Low power home linux server

clone · Post by **clone** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:45 am

I've been reading a couple of days about what hardware to pick for a small home linux server.
My idea is at this time that with the 690G AMD chipset relatively low power configurations are easily to achieve. But because I'll be running linux I will be better off with a nvidia chipset because of linux driver support.
I already have a Abit AN-M2 HD in my desktop PC with is consuming approximately 57W in idle mode. I would like to cut at least 15W of this setup for my home server which will be running 24/7.
I decided I'll try to achieve this on X2 or C2D processor and not using mini-itx format or flash memory. The new WD green will be a good pick I suppose.

Also a C2D with low consuming mobo might be an option...
Are there any reports of low power configurations C2D with the intel G35 chipset yet?

Phido · Post by **Phido** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:27 am

Ive been searching..

Can't find much on really low powered C2D. 2140 would be a nice start, with some small mATX mobo with underclocking features. AMD that new 7050 board from asrock and a be2100 would do it. volt it right down to less than .9v. Single core would be a snap. 1 Dimm.

WD GP sound awesome. 3.5" capacity and performance with 2.5" power useage (bar startup).You save 4+w at idle alone!

clone · Post by **clone** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:38 am

WD green 500GB or 750GB in a raid5 setup would be awesome too for such a server

Does anyone know if there are low energy mobo's supporting this functionality?

Trekmeister · Post by **Trekmeister** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:18 am

Since you are going to be using linux I see no reason not to use software (md) raid (unless you are spending money on a dedicated raid card), The motherboard raid is not real hardware raid, and it usually does not work very well in linux. Just make sure the motherboard has enough hard drive connectors.

P2140 sounds like a good choice, should have more than enough power. Also do not worry too much about AMD chipsets. As long as you are going to use it as a server and not play 3D games etc on it, the available linux-drivers should be just fine.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:39 am

I'll point you at this thread

Probably best solution would be, 3600+ Brisbane, undervolted to 1.0V, 1 stick of DDR2 @ 1.8V, Pico PSU, and "Green" HD from western digital, on a biostar 7050 mATX motherboard. Should be good for about 35W at idle.

The 45W CPUs from AMD aren't really exceptional for the money, they are just Brisbanes that are undervolted (from what I gather).

Unfortunately the power supply is a huge impact at low power levels because most power supplies have low efficiency at such low total load %s. That's why pico PSU would be great. Sometimes they have them on sale for only about $60 for the package.

I'd seriously look at AMD over intel for the lowest power setups, until good evidence proves otherwise.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:48 am

If I remembered correctly, Biostar 7025/7050 boards doesn't support any undervolting in bios. I suggest to get a Asrock 7050 instead. As for cpu, BE series would be a perfect fit.

clone · Post by **clone** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:31 am

Will this software raid (md) work fine, as it should be really 100% stable. Don't want to loose all my data because of software problems ofcourse, read some people having trouble with this in Ubuntu.

About the raid5 drives going into stanby mode:
Is there an option that the drives go into standby mode to decrease power consumption. Will a single read action power all drives into active mode again then, because of the data being spread over all the drives?

@loimlo
Do U have experience with the Asrock yourself?

I'd like to pick a board which is low power itself too, some AM2 boards have been tested a while ago, but I couldn't find any reviews with power consumption of the 7050 or more recent AM2 boards.
viewtopic.php?p=300802

Trekmeister · Post by **Trekmeister** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:54 am

clone wrote:Will this software raid (md) work fine, as it should be really 100% stable. Don't want to loose all my data because of software problems ofcourse, read some people having trouble with this in Ubuntu.

I myself would actually trust it above the wonky built in chipset raid to be honest. Also keep in mind the possibility of incompatibilities with moving your raid-array from one motherboard to another when using chipset raid, this will not be a problem with software raid.

I am using software RAID1 at the moment and I have not had any problems so far. No experience in chipset raid however. Nor have I really used ubuntu... Gave it a quick try once but it was not quite to my taste for various reasons.

clone wrote:About the raid5 drives going into stanby mode:
Is there an option that the drives go into standby mode to decrease power consumption. Will a single read action power all drives into active mode again then, because of the data being spread over all the drives?

You should be able to get all the drives to sleep, just keep in mind that there is some quite frequent access to /var and maybe /tmp, so keep them off the raid array if you want it to be able to sleep. Suggest keeping the entire system on another drive or drives.

I would assume it will power on all drives at a read or write. I guess there could be a possibility that it will not power up all if you read less than 128KB (or what your stripe size would happen to be). Anyhow, I would say expect all drives to power up.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:00 pm

clone wrote: @loimlo
Do U have experience with the Asrock yourself?

I'd like to pick a board which is low power itself too, some AM2 boards have been tested a while ago, but I couldn't find any reviews with power consumption of the 7050 or more recent AM2 boards.
viewtopic.php?p=300802

In fact, I prefer Abit 7050 to Asrock 7050. However, there's no software undervolting like CrystalCPUID on Linux, and I suggest you a Asrock because of undervolting in bios. Well, I dislike the place where Asrock solder 20Pin ATX power socket; it might interfere with huge tower design of cpu heatsinks. Otherwise, it's fine for a home server.

For your reference, read this http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2152