OT: Lowest-power small server solutions

[Doc Shipley]

Chuck Guzis wrote:
> 
> Hmmm, the Compaq Deskpro was built at a time when Compaq seemed to care
> about quality.  The PSU fan isn't one of those 4" screamers, but a slower
> 4.5" very quiet model.  The expansion card backplane is plugged into the
> motherboard and pulls out from the chassis for easy card servicing.  There
> are air intake holes at the bottom rear of the machine so that the airflow
> first passes over the motherboard and actually makes some sort of sense and
> keeps the floppy drive and CD pretty clean.  No annoying little cheap fan
> on the CPU heatsink either.
> 
> Maybe I can't do MUCH better than that.

   Probably not.  If the Soekris boards don't have enough juice, the 
mini-ITX Eden boards would be the next step up.  Some of the mini-ITX 
cases use wall-wart PSUs, so it's conceivable that your disk would be 
the only moving part.

> Are 5.25" IDE drives any more reliable than the 3.5" models?  I've got a
> few old Quantum units--the largest is about 8 GB, but I'm using a 3.5"
> Maxtor in the box right now.

   The failure rate on the Quantum "Bigfoot" series was spectacular, and 
they're slow as dirt.  A fast (5400rpm) 2.5" IDE disk will draw very 
little power, generate a tiny amount of heat, and perform reasonably 
well.  Conversion kits to attach to a 40-pin ribbon & power run about 
$12-15.


	Doc