What's the physically smallest/low power WINDOWS server hardware ?
- Thread starter spyrule
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ZBOX + 2TB Samsung M9T = Windows server with 2TB of space at sub-10W peak. Add an external drive you're still coming in less than 15W at a guess. With it being a Haswell part, there should be some of the Bay Trail funkiness when run without any monitor plugged in. My DN2820 is a bit crashy without a monitor plugged in, especially when the Intel graphics drivers are installed.
The again, if you wanted you could jury-rig a tiny case using a NUC board and a miniPCI-E to SATA card in place of the Wifi card. You sould than have 3x6TB drives and a mSATA boot drive.
The again, if you wanted you could jury-rig a tiny case using a NUC board and a miniPCI-E to SATA card in place of the Wifi card. You sould than have 3x6TB drives and a mSATA boot drive.
Can't believe I missed this thread. @spyrule, what did you finally go with? A while back I tried to get Win2k12 to install on my Liva 2GB and it would not install, no way, no how. I still need a solution, was going to wait to see how the next generation of little computes come out.. though the NUC ideas are good as well.
I ended up changing my direction. I went with a SM A1SAi-2550F motherboard, stuck in 16GB of ram to start, and I'm using it as an ESXi box, thats running both my firewall (Sophos UTM), my vcenter appliance, and my AD server.
I had purchased the intel NUC d54250wyb, but due to only having 1 NIC port (which would limit my future use of the device, and the cost with RAM and HDD), I decided to get the motherboard, along with a mITX case with 90W PSU for a total of $400 (including the ram), it actually saved me money, and now I have 4 physical nics + 1 IPMI port, and its running ECC memory, so much more stable.
I had purchased the intel NUC d54250wyb, but due to only having 1 NIC port (which would limit my future use of the device, and the cost with RAM and HDD), I decided to get the motherboard, along with a mITX case with 90W PSU for a total of $400 (including the ram), it actually saved me money, and now I have 4 physical nics + 1 IPMI port, and its running ECC memory, so much more stable.
yeah, you can get mac mini's fairly cheap used, but for $100 more, I can get more NICs, ECC memory for stability, and I can customize the case/package to fit my needs. Not so easy to do with a mac mini.
TBH, I dont know the name of the case, as it was a local computer stores overstock and I got it for $25 with a 90W pico PSU. I couldn't complain.
It came with a 60mm fan on the side, but the thing was stupid noisy. I happen to have a PWM 90mm fan lying around, so I cut the case lid, and installed it directly over the processor/ram area, and the fan runs at its lowest setting all the time, so it's basically silent. I could probably get away with no fan, but I prefer the safety margin the fan offers.
Just suggesting a different option.
Some interesting write ups on the nuc as well.
Part 1: The NUC Arrival | FailSys
Part 2: ESXi Owning The NUC | FailSys
Part 3: Powering a NUC off a hamster wheel | FailSys
Part 4: The NUC for Weight Weenies | FailSys
NanoLab – Running VMware vSphere on Intel NUC – Part 1 | tekhead.org
NanoLab – Running VMware vSphere on Intel NUC – Part 2 | tekhead.org
NanoLab – Running VMware vSphere on Intel NUC – Part 3 | tekhead.org
VMware vSphere NanoLab – Part 4 – Network and Storage Choices | tekhead.org
VMware Homeserver – ESXi on 4th Gen Intel NUC | Virten.net
Very interesting options everyone. I hadn't realized that the Mac Mini could run ESXi. I have s spare one that I am using as my Mac machine for testing website et al. NUC I have bought many of, the Broadwell problem of not booting headless is bad or else I would buy one.
For a low cost solution, NewEgg sometimes sells this J1800 combo board for $33: ECS BAT-I(1.2)/J1800 Intel Celeron J1800 2.41 GHz Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo - Newegg.com
The price bounces around quite a bit. I have it running headless with HomeSeer3 on Debian Linux, and it pulls 7 watts. Passive cooling. No fan. 100% silent.
I have the Zotac BI320 that came with Bing Windows. Not sure why, but it runs at lower power (around 5 watts) under Windows than it does running Linux (around 7-8 watts). It does have a fan, which you may notice if it's in your office or bedroom but it may not be noticeable behind a cabinet in your living room. Mine's in my living room (using it now to type this on the HDTV), and I like it. It also has space for an additional SSD. It came with a 64GB SSD, which may be an mSata on the other side of the motherboard, because I didn't see anything when I opened the cover.
The price bounces around quite a bit. I have it running headless with HomeSeer3 on Debian Linux, and it pulls 7 watts. Passive cooling. No fan. 100% silent.
I have the Zotac BI320 that came with Bing Windows. Not sure why, but it runs at lower power (around 5 watts) under Windows than it does running Linux (around 7-8 watts). It does have a fan, which you may notice if it's in your office or bedroom but it may not be noticeable behind a cabinet in your living room. Mine's in my living room (using it now to type this on the HDTV), and I like it. It also has space for an additional SSD. It came with a 64GB SSD, which may be an mSata on the other side of the motherboard, because I didn't see anything when I opened the cover.
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I think all Macs nowadays can run ESXi, which is the only legal way to run Mac OS X VMs (by running it on Mac hardware).
Will have to see how Win10 comes out on it. I doubt they will have server edition. Can't run ESXi on it either 
. So may not be too good a contender.
. So may not be too good a contender.