Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
1000BaseT. We've complained elsewhere about the 25 MB/s throughput
of USB 2.0, and, at about 10 MB/s, 100BaseT is even worse. A 1000BaseT
network transfers data at about 100 MB/s, or about the same rate as a fast
hard drive. That's acceptably fast for our purposes, so we'll choose a mother-
board that supports 1000BaseT Ethernet.
Hardware Design Criteria
With the functional requirements determined, the next step was to establish
design criteria for the home server hardware. Here are the relative priorities we
assigned for our home server. Your priorities may, of course, differ.
Price ★★★✩✩
Reliability
★★★★✩
Size ★★✩✩✩
Here's the breakdown:
Noise level
★★★✩✩
Price
Price is moderately important for this system. We don't want to spend mon-
ey needlessly, but we will spend what it takes to meet our other criteria.
Expandability ★★★✩✩
Processor performance ★★✩✩✩
Reliability
Reliability is the single most important consideration. If this system goes
down, we're out of action until we can get it running again. We didn't
award this category five stars because we don't have the budget to build a
professional-grade server with expensive features like dual-failover mother-
boards or redundant power supplies.
Video performance ✩✩✩✩✩
Disk capacity/performance ★★★★✩
Size
Size is relatively unimportant. Our home server will reside under the desk
in Robert's office, which has enough room for a mid-tower system. (A full
tower would be pushing it.)
Noise level
Noise level is unimportant for a server that sits in a server room, but in a resi-
dence it may be critical. Because the home server will be installed in Robert's
office, it's important to keep the noise level relatively low. We'll choose quiet
standard components, but not expensive “Quiet PC” technologies.
Expandability
Expandability is moderately important. Our server will initially have four
hard drives installed, but we may want to expand the storage subsystem
later. Similarly, although we'll use the integrated SATA and network inter-
faces initially, we may eventually install additional disk adapters, network
interfaces, and so on.
Processor performance
Processor performance is relatively unimportant. Our home server will run
Linux for file sharing, which places little demand on the CPU. However, the
server may eventually run some server-based applications. The incremen-
tal cost of installing a budget dual-core processor and sufficient memory
to support those possible software upgrades is small enough that we'll do
it now and have done with it.
