home server for about 1k$

[EntroX]

so, bonus is coming soon and so is my tax return, i have decieded that my good old lappy has served me well yet it can handle all the shit i throw at it so its time to get something a bit more "permanent".

i have been thinking that a Mac Mini would do the job, this one particularly since its about 150$ cheaper which i can invest in a 16GB upgrade (110$) and still "save" money compared to the brand new which is 999$.

basically the most i would like to spend is 1k$, i would of course be open to considering other options such as a DIY but i am not sure if i can get as much bang per buck considering the size/noise i would get from this thing since i could easily throw it under my TV and use it to run PLEX and give my AppleTV 2 to my dad or something.

so help me make up my mind on getting something simillar/better brahs~

[Aea]

Have a co-worker using one of those for his desktop, good machine, fast. If you don't need more space then whatever laptop drives get (x2) then it's a perfect choice. Obviously you could get a large linux/windows box for half the price and ten-fold more expandability.

[EntroX]

Have a co-worker using one of those for his desktop, good machine, fast. If you don't need more space then whatever laptop drives get (x2) then it's a perfect choice. Obviously you could get a large linux/windows box for half the price and ten-fold more expandability.

yeah, i know.

the issue is as follows, i want something that has a very small footprint, the only reason i even want it is so i can have a small VM host that will have space to let me fuck around and to be my plex servier, very much like the laptop i am using at the moment is. said laptop has a dual core i3 M330 and 8GB of ram, it does what i want but its a bit lacking on the memory side and i want/need to set up 2 or 3 more VM's (all of them are linux).

growth wise i dont think i would be too limited, i already have my Drobo doing storage (raid5, 5x 2tb drives, will expand to 5x 3tb whenever the cost goes down) and the mac mini (or whatever) would basically serve as a non-critical VM host (basically a playground for me pretty much) and my Plex server, again, the laptop i mentioned has been doing this so far so the quad core i7 would surely be a massive improvement.

the real winner of the MacMini is the size itself, we have a few at work and i know well how they work, it just kinda sucks to justify paying that much without exploring other options~

[Zeekar]

I fiddled a bit on newegg and made a little box that is around 400$ cheaper then your upgraded one and is still a bit better, BUT i havent done this in a while so get somebody to check the hardware i chose as well i might completely fucked up :P.

Case with mobo and power supply (is slightly bigger and heavier):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16856101124R

HD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145475

RAM ( i just selected one 16 gig kit so you can prolly do better) :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226257

CPU (went with one that uses less power, gives you more room to play with cooling and making the rig as quiet as possible):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115228

Subtotal: $664.96

Pros:

- cheaper by close to 400$
- is not apple
- more hdd space, free slot for another hdd, faster cpu

Cons:

- is not apple
- slightly bigger and bulkier
- ugly

[EntroX]

I fiddled a bit on newegg and made a little box that is around 400$ cheaper then your upgraded one and is still a bit better, BUT i havent done this in a while so get somebody to check the hardware i chose as well i might completely fucked up :P.

Case with mobo and power supply (is slightly bigger and heavier):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16856101124R

HD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145475

RAM ( i just selected one 16 gig kit so you can prolly do better) :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226257

CPU (went with one that uses less power, gives you more room to play with cooling and making the rig as quiet as possible):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115228

Subtotal: $664.96

Pros:

- cheaper by close to 400$
- is not apple
- more hdd space, free slot for another hdd, faster cpu

Cons:

- is not apple
- slightly bigger and bulkier
- ugly

i have no qualms whatsoever against apple, but anyways.

this is basically what i was looking for argument wise, its about 280$ cheaper than the mac mini option but that doesn't include "support" (applecare) and it has no HDMI port, and its massive in comparison, not to mention the power consumption + noise would be significantly noticeable when comparing both.

also, remember i dont give a damn about hard drive space, thats what i have a NAS for.

[Lana Torrin]

TBH for what you seem to want to do with it, get the mac.. You arent going to find another box as powerful as that for the size and price. You already have a NAS for storage so thats not an issue.

I was going to post my servers details, but that box shits all over it (for about $100 more), but I use mine for storage and web hosting and well, server stuff.. Sounds like you want to use it more for VM stuff..

[EntroX]

poking a bit on newegg i found this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856101117

now that is something i could consider getting behind, 32gb of ram sure is tempting.

[erichkknaar]

I don't think you can beat the footprint of a mini. That's kind of the point and you pay a slight premium for it. It is a pretty cool machine. I guess the benefit of the "Server" model is the 2 drives (also, 7.2k vs 5.4k in the non server), so you have RAID in the box, but I guess you can mitigate this with external or NAS. Lion Server isn't horrible either. Def. worth the 30 bux or whatever.

FWIW, I have a last gen Mini server, that I use for home server and DVR/Media. Sits on 8TB of FW800 connected RAID and to the 52" with HDMI. It's plenty powerful enough to run a mail/ical server for me and my wife and do 1080p playback and recording at the same time.

[Lana Torrin]

poking a bit on newegg i found this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856101117

now that is something i could consider getting behind, 32gb of ram sure is tempting.

I have an older shuttle (it was an early core2 I think) and its surprisingly noisy.. Its whisper quiet when you aren't doing anything but the second you start loading the processor the fan speeds up and its noisy as hell.. Its also not as small as you think (think about it, an optical drive and 2 full sized drive + motherboard with ram standing up under them.. plus a full height video card down the side).

I'm not saying dont get it.. Just be aware that its a LOT bigger than the apple..

[BLEURRRRGH]

I looked at new Mac mini to use as an HTPC to replace my old 2006 Mac mini. What turned me off was the low disk space and high cost. As you have a NAS, however, I'd go ahead with it.

The only downside to it is that the on-board graphics card isn't that powerful. Sure, it'll run 1080p seamlessly and likely even 3D, but you'll lose a lot of the post-processing features you'll get with a discrete card. This article is about 9 months old, but it has a lot of info on how graphics cards can really improve the image quality of what you're watching: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4380/d...-gpus-shootout

-EDIT-

Sure, HTPC is only a secondary function for the server, but it's still something to take into account ...

[Snake]

Mac Mini m8. Have one running 2 dc exchange and a few random client vms with any issues with 16 gb of ram like a champ

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Waagaa]

Case:

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=42

That thing is the shit. Room for 6x 3,5", decent PSU..

EDIT: Newegg link for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n%20array%20r2

[Zeekar]

i have no qualms whatsoever against apple, but anyways.

this is basically what i was looking for argument wise, its about 280$ cheaper than the mac mini option but that doesn't include "support" (applecare) and it has no HDMI port, and its massive in comparison, not to mention the power consumption + noise would be significantly noticeable when comparing both.

also, remember i dont give a damn about hard drive space, thats what i have a NAS for.

As i said the plus side of apple its the small, very high build quality package with decent support. On the other side its the price and well some people dislike apple :P.

Power consumption can not be that much different. Both are using the same class of chip and other things dont differ much in power used regardless of the manufacturer. Unless the PSU in the shuttle is complete and utter shit i really dont see how the difference in power consumption can be big. As for noise you can always quiet it down with a bit of tinkering.

[Zekk Pacus]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129080

Start here, configure yourself. Case will take any 65W or under CPU you care to mention, 2X Laptop drives and a slimline optical drive if you need one. See where you get, but I guarantee you it'll be cheaper than doing it via the Mac Mini route.

There is also this case if footprint is EVERYTHING to you:
http://www.amazon.com/Antec-ISK110-V...3545115&sr=1-2

Harder to build in and I couldn't find it on Newegg, also no optical drive.

[EntroX]

Case:

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=42

That thing is the shit. Room for 6x 3,5", decent PSU..

EDIT: Newegg link for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n%20array%20r2

i dont need space for hard drives, already have that covered

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129080

Start here, configure yourself. Case will take any 65W or under CPU you care to mention, 2X Laptop drives and a slimline optical drive if you need one. See where you get, but I guarantee you it'll be cheaper than doing it via the Mac Mini route.

There is also this case if footprint is EVERYTHING to you:
http://www.amazon.com/Antec-ISK110-V...3545115&sr=1-2

Harder to build in and I couldn't find it on Newegg, also no optical drive.

quite massive in comparison (footprint), would surely be quite noisy, only saves me 150$ or so, warranty is a pain in the ass cos of specific parts and according to my numbers would need between 133W and 183W, built in PSU is 150W so thats a no-go

[Stoffl]

>Home server
>1k$

[Stoffl]

Just out of curiosity, what are you gonna host on it ?

[EntroX]

Just out of curiosity, what are you gonna host on it ?

as i mentioned before, a few VM's + use it to be my plex media center (and since it has an HDMI out, client too for my TV).

the current laptop i am using for this has finally met its memory cap (8gb), the CPU has been chugging a bit too much (2 cores with HT) and i want something small and "quiet" that will do just as well or even better.

[Stoffl]

Ah ok, media center thingie.
Read PLEX and was like wat?! RMT ?

[EntroX]

Ah ok, media center thingie.
Read PLEX and was like wat?! RMT ?

so bad