24/7/365 very low traffic web server components

rouble · Post by **rouble** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:04 pm

Hi All,

I am in the process of buying components for a web server. The server will host my blog, pictures and a (secure) wiki. Very very very low traffic. The box will be idle 98+% of the time.

The box needs to be on 24/7/365 - so I am looking for the most cost effective solution. Also, the server is going to reside in the guest room, so I need something that won't keep any guests awake.

I definitely want something with Cool'n'Quiet, so that the CPU throttles to the least possible usage state when idle. This is critical since the box will be idle almost all the time.

I am currently looking at this combination of CPU, Motherboard and Power Supply:
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (65W)
ASUS M2NPV-VM
SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W Power Supply

But I am now thinking it might be overkill. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I am still undecided on the hard drive.

tia,
rouble

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:47 pm

Yeah, that's overkill. Get a cheap VIA K8T800 chipset Socket 754 motherboard with Cool 'n Quiet support. You can easily run a decent CPU heatsink fanlessly.

For the most cost effective power supply, get this one: Fortron Green FSP300-60GLN

It might not be as quiet as a fanless power supply, but it's very efficient and very inexpensive, and the 120mm fan will keep your computer very cool.

The main source of noise could be the hard drive--if you use a 3.5" drive. Since the required capacity might not be so big, a 2.5" drive entombed within a cheap homebrew enclosure may be appropriate. This can be absolutely silent! Here's a how-to I wrote up: PSP enclosure how-to

scdr · Post by **scdr** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:53 pm

Why not use a second hand laptop?

No PSU fan, main fan only comes on with heavy use.

They are usually designed to power down components that aren't in use.
Helps keep it quiet, and may save on energy costs as well.

May not be quietest when in operation (less muffling around hard disk),
but if idle most of the time, HD should spin down, etc. Making it fairly quiet.

(More compact than a desktop, so you could put it in a muffling box
if you needed to.)

Just a thought

(Second hand just to make it less expensive and since don't need
a lot of power.)

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Tue May 01, 2007 4:57 pm

IsaacKuo wrote:Yeah, that's overkill. Get a cheap VIA K8T800 chipset Socket 754 motherboard with Cool 'n Quiet support. You can easily run a decent CPU heatsink fanlessly.

For the most cost effective power supply, get this one: Fortron Green FSP300-60GLN

It might not be as quiet as a fanless power supply, but it's very efficient and very inexpensive, and the 120mm fan will keep your computer very cool.

The main source of noise could be the hard drive--if you use a 3.5" drive. Since the required capacity might not be so big, a 2.5" drive entombed within a cheap homebrew enclosure may be appropriate. This can be absolutely silent! Here's a how-to I wrote up: PSP enclosure how-to

The 754 route is especially economical if you have some DDR ram around or an AGP vid card,sadly-many of the better mobos are now discontinued.
Not sure if a Semp 3000 with cool + Quiet or a Sempy 2800 undervolted gets the best overall result,but I think the Cool + Quiet is likely the better bet

If you are thinking this might have a dual role later- the 3600 Brisbane is now less watts/heat/cost than any 90nm X2

Still....if you are as low-load as decribed-the Semprons can operate cheaper,cool cheaper. A Ninja and whatever case fan runs at 500-800 rpm will do it.

sareiodata · Post by **sareiodata** » Tue May 01, 2007 11:43 pm

scdr wrote:Why not use a second hand laptop?

No PSU fan, main fan only comes on with heavy use.

I don't think this is a solution...Laptops are not designed to work 24/7. Even after a few hours of idle operation the bottom of any laptop will get hot...that might not be a problem at first but the hdd will slowly reach a high temperature because it doesn't have any sort of cooling...especially in older laptops. I have at home an old Compaq PIII M (perfect for browsing and Office) and I tried to use it as a torrent box without success..the temperature of the HDD (a new 80G WD because the old 20G IBM died from heat probably ) reached around 60 C, and I called it a day...

rouble · Post by **rouble** » Wed May 02, 2007 7:47 pm

IsaacKuo wrote:Yeah, that's overkill. Get a cheap VIA K8T800 chipset Socket 754 motherboard with Cool 'n Quiet support. You can easily run a decent CPU heatsink fanlessly.

The processors I am interested in are Socket AM2. So that motherboard won't work for me.

I am currently interested in AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz after the comments from ronrem.

My next question for the experts on this forum would be, what is lowest power motherboard for socket AM2 processors?

IsaacKuo wrote: For the most cost effective power supply, get this one: Fortron Green FSP300-60GLN

Thanks, I'll look into this power supply.

rouble · Post by **rouble** » Wed May 02, 2007 7:49 pm

scdr wrote:Why not use a second hand laptop?

I have considered this. I have an old laptop that needs new memory. I am going to test its power requirements and speed this weekend.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:16 pm

rouble wrote:The processors I am interested in are Socket AM2. So that motherboard won't work for me.

You asked if it was overkill, and you asked what was most cost effective. If what you actually want is an AM2 Socket, then by all means go for it.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Sun May 06, 2007 4:38 pm

rouble wrote:I am currently interested in AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz after the comments from ronrem.

That's a great budget CPU. I recently configured a new Dell with the X2 3600 & 2GB and was VERY impressed with how well it ran Vista.

Of course, it IS far more CPU than your server tasks will need. I'd look for a mobo that can under-clock/volt it until you need more performance.

cloneman · Post by **cloneman** » Sun May 06, 2007 5:13 pm

I would be very tempted to go with a Turion or Yonah Machine - may not be the best bang for the buck, but it may be worth it in terms of power savings. Basically, instead of a used laptop, just see if you can get one of those motherboard that uses Laptop CPU & ram but has a desktop form factor.

I think you would have some luck on ebay. Laptop ram is so cheap since everyone upgrades it.

rouble · Post by **rouble** » Sun May 06, 2007 5:57 pm

All,

Thanks for all the replies. After reading the comments I think everyone agrees that the system I suggested was overkill.

From the suggestions it seems that the lowest/cheapest processor that should be all I need for this server, and that supports cool n quiet, is the AMD Sempron 64 3000+ Palermo 1.8GHz. It is available for 30 bucks on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819104241

I am still not sure about which socket 754 motherboard (with cnq support) is most power efficient? Any suggestions?

tia,
rouble

lplatypus · Post by **lplatypus** » Sun May 06, 2007 6:06 pm

Have you considered getting a fanless VIA mini-itx board? They're quite slow, but use very little power. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article609-page1.html

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun May 06, 2007 6:29 pm

You'd think there might be some sort of Cool + Quiet Sempron 2200 65 nm made for this type situation. Heck...an XP1700 has more than ample power to do this role.....

The current efficiency and price of a 3600 Brisbane is so "sweet spot" that it somewhat pushes a 3000 Sempron or Venice out of the role. Now,if this is-say a situation where you have a few other puters and the above tasks are all this EVER does for its life.....then I'd think you might do a tad better with a Sempron....but as noted...if you undervolt,or use Crystal CPU,you can throttle back the Brisbane so it IS acting like a 1 ghz 65nm chip....and that should be real cool and energy efficient. With the diff in price from a Sempron to this Brisbane not quite equal the cost of a Nexus fan...why not.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun May 06, 2007 6:38 pm

oops...I see the 3000 Palermo price dropped again,which does indeed make it a nice choice.

In 754 the Via chip mobos tended to have a bit less features but be a little cooler/low watt. A lot of 754 boards got discontinued in just the last few months---so of what's left,I'd look over the reviews at New Egg and see if one had a lot of responses with very few negatives. Awhile back Asus,ECS and MSI each had nice 754's but I'm not sure which are still around.

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:01 pm

What OS are you planning on using?

By the way, I don't think AM2 is overkill; you get a lot of stuff with a 690 chipset that you won't get with a three year old motherboard. Better NIC, better RAID, major performance gains. . .all said and done you spend, what $20 more? Plus if you retire it, you can definitely re-purpose the hardware.

Also, I'm pretty sure you'll do better on the wattage. Not positive, though.

fractal · Post by **fractal** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:10 pm

Your solution IS overkill, but about as good as you are going to get with modern components unless you utilize mobile processors. The one improvement would be to use the 45 watt x2-3800 instead of the 69 watt processor.

If you don't mind old/used, consider a dell sff p3. My primary email/web/dns server is running off a p3-600 coppermine that draws less than 50 watts from the wall. That is about what I see off a 69 watt x2-3800 when idle.