Tag Archives: Atom

Atom Server Complete

Posted by on 29 March 2010 No comments

So after some painstaking construction and setup and configuration I finally got my Atom server up.  Now originally I was going to show people how to build a computer using that setup, however I realized that the computer had a preinstalled power supply, a preinstalled CPU, and all it really was was putting in the RAM and connecting everything together.  So while I still may do a guide on how to build a computer using that machine, I think my main guide will use either my Dell XPS or my second hand PC.

The final hardware configuration (and links to sites where I purchased material) is as follows:

The online prices have changed, but I think the total cost to me was about $180.

I got Windows Server 2008 R2 setup, and I’ll be posting a guide on how I made a bootable USB. Here is a screenshot of proof that I finally got it working!

Atom Windows ServerStill not sure if I am going to stick with Windows Server.  I may switch to Windows Home Server, or maybe just over to Ubuntu Server 10.4 when released.

Blashphemy!

Posted by on 13 March 2010 No comments

So I’m still looking into replacing my giant server with a budget of $200.  Currently what I have so far is:

This brings me to about $160, well under budget.  I’ll cannibalize the 500 gig hard drive from the existing server, and borrow the DVD drive to install (dun dun DUNNNN) Windows Server 2008 R2.  I got a free copy through Microsoft’s Dreamspark, and I’m gonna try it out.  I’ll back up all the data on the 500 gig drive, and I wont touch the Ubuntu machine’s 60 gig OS drive, but I’m hoping to give it an honest try and see what Microsoft has to offer when it comes to a home server. Expected power usage is about 20 watts, which is about a tenth of the current power usage of the Dell server.

I dunno what to expect from using MS Server, but I want to at least try.  If I hate it, I can always just go back to Ubuntu Server 9.10.

Possible 540house server “upgrade”

Posted by on 4 February 2010 No comments

So there really is no reason for the server to be on the machine its on right now. The server is a P4 3.0GHz with 1GB PC3200 400MHz RAM in a 7 year old Dell configuration. The thing must suck a lot of power. To save some money in the long run, I’m thinking about switching it to an Atom machine. Here is the possible configuration:

Would be about $150, and according to the PSU calculator, would drop my power consumption from 229 watts to 54 watts.  A 175 watt saving will save me about $150 in electricity, if assuming $0.10 per kWh.  Then again we split the electricity bill 5 ways, so I’d really only save $30 a year, but I think of it as an investment.  I just hope the savings in electricity won’t also mean I lose computing power.

I’m gonna post on reddit to see if they have any advice.