Download box

[m0dm0]

Hi

I'm not an expert (lol).

I'm thinking of building a box for downloading and a private ftp/web server.

It should be:

- quiet as possible.
- passively cooled would be good.
- low power usage.
- not water cooled.

I'm thinking of putting it somewhere cold, like under the floor, in the garden shed or something like that....

Please advise on the hardware i need.

Can any CPU be passively cooled without the need for a fan?

Thanks

[dave87]

Opteron 146? or something like a Venice 3200+ underclocked, otherwise you are into Via Epia territory, which carries a price premium but are the best of the low power processors

Check out mini-itx.com for more inspiration

[Sinizter]

There are those network attached thingies which you can plug hard drives into - which can then be loaded with a linux distro which can do the stuff you mentioned. Silent and low power. Probably a lot cheaper too.

[dave87]

All of the NAS boxes I've read reviews of have been underpowered - hence the suggestion of the Via or an Opty 146 - especially if he is looking at Gigabit Ethernet

[Sinizter]

All of the NAS boxes I've read reviews of have been underpowered - hence the suggestion of the Via or an Opty 146 - especially if he is looking at Gigabit Ethernet

Download box and webserver for only personal use + downloading torrents can be adequately managed by the boxes I was suggesting. Gigabit - well if thats required, then a PC based system may be best

[DanceswithUnix]

I use a standard PC case with Athlon 64 3000+, Samsung hard drives and all the fan management turned on. Had to replace the PSU with an Akasa model with 120mm fan to make that part quieter. That lets me run Linux with MythTV on it, so it can record TV programs as well, and gigabit is dead handy for moving TV files around.

For something smaller, I have a Shuttle SK21G that reads about 40W on my Maplin mains power meter and is fairly quiet (Semperon 2600 I think).

[alsenior]

try this thread
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=86687
i was selling these a few weeks ago i still have 4 left if you want one. they are extremely quiet and can support large hard drives

[heman]

For CPU go for a mobile variant, eg AMD Turion or Intel Dothan (as found in single-core centrinos). They run a lot cooler, and although they don't have the horse power of the dual-core CPUs they will be fine for uses you have mentioned. Additionally these chips can be had for cheap prices.

[Ceefer]

My download + file server box is an HP e-vectra (also known as e-pc) with a 1 ghz PIII. Tiny, almost silent, very low power consumption, HDD swaps out in 10 seconds, available for £50 or less on ebay - I paid £21 inc p&p for mine. Totally brilliant little pc and I can highly recommend it.

[Methanoid]

Lower power usage with a Synology 106 NAS... runs Linux on a PPC SOC chip... and Gigabit

[Clunk]

HTR Batman!

[aidanjt]

It doesn't really matter about the specs, the bottleneck these days is the disk I/O.. Unless you have 10 disk RAID5 or something you wont keep Gigabit ethernet even remotely pressured, nor the CPU for that matter.

[dave87]

I'm sure I read somewhere that something with lower than about 1ghz PC (more if running Windows) can't keep up with the demands a gigabit card places on the system?

[DanceswithUnix]

Well my opinion hasn't changed in 3 months

[aidanjt]

I'm sure I read somewhere that something with lower than about 1ghz PC (more if running Windows) can't keep up with the demands a gigabit card places on the system?

That depends on your NIC, a decent one will support TCP offloading and DMA. A gippy onboard realtek chip wouldn't be as nice on the CPU. A high quality (read very expensive) RAID controller will save a lot of CPU time too.

[Methanoid]

My download + file server box is an HP e-vectra (also known as e-pc) with a 1 ghz PIII. Tiny, almost silent, very low power consumption, HDD swaps out in 10 seconds, available for £50 or less on ebay - I paid £21 inc p&p for mine. Totally brilliant little pc and I can highly recommend it.

Well U wont get any at THAT price on the Bay... but if anyone wants one I bought two.. one I expected to be outbid on and wasnt.. Get in touch if U want one (anyone) !!