[LUNI] In search of a server

[sten]

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 23:24:41 -0600, Larry Garfield <larry at garfieldtech.com> wrote:

> Does anyone have a favorite source for such a contraption for a low price?
> I'm open to building my own (I do that all the time), or buying pre-made,
> or a decent gently-used box. 

It's pretty easy to do quiet these days- I'm running a home-built with a nice HTPC case and big, quiet fans on an AMD XP2200+; I barely notice it humming now that its closed-windows season. During the summer, I never hear it. Look for parts without fans on them; I've seen tiny little fans on motherboard or video card chipsets that were noisier than any other part in the computer. I also stick with Seagate Barracuda hard drives; they whine a lot less than any other disks I've had. 

I'm eagerly awaiting availability of AMD's new Small Form Factor/Energy Efficient chips; they have an "ADD" in the model number, draw 25W max, and can allegedly be passively cooled. Unfortunately, from what I'm reading, some big player bought out the entire US supply of the chips, and the only ones I can find now are $400+ and only in Germany.

For parts in general, I'm a newegg fanboi. Quick shipping, good prices and selection, never had issues with them. 

If you want to go prefab, I saw a site selling Dell small-form-factor desktops with something in the range of a Celeron 700 for $50 a while back. I think it made the front page of digg.com. I think they were sold out or the sale had expired, but you can usually find that kind of deal on a refurb PC with a little (fr/g)oogling, and Dells' desktops are generally very quiet. 

Sten