Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Your Mileage May Vary
Although we tested the configuration we used to build our own home server, we did
not test permutations with all the listed alternatives. Those alternatives are simply
the components we would have chosen had our requirements been different. That
said, we know of no reason the alternatives we list should not work perfectly.
CaseandPowerSupply
Antec Atlas 550 Server Case
(
http://www.antec.com
)
More Power
Why a 500W power supply? Even if
we load this system to the gills with
hard drives and other peripherals, a
350W power supply would probably
be adequate.
For 20 years or more, we've over-
specced power supplies in servers
because we want the power supply
to run at half or less of its rated
capacity. The downside is that a
lightly loaded power supply is slightly
less efficient in terms of power
consumption. The upside is that a
lightly loaded power supply produces
cleaner power and runs much cooler,
which greatly extends its expected
service life.
A home server can be built in anything from a tower case specifically designed
to house servers down to the smallest of small form factor cases. True server
cases are usually large, heavy, and expensive—overkill for a typical home server.
Very small cases may be suitable for some home servers, but their lack of drive
bays and low-output power supplies often rule them out.
For our home server, the ideal case must be reasonably priced, be equipped
with a top-quality power supply of 500W or more, have at least six or eight
drive bays—ideally, with provisions to soft-mount hard drives for higher
reliability—and have enough fans (or fan positions that we can populate) to
provide high cooling efficiency. We'd also like the case to be attractive and
reasonably quiet.
The key considerations for a home server case are the number of drive bays
it provides and its cooling efficiency. In a residential environment, noise level
and appearance may also be important. For us, all four of those factors were
important. We wanted at least half a dozen hard drive bays to accommodate
our initial disk configuration while leaving drive bays available for future ex-
pansion. Effective cooling is critical for obvious reasons. Noise level is impor-
tant because this server will live in Robert's office, which already has several
computers contributing to the noise level. Appearance is important because
Robert doesn't want an ugly box sitting in his office.
We budgeted $140 to $160 for the case and power supply, because a top-
quality 500W or better power supply costs at least $80 and a suitable case at
least $60. That ruled out several otherwise suitable server cases from Intel and
Super Micro that were priced considerably higher. If our budget could have ex-
tended to $200 or more, we'd have seriously considered models like the
Antec
Titan 650
, the
Intel SC5299UPNA
, and the
Super Micro CSE-733i-645
.
Case, Yes. Power Supply, No.
If you intend to recycle an old case as
your new home server, we strongly
recommend that you replace the
power supply and case fans. Even
top-quality power supplies and case
fans have a design life, typically five
years, and the lower-quality power
supplies and fans used in mass-
market systems may well be on their
last legs after only two or three years
of use. While you're at it, consider
adding case fans if there are unused
fan positions in your case. The more
air you have moving through the
system, the cooler it will run and the
more reliable it will be.
In the $150 price range, the
Antec Atlas 550
is the standout choice, so much
so that we couldn't find any comparable cases at anything close to its price.
Despite its mini-tower form factor, the Atlas 550 provides a total of eight drive
bays—four external 5.25” bays and four internal 3.5” bays—and accepts full
ATX (although not extended ATX) motherboards. Only the four internal bays
have shock mounts for the hard drives, but if we want to install drives in the
external bays we can use silicone washers from the hardware store.
