Hi, I am looking at building a Linux home server to use as a backup location, torrent server and for audio/video streaming. I need something that is whisper quiet with extremely low power consumption. Luckily, I already have 2 hard drives to get me started on the storage. I was looking at the following - ASUS E35M1-M PRO - motherboard - micro ATX - AMD E-350 Corsair 430W V2 CX Series PSU Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1066MHz Memory Kit Non-ECC CL7 1.5V Single Rank Fractal Design Arc Mini - No power supply Would this be sufficient for my needs? I have gone for a slightly larger case to give me more flexibility for upgrades in the future. I was originally looking at smaller cases, but I don't want to be restricted to 2-3 hard drives.
Just a word of warning - I have the E35M1-I Deluxe and I had issues with it accepting dual channel memory (two sticks) - I had to go for 1x4gb stick instead of 2x2gb sticks in the end. Might be worth looking further into. I use mine as a HTPC and it's rock solid for that. It's exceptionally low power too (30w idle, 40w playing a blu-ray) so that psu would be more than enough - maybe even a pico-psu might do the trick.
My fileserver just so happens to be exactly the same as yours but in a different case. I think even the RAM is the same (well its 4GB of Kingston, i know that). I put mine in a cheap crappy case and have 4 HDD's so it makes a bit of noise but its only noticeable when your trying to hear it. You could run that system on a PicoPSU. I tried using a 120w version for mine but at the time i had 5 HDD's in it and startup power was too high and it couldnt handle it. However with 2 drives there is no reason why it would fail. They also sell them in 160w and even 200w versions now if you want to play it safe. It'll cost more upfront but its deadly efficient and totally silent.
Would this be a slightly better option considering its roughly the same price? Asus M5A78L-M LX AMD Socket AM3+ onboard VGA 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard AMD Athlon II X2 260 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Prcessor
I'd definitely recommend the asus just with 1x4gb stick of ram instead of 2x2gb. They're both single channel motherboards but mine wouldn't even POST with matched pairs of ram....
Surely if you put x2 single channel sticks in it should work considering it supports single channel? Sorry my hardware knowledge isn't fantastic Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express
How low power do you wish to go ? I mean performance vs power consumption ? http://www.logicsupply.co.uk/mainboards/intel-atom/dn2800mt/ Let me quote a user of that board : Sure, it has only 1x PCI-E x1 and 2 SATA connectors, but if your requirement is low power...
I don't know - I thought that it would work but it certainly didn't here.... I was using these linky which are on the QVL (well on the QVL there's TW3X4G1333C9 not TW3X4G1333C9A) - I can see from the Corsair website that they're listed as different models but I was under the impression that the A simply added a heat spreader... Never had any problems with the board other that that - very speedy (especially combined with a SSD), very low powered - great board EDIT: Saying that the memory I have in there now isn't on the list at all! (This one linky)
Just find this http://www.ebuyer.com/342571-amd-bu...ignature-145oem-4gb-m5a78lmlx#product-reviews Seems like unbelieveable value for £75. But would this run Linux home server ok? Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express
I have tried Linux Ubuntu Server in virtualbox to test it and my god, what a steep learning curve this is gonna be. I remembered that I have a legit copy of Windows Server 2008 R2, which my partner obtained through Microsoft as a student for me. Now, considering my listed requirements, which one would be better out of the 2?
Have you considered an HP ProLiant Microserver? And I would recommend Windows Server, it's just easier. It's heavier on the system than Linux, though, so it's up to you.
Not sure if you have decided on an O/S but check out OpenMediaVault. This is coded by the guy who wrote FreeNAS before it was sold off to a commercial entity and it is based upon Debian. I have it installed on a spare rig and am playing with it now, it looks good so far. Once I get it all sorted I will be using it as a "backup" NAS to backup my Synology NAS.
+1 for OpenMediaVault. It really is very good. I came from FreeNAS 7 on my NAS. FreeNAS 8 is horrible so swerve at all costs. I actually ended up sacking OpenMediaVault off in the end and have gone with a plain Ubuntu Server install. Mainly for the extra flexibility this gives you and I'm now at a point where I feel my linux skills are good enough to manage a full linux system and not a appliance style linux system.
For linux, you might want to grab webmin and mdadm to help with managing the system. The webgui allows you to handle the sharing and storage configuration without resorting to CLI. I would recommend going for the 2k8r2 setup though. In the worst case scenario, you can simply use it like you would Windows 7 (no AD or group policies etc).
