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Building a 1U server

S

Southerner

Member
I just realized that you can get colocated hosting for not much more than I'm paying for simple web-hosting now. I can switch to a cheaper web provider, but as a number of clients have asked for help with setting up basic web sites, I thought I'd look into colo hosting too...

Anyway, I'm looking at building a 1U box to run Linux or FreeBSD on (and Seti when nothing else is happening. 😉 ) Apache + Sendmail shouldn't be that much of a load, but PostgreSQL or MySQL might be a little bit more taxing.

Can someone here point me in the right direction? Where's the best place to buy 1U servers (cheap, or something to do RAID-1)? What about motherboards -- which will fit in a 1U case? Anything I'll need to watch out for? Yeah, I'd like to build a dual-Athlon box, but my needs are nowhere near Anandtech's SQL needs, and my wallet's not that deep.

Thanks.

 
Sorry to rain on your parade, but 1U servers cases are very expensive. We've had great success with SuperMicro server, not sure they carry 1U, but their 2U's and 4U's are awesome.
 
Building a 1U Dually Athlon solution is NOT going to be easy or an inexpensive one either. Cooling and Power Supply are of utmost importance in that application. A 2U solution would be a lot easier to build if you are counting on dual athlon. If you NEED 1U and NEED dual athlon, buy it from Appro where Anand got his, otherwise you are going to be spending more time making sure you hardware is not overheating and still working than running your actual web application. Dual PIII tualitin in a 1U is much more feasable to build, they run cooler and don't hog as much power. I know, I know, I know, then you wouldn't be able to boast about your DUAL ATHLONS out in Si Valley on an OC3 backbone, but hey you could still brag about having hardware out there or wherever. Supermicro makes good server boards with integrated 10/100 Intel NICs and Video as well as 45deg tilt RAM slots.

If you need SCSI, SuperMicro has 1U server boards with integrated U160 SCSI also.

I have built a 1U server with a case from CALPC and was very happy with it. You have to email them for quotes and things though, no prices directly on the website.

Get good harddrives with a decent track record since it will be locked up in a closet somewhere in a NOC and pulling it out to replace a HDD is EXPENSIVE (upto $300/hr)

One last piece of advice: DONOT SKIMP ON HS/F, get 1U Alphas or similar. Refer to Tillmann's article on low-prof coolers.

BDOG
 
If the loading is only moderate, I would head straight for the Tualatin Processors, such as Celeron 1.2 or the P3-S/1.2(512K) depending on your budget. They wont be ask fast as the AMD but they will be cooler to run as they require less power. AMD solutions cost too much for now because of the powersupply needed as well as to dissipate the heat.

 
Sorry guys, I wasn't clear.

A 500 MHz processor will probably be fine for my needs, at least for the forseeable future. I would *love* a dual-athlon (something like the Anand article covered), but it's way beyond what I need/can afford.

How hard/expensive are we talking if we lose the idea of two hot and power-hungry processors, and instead focus on reliability?

Imagine a 1U server running RedHat 6.2/FreeBSD/OpenBSD with Apache, Sendmail/Qmail, maybe something like squirrelmail, with the off-chance of running PostgreSQL or MySQL in the mid-term.

Thanks.

(Only perk to something like a dual-Athlon is my WU production would greatly increase -- not a huge concern for a server hosted in another state...)
 
Does no one read Anand's server guides here? I am really suprised that no one has mentioned the Appro dual Athlon systems. Not very expensive when compared to their Intel counterparts. Nice performance, nice price, nice components. It may be a little more than you were planning on spending, but think of it as upgrade insurance 😉 Besides, I'm sure that TA would love another dually Athlon on their side 🙂
 
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