Big cheap hard drives are getting me in the mood to build a server box for our home network of half a dozen or so computers. The system needs to be cheap, reliable, cheap, and actually usefull.
Power.
24/7 operation and Calif electric rates are a big concern, guessing I can use some sleep modes and maybe wake on lan, but the competition to building a system is to buy a "network storage device" with much more limited function, but wall wart level power consumption.
Big Drives.
Best deals are on 160 GB looks like for now, so I will start with one of those, but would like to be able to add more drives later on.
Other uses besides network storage.
I have some all in wonder cards, so some tivo function would be nice, and fits with the 24/7 on time, but I was also thinking of running some flavor of Linux. Lots more maybe type stuff, like X10 lighting, a print spooler, maybe local DNS or email, even maybe FAX or answering machine, really all the 24/7 little tasks that I don't like to run on any of the other systems.
First ideas.
Cheap Fry's combo, I think I may still have a K7VTA3 motherboard still in the box that I bought months ago and only used the cpu. Is there like a lower power version of the AMD CPU like maybe a mobile chip?
Suggestions?
Anybody know of a really good spot to post this question?
Power.
24/7 operation and Calif electric rates are a big concern, guessing I can use some sleep modes and maybe wake on lan, but the competition to building a system is to buy a "network storage device" with much more limited function, but wall wart level power consumption.
Big Drives.
Best deals are on 160 GB looks like for now, so I will start with one of those, but would like to be able to add more drives later on.
Other uses besides network storage.
I have some all in wonder cards, so some tivo function would be nice, and fits with the 24/7 on time, but I was also thinking of running some flavor of Linux. Lots more maybe type stuff, like X10 lighting, a print spooler, maybe local DNS or email, even maybe FAX or answering machine, really all the 24/7 little tasks that I don't like to run on any of the other systems.
First ideas.
Cheap Fry's combo, I think I may still have a K7VTA3 motherboard still in the box that I bought months ago and only used the cpu. Is there like a lower power version of the AMD CPU like maybe a mobile chip?
Suggestions?
Anybody know of a really good spot to post this question?
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