Blade Server vs Tower

[hucker]

I'm looking to get a cheap machine to put WHS on. I've found a couple of cheap machines I can get off of craigslist. I'm planning on putting new drives in and I don't care about video. I found a nice deal on a Dell PowerEdge 860 with sata as well as various desktop options. The 860 comes in at about $250 while other similar tower machines come in between $150 and $200.

I don't have any experience with blade machines. Any reason I shouldn't go with a blade? I have the space for it

 

[mustangcoupe]

Just to correct things here you are talking about a 1U rack server not a blade server. Blade servers go into a blade chassis, and the only connectors connect to the backplane of the server itself.

now past that, the problem with the 1 U server is you only have room for 2 hard drives. and the benefit of WHS is expandability of hard drives. I'd go for a 3-4 U rack so you can add drives

 

[signal15]

Just get one of these:

http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS209j/index.php

My buddy has one, and it's awesome. Multimedia/DLNA sharing for Xbox/PS3, IP Camera DVR, Bittorrent client that can pull from RSS feeds, Desktop backup software included, and they have a bunch of add-on applications for it.

 

[gatchel]

Keep in mind the issues with older used hardware, one being power consumption. You could get a case and start from scratch for just a little bit more than what you would spend on a used powerhouse that is overkill for most WHS type applications.

I recently went from a 200 watt home built server to a Atom FreeNas box and cut my power consumption down to below 25% of what the old "server" was using.

A purpose built NAS line a Synology, Thecus, QNap, (etc) box will serve most of the needs of most people. If you need WHS then check out the HP boxes or build your own. Long term, the payback will be worth it.

Everything and anything NAS or WHS has been reviewed here:

http://smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews

It's worth reading up on.

 

[hucker]

Keep in mind the issues with older used hardware, one being power consumption. You could get a case and start from scratch for just a little bit more than what you would spend on a used powerhouse that is overkill for most WHS type applications.

I recently went from a 200 watt home built server to a Atom FreeNas box and cut my power consumption down to below 25% of what the old "server" was using.

A purpose built NAS line a Synology, Thecus, QNap, (etc) box will serve most of the needs of most people. If you need WHS then check out the HP boxes or build your own. Long term, the payback will be worth it.

Everything and anything NAS or WHS has been reviewed here:

http://smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews

It's worth reading up on.

Nice link. Thanks

Did you really have a server that was drawing 200W? Did you measure that or is that the supply size? I have a 3 yo machine that is has a couple of large SATA drives multiple DVD's, extra cards and it draws 80W which works out about $80/year (nice how that math works out in ball park numbers with $0.11/kWhr)

Not wanting to thread jack my own thread but I have not found a non WHS solution that can easily recover any machine on the network with a simple recovery process and support automated backups without multiple copies of files (thus requiring far less drive resources). I have 8 machines to backup and these two features make WHS a no brainer for me.

Unless there is a product out there that I don't now about, a NAS is not a viable replacement for the features in WHS.

 

[mustangcoupe]

Not wanting to thread jack my own thread but I have not found a non WHS solution that can easily recover any machine on the network with a simple recovery process and support automated backups without multiple copies of files (thus requiring far less drive resources). I have 8 machines to backup and these two features make WHS a no brainer for me.

I agree. That is exactly why I run WHS. I have had to restore 2 machines. simply put in the disk and bam, I am back to the backup from lastnight, or earlier this week... or even the original one I took when the laptop was unpacked and set on my network which I set as locked so I can always restore it.

 

[gatchel]

Did you really have a server that was drawing 200W? Did you measure that or is that the supply size? I have a 3 yo machine that is has a couple of large SATA drives multiple DVD's, extra cards and it draws 80W which works out about $80/year (nice how that math works out in ball park numbers with $0.11/kWhr)

Nah. The supply was an old 500w beast. The system was an old (probably 7 years or more) AMD athlon set up with a RAID card, 3 drives in the raid array, an OS drive, and a drive for backups that I rotated out once a month.

It was measured to be close to 200w. I don't exactly remember the number. It was the purchase of my trusty Kill A Watt that made me get rid of it.


Need less to say I've simplified. Atom mobo, 2 newer 1TB drives in RAID 1, CF card for OS and software raid instead of hardware. I also am using an 80 plus rated power supply now as I think that was most of the problem.


As far as WHS, go for it. I can definitely see the benefit of using it for many other reasons including the backup functionality.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Keep in mind if you go with a 1U system since they have so little space to flow the necessary CFM for cooling, they tend to be LOUD compared to "normal" sized cases.

If it's just serving files and other low horsepower stuff might be able to find some kind of VIA Nano or Intel Atom based motherboard that can be made to fit, and won't need a zillion small high CFM fans to crame cooling air through it.

 

[pkoslow]

Keep in mind if you go with a 1U system since they have so little space to flow the necessary CFM for cooling, they tend to be LOUD compared to "normal" sized cases.

This is good advice. 1U chassis by nature have to have lots of small fans for cooling and they are too loud for most people to tolerate in the living space of a home. If you can stash it away in a basement, the sound may not be as much of an issue?

I'm currently running all my HA apps on a Dell Poweredge 1800 and the electrical use is approx. $41.00 a month (21¢ KWH). With this in mind, I'm spending around $500 a year to keep it running.

This is just to help back up the other good advice here which is to focus on a quiet, low power system...

 

[hucker]

Keep in mind if you go with a 1U system since they have so little space to flow the necessary CFM for cooling, they tend to be LOUD compared to "normal" sized cases.

This is good advice. 1U chassis by nature have to have lots of small fans for cooling and they are too loud for most people to tolerate in the living space of a home. If you can stash it away in a basement, the sound may not be as much of an issue?

I'm currently running all my HA apps on a Dell Poweredge 1800 and the electrical use is approx. $41.00 a month (21¢ KWH). With this in mind, I'm spending around $500 a year to keep it running.

This is just to help back up the other good advice here which is to focus on a quiet, low power system...

Are you sure that is correct? That machine is drawing a couple hundred watts. My workstation that was not built with any thought to power consumption, with all sorts of hardware and fans only draws 80 W or about 7 bucks a month. My electrical rate is half of yours so call it 15 bucks. My power consumption is measured with a Kill-a-watt meter. A UPS increases this cost by 25% or 100W.

EDITED:
OK I just looked it up and sure enough that thing draws 167W according to dell. Ouch. I'm gonna take my kill-a-watt with me when I look at 'cheap' machines.

 

[pkoslow]

Are you sure that is correct? That machine is drawing a couple hundred watts.
EDITED:
OK I just looked it up and sure enough that thing draws 167W according to dell. Ouch. I'm gonna take my kill-a-watt with me when I look at 'cheap' machines.

Yes, it draws an average of 246W for just the server (no UPS, Monitor, etc.). It's loaded up with 5 discs in a RAID configuration, LTO tape drive, etc. which is probably what accounts for the extra power draw.

I've used the kill-a-watt meter too and over the course of 1.5yrs monitored almost all of my electrical use in my home to see where I can cut back.

The equipment rack that holds the server, networking gear, whole-house audio, UPS, etc. draws about 400W total.

I've found that all the "technology" gear in the house (Equipment Rack, Office PC/Printer/UPS, Elk System with door locks, Entertainment System) costs about $120mo which is about half the electrical bill.

Just turning off the office computer every night saves me about $170 each year!

The biggest eye opener was how much power small refrigerators use.

We have a little 40 bottle beverage cooler and a 150 wine cooler and even the small 40 bottle unit draws more than our kitchen refrigerator!