STH Build a Server for Charity Program v1

[Patrick]

Updated 5/23/2013 - Main site post on the charity web server project. Please post in this thread if you have suggestions and if you want to participate.

We are finally launching the build a web server for charity project as previously described here: http://forums.servethehome.com/serv...tions/1072-servethehome-fun-diy-projects.html

This is a bit of an experiment but may also be a good way to get a tax deduction.

 

[Mike]

I'll laugh my butt off if someone proposes a c6100 node with a 12v power brick for this project.

 

[Biren78]

I'll laugh my butt off if someone proposes a c6100 node with a 12v power brick for this project.

LOL'd at that. Not too far off though. $28 l5520 and $5 sticks of 2GB RDIMMs.

 

[Lost-Benji]

I will ignore the thread if I see another c6100 article, so bloody over them............

There are plenty of cheap AMD CPU's and boards around the sprout gut-loads of PCIE slots for cheap HBA's, bang on Windows 8 with Storage Spaces and you have a very cheap server platform.

 

[Biren78]

I will ignore the thread if I see another c6100 article, so bloody over them............

There are plenty of cheap AMD CPU's and boards around the sprout gut-loads of PCIE slots for cheap HBA's, bang on Windows 8 with Storage Spaces and you have a very cheap server platform.

For $200 not gonna happen for a C6100. Pre the Xeon 5400 series AMD was still doing really well so at this price point maybe we will see one. Are you going to try it?

 

[Lost-Benji]

For $200 not gonna happen for a C6100. Pre the Xeon 5400 series AMD was still doing really well so at this price point maybe we will see one. Are you going to try it?

Not sure what your asking matey?

5400 Xeon would be s771 and not well known for being great on power/noise. Yes, they are getting real cheap now but good boards are starting to dry up a little.
I was referring more at the smaller FX81XX or 83XX CPU's and the handful of boards that support ECC RAM (Gigabyte).

If on a shoe-string then we need guidelines as to size of server and desired performance.

 

[Mike]

The c6100 joke was not meant to derail this thread. It's a very good and fun initiative!

 

[Smalldog]

If this is somehow tax deductible, I would gladly donate a barebones 4 node C6100 (no CPU, RAM or HDD's), but does include a single power supply, and heatsinks. Just cover the shipping which might be about $50.

 

[Lost-Benji]

LOL, settle fellas. I was having a stir.

C'Mon Pat, we have nothing to go on here. Give us an intended use (the term "Server" is too broad) and the budget.

 

[Patrick]

Likely only going to be a $200 budget. Needs to be a web server. Also needs to run the STH linux benchmark suite.

 

[Patrick]

Main site post: http://www.servethehome.com/fun-diy-project-charity-build-web-server/

Time to give this a try.

 

[dba]

Great idea Patrick. I have enough unused parts (that aren't worth selling) to put together a nice web server. It probably won't be the fastest, and maybe not the cheapest, but it'll be a solid web server that I'd be proud to donate. I'll find the eBay receipts to make it official and give it a go. No $ needed since I already have the parts - except for RAM perhaps.

Main site post: http://www.servethehome.com/fun-diy-project-charity-build-web-server/

Time to give this a try.

 

[Patrick]

OK dba is in. I can provide RAM of course.

 

[nitrobass24]

I might have some extra DDR3 ECC laying around.

 

[dba]

Now I'm sorry that I did, but in the name of cheap I just bought six 1Gb ECC DIMMS for $2 each on eBay. I'm not used to thinking RAM in numbers that small, but 6GB should be more than enough for a web server.

OK dba is in. I can provide RAM of course.

 

[FrankTheTank]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm interested in participating but I'm not sure I understand the rules. Do we post a proposed design and compete for the $200 gift?

Cheers,
Tank

 

[Patrick]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm interested in participating but I'm not sure I understand the rules. Do we post a proposed design and compete for the $200 gift?

Cheers,
Tank

Wow! That would be a way better idea! The thought this time is that we make the gift, then the participants will go shopping for the best parts they can. They can then document the finds and the builds for others to see.

 

[FrankTheTank]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. This is really quite a challenge as I would want to build in high availability and that is proving hard to do based on the searches and parts I have looked at thus far. Good stuff and great fun! I'm going to have to look at some Andriod options.

I like the idea of two mini-itx systems running centos in a cluster. I was toying with trying to find the parts below at a price point that would work but haven't had any luck thus far.

2x ASRock E35LM1 AMD E-240 APU AMD A50M Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo = 109.98 from Newegg
2x G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-2GBNQ = 49.98 from Newegg

by the time I add a decent power supply, a case, and some sort of storage I keep coming up closer to $250.00 with shipping. I'm having fun trying out different options though!

 

[Spartus]

I would like to participate in this charity build.

My proposal would be built around a combo currently available for a mini-itx board with celeron 847 chip and ram included for $83 bucks. I'm confident I can build a respectable home server on all new Sandy Bridge generation hardware for under $200.

I happen to have two units of the MB, CPU, RAM combo in hand already (received yesterday) and would be happy to document a build using them and provide one of them to a charitable cause at the end.

Cheers!

Edit: to add details below.

mITX and case and PSU is $50 locally, which means MB, CPU, RAM, Case & PS puts me at 134. I can definately do the rest in budget, and it will have twice the (cpu) performance of an AMD APU build.

 

[Lost-Benji]

Small AMD or Xeon CPU to support ECC RAM (we don't want corruption from cheap, domestic memory). Board to support ECC as well and then the magic, a SSD to hold OS/data for speed and fast I/O.

I like the cluster idea too, just a little unsure on what performance/reliability a person would expect from a sub-200 web server.