[Cialug] Small and quiet Linux box suggestions

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

On 2014-04-23 at 09:50:50 Thomas Kula wrote:
> I've been seriously considering replacing the home box with an Intel
> NUC, primarily for power savings (my ConEd bill every month raises my
> blood pressure a good 10 points).

Sounds like electricity on the East coast is a bit more expensive than 
back in Iowa. About 6-7 years ago i replaced my home servers with 
nearly-silent low-power machines i bought from SolarPC, and i think over 
the years that they have paid for themselves. More recently though i've 
also moved my servers offsite; the only thing i still run at home is my 
primary DNS. I haven't figured out how to move media storage and backups 
offsite; right now i have a 2 TB hard drive in my main machine that 
holds those. I'd be reluctant to put them off site because 1) bulk 
storage is expensive and 2) internet service is so slow here that it 
would make my media unusable. If i could find a cheap colocating option, 
maybe that would solve the expense problem, but the only way for me to 
get dramatically faster internet is to move to a neighborhood that has 
newer wiring.

I should measure how much power my current home machine uses; when i 
built it in 2008 my main concerns were power consumption and noise. It 
is a *lot* quieter than my previous machine (built in 1998 for 
performance without regard to anything else). But still pretty loud; i 
don't use the phone in the same room as the computer, and have no 
problem hearing it from an adjacent room. I'd like something quiet 
enough that i don't notice it unless i put my head by it.

__
Daniel A. Ramaley
Network Engineer 2

Dial Center 122, Drake University
2407 Carpenter Ave / Des Moines IA 50311 USA
Tel: +1 515 271-4540
Fax: +1 515 271-1938
E-mail: daniel.ramaley at drake.edu