Re: [PLUG] Looking for a couple of cheap boxes

[Magnus <chrish@trilug.org>]

On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 11:17 AM, Stephen Gran wrote:

> I am (not right now, but within the next couple of months) looking to
> replace two x86 boxes that handle web and mail serving with something
> else.  I am writing because the 'something else' has not particularly
> been decided yet.  My requirements are:
> basically noiseless (no case fans if possible)
> small footprint (smaller the better)
> low heat emission
> low power consumption
> (hopefully) low price

Sounds like something based on a Via EPIA motherboard.  You can further 
reduce power consumption by using a laptop hard disk.

I noticed performance wasn't one of your top requirements.  Keep in 
mind these are no Xeons.  But they gently sip from the power supply and 
make no noise if you get one of the fanless models.  They use the 
Mini-ITX form factor which keeps the footprint quite small.

> Disk
> speed may be more important than processor speed, although even that
> isn't that important - on a busy day, the mail server might handle 2000
> messages or so (OK, call it 4000, because of the doubling caused by
> spamassassin).

Which is next to nothing.  Laptop hard disk will cost more and run 
slower but use less juice.  Note that for awhile I was using a modern 
laptop HD for video editing so if it is fast enough for that, it is 
fast enough for a light duty server.

> I have seen some things that piqued my interest, but
> haven't actually worked with any of them in a production environment, 
> so
> I was looking for recommendations.  I would like it if these boxes 
> could
> run linux - it would make the transition fairly seamless for me - but 
> if
> I have to switch to one of the *BSD's, that wouldn't be a big deal
> either.

These boxes are well supported by various free OS's including Linux and 
*BSD.

--

C. Magnus Hedemark
http://trilug.org/~chrish
PGP Key fingerprint = 984D 9A88 3D60 016F BE01 1506 60FB 85E1 9ABD 96F6

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