Ideas for a low powered home server running Linux...
November 16, 2013 6:49 AM Subscribe
I'm not going to be doing much with this. I already have a NAS so this won't be a file server. I just want it to do a few things such as XBMC, OpenVPN server, Squeezebox server, etc.
It's going to be on 24/7, and I don't want it to use much power. Since it is isn't going to be doing too much, I don't want too spend much.
I tried the Raspberry Pi, but it doesn't have enough power. It can run one of these applications perfectly, but it can't run much more at the same time. Same with an old PogoPlug.
I was thinking about one of these: Beaglebone Black? CubieTruck? An old Dell Mini 9?
If anyone has any ideas or can tell me about their low powered/low cost server, I'd appreciate it.
Best answer: Are you going to be transcoding video and audio with XBMC and Squeezebox? If so, I doubt any of the ARM based solutions would be fast enough. But then I haven't tried it, I would read up on the BeagleBone boards if anyone has done this. If you're just running OpenVPN, a firewall, or a few other lightweight services you might be able to get away with a Beaglebone Black.
I like the BBB, but TI has been a bit delayed in updating their kernel, others have stepped up though the HDMI support seems a bit wonky. At $45, you might want to buy one just to play with. I had fun learning Yocto to build a customized boot image, though it took a lot of research and poking around to get it to work. I wish they had a model with dual NICs.
Depending on your budget (price and power), you might want to consider something like this and get a proper server. I've used them at work and like them. (Full disclosure, I work at HP but not on this particular product.)
Before I took my current job I bought one of these on sale and it's still running in my study right now five years later. I've upgraded memory and drives over time, so far no problems.
posted by beowulf573 at 7:10 AM on November 16, 2013
I like the BBB, but TI has been a bit delayed in updating their kernel, others have stepped up though the HDMI support seems a bit wonky. At $45, you might want to buy one just to play with. I had fun learning Yocto to build a customized boot image, though it took a lot of research and poking around to get it to work. I wish they had a model with dual NICs.
Depending on your budget (price and power), you might want to consider something like this and get a proper server. I've used them at work and like them. (Full disclosure, I work at HP but not on this particular product.)
Before I took my current job I bought one of these on sale and it's still running in my study right now five years later. I've upgraded memory and drives over time, so far no problems.
posted by beowulf573 at 7:10 AM on November 16, 2013
Best answer: I'm using a little Intel Atom based PC for just such things. In fact, as well as running Squeezebox and some other stuff, it's also my main (LAMP) development server. The power requirements are very modest compared with a standard desktop.
Also, old netbooks and laptops are ideal for this sort of thing.
posted by pipeski at 7:15 AM on November 16, 2013
Also, old netbooks and laptops are ideal for this sort of thing.
posted by pipeski at 7:15 AM on November 16, 2013
Best answer: I have an old Compaq NC4000 ultraportable (essentially a netbook from before the Asus eeepc made netbooks a thing) running a command-line-only installation of Debian Squeeze with the lid shut to turn off the display backlight. If memory serves me correctly my power meter says it eats 7W with the hard disk spun down and 12W with it spun up as long as the CPU is essentially idle; with disk and CPU both running flat out I think it was still a little under 40W.
Given that the power adapter for the Dell Mini you mention is rated at 30W I would expect it to use a little less.
In a server application, a portable computer's inbuilt battery gives you a fully online UPS for nothing too, which is nice.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 AM on November 16, 2013
Given that the power adapter for the Dell Mini you mention is rated at 30W I would expect it to use a little less.
In a server application, a portable computer's inbuilt battery gives you a fully online UPS for nothing too, which is nice.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 AM on November 16, 2013
Best answer: All the little ARM boxes are essentially single-task devices, unless you get really creative with cron jobs at night. Anything that needs a fan is going to be a whole step up in computer power — and unfortunately, power usage.
What makes the Raspberry Pi great is its huge and responsive user base. The Beaglebone may have better hardware, but you've got to fight with it to set it up beyond its rather slow default settings.
posted by scruss at 7:45 AM on November 16, 2013
What makes the Raspberry Pi great is its huge and responsive user base. The Beaglebone may have better hardware, but you've got to fight with it to set it up beyond its rather slow default settings.
posted by scruss at 7:45 AM on November 16, 2013
An old laptop with the screen backlight turned off (or the screen removed) is going to be tough to beat for the price.
You also may want to keep an eye on the new Intel Avoton-based boards that are just coming out now. They are going to be more expensive than a laptop and the two models I'm aware of are aimed at the storage market (ASRock C2750DI, Supermicro A1SAi-2750F) but they should have performance close to that of the low end Xeons on less than 30 W.
posted by Max Camber at 8:00 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
You also may want to keep an eye on the new Intel Avoton-based boards that are just coming out now. They are going to be more expensive than a laptop and the two models I'm aware of are aimed at the storage market (ASRock C2750DI, Supermicro A1SAi-2750F) but they should have performance close to that of the low end Xeons on less than 30 W.
posted by Max Camber at 8:00 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: So many great responses in no time. Thank you! I am going to skip the ARM processor idea (but I might get a BeagleBone Black at some point to put a NinjaBlocks cape on).
I think that I'm going to go for the Dell Mini 9 since for its cheap price it seems to do the most. My only concern is that it has no fan and will be running 24/7. Is this going to be a problem? Based on pipeski's & flabdablet's comments, I'm guessing that I should be fine.
The Ohava's look great for their price! However, I think that a cheap Dell Mini will fit my needs fine and it is much cheaper. If it doesn't, I'll definitely take another look at them.
posted by toddst at 8:04 AM on November 16, 2013
I think that I'm going to go for the Dell Mini 9 since for its cheap price it seems to do the most. My only concern is that it has no fan and will be running 24/7. Is this going to be a problem? Based on pipeski's & flabdablet's comments, I'm guessing that I should be fine.
The Ohava's look great for their price! However, I think that a cheap Dell Mini will fit my needs fine and it is much cheaper. If it doesn't, I'll definitely take another look at them.
posted by toddst at 8:04 AM on November 16, 2013
I have this FoxConn NanoPC. I put in 4G of RAM and smaller SSD I had leftover after an upgrade, and it's been running Debian solidly for several months.
I use it as a VPN server, a beachhead into my home network from outside, SSH and HTTP (with HTTPS service to the outside world). I used to use a PogoPlug, but I run some web applications that rely on MySQL and PostgreSQL, and it just wasn't quite fast enough.
It runs off a wall wart, and I think I measured it at about 5W, so not too expensive for 24/7 use.
posted by spacewrench at 8:05 AM on November 16, 2013
I use it as a VPN server, a beachhead into my home network from outside, SSH and HTTP (with HTTPS service to the outside world). I used to use a PogoPlug, but I run some web applications that rely on MySQL and PostgreSQL, and it just wasn't quite fast enough.
It runs off a wall wart, and I think I measured it at about 5W, so not too expensive for 24/7 use.
posted by spacewrench at 8:05 AM on November 16, 2013
I have a Dell tablet based on the Atom z2760 processor. It is VERY capable. In most situations, it is faster than my Core2Duo laptop. The only place it seems to falter is installing programs or unzipping files. I'm not sure if that's the processor or the SDD. (Which tend to slow down on sequential writes.) And it uses almost no power.
I plan on buying one or more mini computers based on the Atom. Intel has really made that thing good.
posted by gjc at 8:29 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
I plan on buying one or more mini computers based on the Atom. Intel has really made that thing good.
posted by gjc at 8:29 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
Have you looked at the Zotac ZBoxes, or their atom-based mini ITX motherboards? I've got my own box built for about $300 that does pretty much exactly what you're looking for and uses about $30 electricity a year.
posted by circleofconfusion at 9:01 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by circleofconfusion at 9:01 AM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
I got the HP microserver as it was cheap and quiet with lots of room for drives. Does fine running 24/7. CPU isn't that great but with ssd, extra ram and pci e graphics card is fine as server and xbmc.
posted by JonB at 10:09 AM on November 16, 2013
posted by JonB at 10:09 AM on November 16, 2013
Response by poster: There are a bunch of cheap Atom based netbooks on craigslist so I think that I'm going to go that route. If I decide that I need more power in the future, you all have given me a bunch of ideas. Thank you!
posted by toddst at 10:28 AM on November 16, 2013
posted by toddst at 10:28 AM on November 16, 2013
I'd think your best price / performance deal would have to be a core2 laptop with a broken screen - you can buy an intact thinkpad t400 for around $200 shipped, so one with a broken screen off eBay or Craigslist should probably be in the $120-free range. The core2 laptop I tested idles somewhere between 30-40 watts (I tested many years ago, I forget). When you need a display, just cable one up and you should be good.
posted by wotsac at 10:30 AM on November 16, 2013
posted by wotsac at 10:30 AM on November 16, 2013
The FoxConn NanoPCs are good kit. I've seen them used as monitoring systems, and plugged into standalone SATA arrays. However, I'm not sure how much processing heft they have for anything that involves transcoding or graphically-intense tasks. "Laptop with duff screen" is also a good option.
The Haswell NUC is now out. It's definitely more "low power" than "low cost", because the components are 2013-grade and you need to use mSATA storage, but it's also specced better than the previous generation, will work well with XBMC, and isn't going to feel old and slow in a couple of years. Keep it on your radar for when you have a slightly higher budget.
posted by holgate at 10:34 AM on November 16, 2013
The Haswell NUC is now out. It's definitely more "low power" than "low cost", because the components are 2013-grade and you need to use mSATA storage, but it's also specced better than the previous generation, will work well with XBMC, and isn't going to feel old and slow in a couple of years. Keep it on your radar for when you have a slightly higher budget.
posted by holgate at 10:34 AM on November 16, 2013
I'm using an acer aspire D270-1596 netbook and find it too slow. (I have run VLC, xbmc etc).
posted by canoehead at 10:43 AM on November 16, 2013
posted by canoehead at 10:43 AM on November 16, 2013
the dell mini probably wont handle hd video, but i have one that's been runing non stop for two years with no problems running the stock xp + two windows apps (including an mp3 flash player) + vmware running ubuntu. And it's fanless! Would recommend if hd video isn't your priority.
posted by 3mendo at 5:27 PM on November 16, 2013
posted by 3mendo at 5:27 PM on November 16, 2013
The BeagleBone Black draws a bit less power than the Raspberry Pi, but isn't any more capable. But you can buy 2-3 of either for the price of a small Atom-based system, and split up the workload. Having a home data center in a stack of Altoids tins is kind of neat.
posted by dws at 9:19 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by dws at 9:19 AM on November 17, 2013
Response by poster: Update: I got a Dell Mini 9 for less than the price of 2 Raspberry Pis! Ubuntu server is installed, and I put up a GUI since I also wanted to use it with XBMC. Since my TV has VGA, this works great. I don't have a need for HD video so I didn't need a machine with HDMI out.
Thanks again for all of your input!
posted by toddst at 1:13 PM on November 18, 2013
Thanks again for all of your input!
posted by toddst at 1:13 PM on November 18, 2013
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I've got a bunch at home that I use for a flight sim setup, and I bought a bunch for all the folks on my team at work to have some sandboxes to play in.
And they're a small company run by people who believe in OSS.
posted by colin_l at 7:07 AM on November 16, 2013