Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Pournelle, we looked at Falcon Electric UPSs, which turned out to be as good
as Jerry said they were. (Years ago, an earthquake rattled Chaos Manor, knock-
ing over everything in the server room. All of Jerry's equipment failed, except
the Falcon Electric UPS, which just kept running, lying on its side amidst the
debris of his computer room.) We've now used Falcon Electric units exclusively
for about five years, without so much as a hiccough.
Falcon Electric units are built to industrial standards, and priced accordingly.
You won't find Falcon UPSs at online resellers or big-box stores, but they are
readily available from numerous distributors. Check the Falcon Electric web-
site for details.
Our server connects to a 2 kVA Falcon Electric SG Series On-Line UPS that was
already located in Robert's office, protecting his desktop system. That unit has
plenty of reserve capacity to protect the server as well, so there was no need
to install a separate UPS for the server.
We think it's worth spending the extra time, effort, and money to get a Falcon
Electric UPS. They really are better-built and more reliable than consumer-
grade models. If the Falcon Electric units are out of your price range, we think
the APC Smart-UPS units remain the best of the mass-market UPSs, despite the
problems we and our readers have had with them from time to time. (We've
had more problems with other brands.) If you're on an even tighter budget,
the APC Back-UPS units are reasonable choices.
If you've decided to forego a UPS entirely, we suggest you think again. Any
power protection is better than none at all. Even the inexpensive units that
look like fat outlet strips are better than nothing. Their run-time is very short,
but even a few seconds of backup power is often sufficient. If you buy one
of these inexpensive units, just make sure that the VA rating is high enough
to support the draw of your server. Also be aware that the built-in surge and
spike suppression in these units is often very poor, so it's worthwhile to install
a good surge protector between the power receptacle and the UPS.
ComponentSummary
Table 8-1 summarizes our component choices for the home server system.
Table 8-1.
Bill of materials for home server
Component
Product
Case
Antec Atlas 550 Server Case
Power supply
(Bundled 550 W)
Motherboard
ASRock K10N78M Pro
Processor
AMD Athlon II X2 240 (retail boxed)
CPU cooler
(Bundled with processor)
Memory
Crucial CT2KIT25664AA800 PC2-6400 4 GB kit (2 GB
×
2)
Video adapter
(Integrated)
Sound adapter
(Integrated)
Hard drives
Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB (three)
