 200 dollars on windows home server.
 
I guess i meant the advanced administration that you can do on linux. In my class we mostly work out of the terminals and using commands. I can only remember three out of 40+ labs where we navigated through the GUI, and one of the was just installing fedora. Now mind you my average in the class is a 96 right now with 2 weeks left, but i feel like im just scratching the iceberg with what you can do with linux.
So i can use ubuntu as a file server then? then i will jump in and try it. if i have any questions i will post here as usual.
 
I looked over that CPU and MB combo, it looks really nice!

Charlie - Any linux distro can be a file/web/whatever server. I use debian as my file, home automation, dev, web, security cam, whatever server. It was rock solid for 2 years, but then my mobo or memory died, so thats why I am in a search for a new energy efficient one.

- John
 
Charlie,

There is no best, its really user preference. I love debian, other love redhat, fedora, gentoo etc.. In the end they all do the same thing :)

- John
 
@ Charlie Hustle
These 3 articles helped me a lot when I set up my Ubuntu Server:
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/06/05/build_your_own_server/1
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/07/24/build_your_own_better_server/1
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/09/06/linux_cli_101/1

@ Funbags
How goes the research? These two articles may be of help to you:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/18/amd_smart_strike/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/11/energy-efficiency-intel-left-out-in-the-cold/

Also, I forgot to ask last time, but what are the specs of your server, before it died anyway? And did it handle your needs quite well?

Oh as for mobos, stick with one with onboard video. no matter how low energy the card is, it still uses more power than an onboard solution. Now that I think about it, $1000 does seem a bit overkill for a server sans hard drives....
 
Danny,

I am so confused now! I reviewed a few articles, one which really got me going and leaning towards a core 2 instead of the x2 was this one - > http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10...n/page7.html#system_idlemax_power_consumption

Specs before was a amd 3200, it handled everything fine. But I did not have zoneminder running so I am not to sure what the load will be. I am sure any X2 / Core 2 will be just fine.
I am also hoping to run vmware server on there with another OS or two running in the background.

Thanks!
- John
 
Regarding the onboard video I think thats fine, as long as I can maybe add a card in the future. I am still torn between the intel and amd. The problem I see with the onboard video it really cuts down on the motherboard options available... They all seem to be micro ATX with limited PCI slots.

ahhh! :)
 
Yes that is a problem. Actually, even with ATX mobos that don't have onboard video, the average number of PCI slots is around 3 anyway. The rest are PCI-E x1 slots that actually don't see too much use. So finding decent mobos with more than 3 PCI slots is a slight pain the ass. In fact the reason why I recommended an AMD build in the first place was because that the Gigabyte mobo I chose was one of the few mobos (Intel or AMD) with 4 PCI slots that I would personally buy.

I wasn't recommending the 65nm AMD CPUs. I was recommending the 45nm AMD CPUs, the Athlon X2 or the BE series. They're more energy efficient than C2D CPUs. However in terms of performance, the C2D CPUs wins hands down.

Now that I know that you're planning on running a VMWare server, I say go for a C2D now. True the C2Ds do use a little bit more power, but I think the Energy Efficient AMD CPUs might bog/slow down a bit with a VMWare server. However, I couldn't find an Intel mobo that had more than 3 PCI slots that I would personally buy. If you can deal with not having more than 3 PCI slots, I recommend this base setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 CPU - $169
ASUS P5K-V Intel G33 ATX Intel Motherboard - $140
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM - $50
Samsung SH-203B 20X DVD±R SATA DVD Burner - $34
Corsair 620HX 620W PSU - $147
Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF - $46 & Panaflo FBA09A12M 92mm Fan - $3
----
Total: $589 Plus tax and shipping

Since this server will most likely be on 24/7 and if noise is of concern, I recommended the Ultima 90 to keep your CPU pretty cool and quiet as well. The E6550 should be plenty of performance to handle whatever you throw at it. The G33 mobo I recommended will support Intel's new 45nm CPUs (meaning they run cooler and use less power) just in case you want to upgrade.

Though if you want to save some money without sacrificing too much performance, drop down to the E4500 instead. However, unlike the E6550 mentioned above, the E4500 does not have support for Virtualization Technology so your VMWare images may either run slowly or not run at all:
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 CPU - $122

If you're using a 64bit Linux distro, get 4GB of RAM since a 64bit OS can take advantage of 4GB of RAM. Also 4GB of RAM of RAM does give you a bit more room for those Virtual servers/OSes:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $110

If you have no plans on upgrading this server to the new 45nm Intel CPUs AND going with the E4500, then you can drop the mobo down to this:
Intel BOXDG965WHMKR Intel G965 ATX Intel Motherboard - $115

If you want a cheaper build overall and greater energy efficiency, go with the first build list that I posted earlier.

Case wise, that's up to you. Though here are a few recommendations:
Cooler Master Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $40
Cooler Master Centurion 534 ATX Case - $40
Cooler Master Centurion 532 ATX Case - $50
Antec NSK4480 ATX Case - $68
Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $70
Lian Li PC-7B Plus II Silver ATX Case - $80
Cooler Master Mystique RC-632S-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $80
XClio Windtunnel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $100
Antec Sonata III ATX Case - $106
Gigabyte Aurora GZ-FSCA1-ATB ATX Case - $116
Antec P180 ATX Case - $120
Antec P182 ATX Case - $123
Antec P180B ATX Case - $130
Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS Full Tower ATX Case - $137
Lian Li PC-A16A ATX Case - $150
Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Full Tower ATX Case - $150
Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case - $156
Lian-Li V1000A Plus II ATX Case - $180
COOLER MASTER Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case -$200
Lian Li PC-V1200 ATX Case (Silver) - $210
Lian Li PC-V1200 ATX Case (Black) - $214
Lian-Li PC-V1100A PLUS II ATX Case - $220
Lian Li PC-V1200B Plus II ATX Case - $240
 
If your 3ware RAID card or another card you are planning on adding is actually a PCI-X card then I would be inclined to recommend the server board I chose, the ASUS M2N-LR. If it's Intel that you prefer, then the board I was wavering on for an Intel build was the ASUS P5M2. The board has treated me well, and although the onboard RAID sucks, I never planned to use it since I dislike onboard RAID in general.

These boards may be out of your price range, but to me the most important thing in a server is being able to upgrade as time goes on. I may have already maxed the RAM in mine, but I didn't really expect RAM to drop so hard that I could get 8GB for $180.

I would go with any of the CPUs already posted in one of these boards in a Lian-Li case. They're all very quiet out of the box, and their build quality is A+.
 
Hey guys thanks for the info. After i install the mobo for my pc i will get linux installed. I have been outta the loop for a couple of days. My son had a stomach virus, then my wife had it, then i had it. So for about a whole week, my whole family had been home sick. And i was too tired to even browse the web.
 
I was thinking of doing 1 1TB drive, then just doing a backup every night - Instead of the raid to keep the power usage down. Because right now I have 3 drives PLUS the boot drive.

I was considering rsyncing to S3 even.

I stuck with the intel core 2 duo for the chip, hopefully the wife will order it for me for xmas.

i'll keep you posted.

Thanks!
- John
 
Hey all,

Quick Update,this is the end result of this thread and what was ordered and the use of the server...

OS: Debian GNU/Linux
Purpose: File Server, Media Server, Home Automation Server, Security/Video Server, and Web Server, among many other things...


PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX
Case: COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000
MotherBoard: ASUS P5K-V LGA 775 Intel G33 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB)
HD: Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS 1TB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

I might get another 1TB Drive to run in raid 1, however my other thought was to just smash the important stuff up to amazon's s3 on a daily basis. The system will also have a 500GB WD that will run the main OS and rsync the 1TB drive's important data which is well under 100GB (pictures, documents, web sites, dev projects)

P.S. Danny and everyone else thanks for all the help!

I'll post build pictures and other info here and on my blog once it arrives.

This system should scream, as well as be somewhat energy efficient.

Thanks
- John
 
I cant wait to get it fired up, and hopefully VMWare server will run smooth.

- John
 
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