From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 9 17:02:16 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1184116A424 for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:02:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scott@fishballoon.org) Received: from mta09-winn.ispmail.ntl.com (mta09-winn.ispmail.ntl.com [81.103.221.49]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E53643D45 for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:02:14 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scott@fishballoon.org) Received: from aamta10-winn.ispmail.ntl.com ([81.103.221.35]) by mta09-winn.ispmail.ntl.com with ESMTP id <20051009170209.JIUY9239.mta09-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@aamta10-winn.ispmail.ntl.com> for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:02:09 +0100 Received: from llama.fishballoon.org ([81.104.195.171]) by aamta10-winn.ispmail.ntl.com with ESMTP id <20051009170209.UYCW8556.aamta10-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@llama.fishballoon.org> for ; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:02:09 +0100 Received: from tuatara.fishballoon.org ([192.168.1.6]) by llama.fishballoon.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52 (FreeBSD)) id 1EOeYm-000Phr-JB for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sun, 09 Oct 2005 18:02:04 +0100 Received: (from scott@localhost) by tuatara.fishballoon.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j99H23Cn012492 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:02:03 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from scott) Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 18:02:02 +0100 From: Scott Mitchell To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20051009170200.GC544@tuatara.fishballoon.org> References: <4348E078.8050602@echotrace.com> <200510091357.00775.list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200510091357.00775.list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.11-STABLE i386 Subject: Re: Cheap Hardware for Home Network X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 17:02:16 -0000 On Sun, Oct 09, 2005 at 01:56:52PM +0100, RW wrote: > On Sunday 09 October 2005 10:18, Live-Wire wrote: > > I'm building a new box specifically do take care of a lot of things on > > my home network; dns, qmail, > > apache, sftp, printer server, a fileserver, etc. Some of the services, > > like apache, will also be exposed to > > the internet, but only for the use of friends and family. And most > > important, I'm doing this all on the cheap - > > > I'm hellbent on AMD, and the Sempron 3100+ (754) is looking pretty > > sharp. I have a GeForce4 Ti 4600 lying > > > > So again, this is a nice opportunity to buy hardware specifically > > tailored for what I am using it for - I have zero > > concern for expandability. What is the best fit? > > > The system you mention seems to be completly out of step with what you want > from it. > > If you want a server that's on most or all of the day and runs such an > undemanding load, you would be better off checking out some cheap, slow , > low-power machines. With a desktop machine such as you specify, the electrity > may well be a major part of the total cost over several years. Low power cpus > also run much quieter, with little or no fan noise. > > I don't see why you need graphics at all. Agreed. I have a machine based around a VIA ME6000 Mini-ITX board serving NFS, Samba, printing, DNS, DHCP, NIS, HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, etc. for my home network and a few outside users. This board has a 600MHz VIA Eden CPU (fanless - completely silent) and even this is way overkill for what I'm using it for. The only thing that uses any real CPU bandwidth is SpamAssassin. A friend has a 200MHz Pentium Pro machine doing much the same job. This too is more than adequate, although it could use a bit more RAM. Both of these machines are running headless - no need for graphics. A cheap used laptop is also a possibility for this kind of thing. IMHO your top priority should be reliability - this is a machine that will be on all the time, you'll come to rely on it, so it will be a complete pain when it falls over, especially if you're not physically there to reboot it. You might want to think about running mirrored disks, so you don't lose the whole machine when a disk dies, as it inevitably will. Cheers, Scott -- =========================================================================== Scott Mitchell | PGP Key ID | "Eagles may soar, but weasels Cambridge, England | 0x54B171B9 | don't get sucked into jet engines" scott at fishballoon.org | 0xAA775B8B | -- Anon