[SOLVED] Suggestions for a cheap cost-efficient home web server

drcouzelis · 2010-11-30 19:20:17

Recently I setup a web server on my desktop computer. It hosts our family journal and photos. It's worked out really well, but it means I now leave my computer on all the time. My wife is concerned about the cost of electricity, and asked me if there was a computer I could buy that was cheaper to run. Yes, my wife asked me to buy a new piece of computer hardware. I'm excited.

Question: What do you suggest as a stand-alone cheap cost-efficient home web server computer?

My requirements are:

* Much cheaper to leave running than my desktop computer
* A super-efficient ARM processor, unless you suggest otherwise
* Able to run the operating system and software stack of MY choice (a LAMP setup), unless you suggest otherwise

Options: Would the SheevaPlug fit my needs? Would the super-cheap Seagate FreeAgent DockStar fit my needs? Does anyone have experience running a web server on either of those?

Also: What operating system would you recommend? Of course I use Arch Linux on my desktop computer, but when I think of "secure web servers" the first thing that always comes to my mind is OpenBSD. OpenBSD also appears to have a native ARM port.

Thank you!

Answer: Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions and insights. Here is what I've decided:

If I was going to buy an ARM based super-efficient computer, I would be interested in buying a BeagleBoard-xM.

If I was going to buy a small, easy to use and setup web server, I would be interested in buying a nettop. The most interesting ones to me are the Linutop and the fit-PC. Both are x86 and run under 10 W.

What I'm actually going to do is stick with my current setup. I'll continue to leave my computer on most of the time, but turn my monitor off much more frequently. Lastly, I'm going to by a Kill A Watt and learn more about where I'm losing the most money in my home.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2010-12-01 16:14:23)

okplayer02 · 2010-11-30 19:49:01

Dont know how cheap you wanna go but take a look at this product. looks very interesting for sure im curious to get my hands on one.

http://www.excito.com/bubba/products/overview.html

drcouzelis · 2010-11-30 20:16:19

okplayer02 wrote:

Dont know how cheap you wanna go but take a look at this product. looks very interesting for sure im curious to get my hands on one.
http://www.excito.com/bubba/products/overview.html

It looks like it's about $390, comes with 500 GB of drive space, an ARM processor, a nice installation of Debian, and ships to the US. It doesn't look bad at all. Even so, that website is confusing. It says I can both "buy now" and "pre-order"... Anyway, thanks, I didn't know about that company.

...which I guess kind of brings me to one of my problems. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of information about any of these companies that make tiny efficient web servers. That means not a lot of reviews, documentation, and personal experience stories.

I'd be interested in buying a tiny efficient web server, but... why aren't they more popular? Are people using something else? Is my situation that unique?

Texas · 2010-11-30 20:20:28

Maybe look at 'nettops'? They are like netbook without keyboard or screen. They are low power, small, and quiet (typically).

For OS, I would try CentOS. It is free enterprise grade Linux.

taavi · 2010-11-30 20:20:42

Maybe Beagleboard? http://beagleboard.org/

I built myself casual low-power mini-itx atom based computer out of Intel D510MO (running with 2 hdds about 40-50W).

Texas · 2010-11-30 20:26:18

Beagleboards are awesome. They recently came out with a new more powerful version. But, I think they had some manufacturing issues. They have fixed them, they may be available now. I'd personally prefer this over one of the plugs. It may cost a bit more, but you are getting a more full featured computer.

lagagnon · 2010-11-30 20:33:09

My wife has a nettop (AsRock S330, Atom 330 based) - it has a relatively quiet fan and consumes about 21 watts, but if I wanted a home server I would try for fanless and less power usage.

Something like this looks reasonable: http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrdx/index.html

Last edited by lagagnon (2010-11-30 20:40:41)

drcouzelis · 2010-11-30 20:45:35

Texas wrote:

Beagleboards are awesome. They recently came out with a new more powerful version. But, I think they had some manufacturing issues. They have fixed them, they may be available now. I'd personally prefer this over one of the plugs. It may cost a bit more, but you are getting a more full featured computer.

The BeagleBoard does look very nice. It's ready for purchase and looks like it has a nice community. I might consider buying it.

...but I do have a big question about the BeagleBoard: How do people usually wrap it? Do you put it in a case, or just leave it sitting naked on your desk?

taavi · 2010-11-30 20:55:11

You can use your imagination and build your own case out of handy materials. Maybe some colorless plastic and mellow leds... Small weekend project.

I used old medical box with nice red cross on it to sit motherboard inside.

Last edited by taavi (2010-11-30 20:56:01)

panosk · 2010-11-30 20:56:22

Power consumption is not really that much to make you worry. I've been running a 24/7 home server for 3 years and the additional cost has never shown up.
My system is a micro ATX Gigabyte motherboard, Athlon X2, 8 GB RAM, 4 disks, 1 CD-ROM. I've been running Ubuntu 8.04 Server 64bit (headless) and been very happy with it. I've also worked with CentOS and I really liked it, and I will rebuilt my server in a few weeks with CentOS 6 (I made the big mistake of not configuring LVM and now my disk partitions are a mess...so you should DEFINITELY want to build your system with LVM).

IMHO, don't build a very minimal system in fear of high power consumption, because you will probably want to do things you wouldn't imagine you'll want to do.

Last edited by panosk (2010-11-30 22:04:48)

drcouzelis · 2010-11-30 21:02:32

panosk wrote:

Power consumption is not really that much to make you worry. I've been running a 24/7 home server for 3 years and the additional cost has never showed up.

That's very interesting. I do wonder if the most power usage comes from me leaving my LCD monitor on. (even though it goes to sleep)

Texas · 2010-11-30 21:08:18

panosk wrote:

Power consumption is not really that much to make you worry. I've been running a 24/7 home server for 3 years and the additional cost has never showed up.

That is true. I did some calcs at $0.13/kWh. For always on, 21 watts is $24 a year and 100 watts is $114 a year. My microATX rig draws about 35-40 watts when active so that is less than $50/year. You would pay more than that for VPS slice.

Yes, turn the monitor off.

I still like the nettop idea.

Last edited by Texas (2010-11-30 21:09:36)

drcouzelis · 2010-11-30 21:30:23

Texas wrote:

I did some calcs at $0.13/kWh. For always on, 21 watts is $24 a year and 100 watts is $114 a year. My microATX rig draws about 35-40 watts when active so that is less than $50/year.

Ooh, this is getting tricky... I have an AMD Athlon 3.1 GHz, 4 GB RAM, and a Radeon X850. I think it uses much more than 100 watts, which means more than $100 per year... But if I buy a low power computer, I'll have that on all the time PLUS my normal desktop when I'm home. O_o I wonder if it's worth it.

Texas · 2010-11-30 21:42:53

You could have the thing sleep or hibernate when idle. Most NIC's have a "wake on LAN" feature which should wake it up when called upon. I haven't done this myself, but look into it. It may be a little slow to respond while waking up... everything has a tradeoff.

AlexS · 2010-11-30 22:27:16

How about scavenging an old laptop? Energy usage should be low, and if you get it for free from some friend, the price will be hard to beat. It all depends on what you want to do with it, in terms of resources, but it might even be enough for your needs...

panosk · 2010-12-01 12:44:42

drcouzelis wrote:

panosk wrote:
Power consumption is not really that much to make you worry. I've been running a 24/7 home server for 3 years and the additional cost has never shown up.
That's very interesting. I do wonder if the most power usage comes from me leaving my LCD monitor on. (even though it goes to sleep)

I haven't researched the subject thoroughly, but I could make some assumptions. I suppose the graphics card is the most power-hungry piece of hardware and, in conjunction with a DE, it can bump up power consumption. In my case, my server doesn't have a DE and it has an integrated graphics card. I suppose this eliminates graphics usage and therefore reduces power consumption a lot. Apart from that, the server is usually very active running a lot of apps and services (samba sharing, ftp, virtual machines through RDP, media streaming with transcoding, and some other very intensive tasks that consume a lot of memory -- very often, all at the same time).

drcouzelis · 2010-12-01 16:15:24

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I've marked this thread as solved and edited my original post.

Even so, please feel free to continue to add suggestions.

Thank you!

R00KIE · 2010-12-01 16:21:17

The Sheeva et. al. look good on paper but they have very little flash memory so you probably need a custom linux distro that fits inside to make it work or use whatever comes there. This Excito B3 looks nice, with a big HD inside you can install anything you want (as long as it supports the hardware inside).

An old notebook/laptop is a good idea too and you have the added benefit of having a screen to debug stuff in case network connectivity is lost. The trouble is finding a cheap and old otebook/laptop still working properly and that doesn't use much power.

taavi · 2010-12-01 16:45:37

Netbooks are quite cheap too.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-11-30 19:20:17

[SOLVED] Suggestions for a cheap cost-efficient home web server

#2 2010-11-30 19:49:01

Re: [SOLVED] Suggestions for a cheap cost-efficient home web server

#3 2010-11-30 20:16:19

Re: [SOLVED] Suggestions for a cheap cost-efficient home web server

#4 2010-11-30 20:20:28

Re: [SOLVED] Suggestions for a cheap cost-efficient home web server

#5 2010-11-30 20:20:42

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#6 2010-11-30 20:26:18

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#7 2010-11-30 20:33:09

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#8 2010-11-30 20:45:35

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#9 2010-11-30 20:55:11

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#10 2010-11-30 20:56:22

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#11 2010-11-30 21:02:32

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#12 2010-11-30 21:08:18

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#13 2010-11-30 21:30:23

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#14 2010-11-30 21:42:53

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#15 2010-11-30 22:27:16

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#16 2010-12-01 12:44:42

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#17 2010-12-01 16:15:24

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#18 2010-12-01 16:21:17

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#19 2010-12-01 16:45:37

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