Headline: New environmentally friendly server?

special_cool_32.png My dual PIII RAID server has been making grinding noises for a few months (it probably didn't like the 6months in storage), and as the p4 vmware server has been nothing but trouble since I bought it, I finally decided to buy a new system to replace them both.

Enter a Sonata designer case containing a Core2 Quad, 4GB ram and dual 500GB disks, that will be runing linux software raid, debian amd64 etch, and vmware server.

So far, I've installed 3 times - the last one using a custom netinst 2.6.23 debian image that supports the ICH9R? SATA chipset on the P35 based motherboard.

The NVidia 6800GT card (fanless) didn't seem to work well with X11, so I upgraded to debian testing (a 6 minute wait, while it sourced the packages and upgraded them), after which that worked fine.

Installing VMWare server was next up, and serendipity hit again - VMWare just released beta 1 of VMWare Server 2.0 - expanding the capabilities of the system - Installed it, and moved over a few of my VM's - they work - like magic.

Setting up Software RAID was surprising - there was no option in the installer, so I've done it manually, the same way as previously - Cargo cult at its best - http://xtronics.com/reference/SATA-RAID-debian-for-2.6.html

so... What did I get?

  • Mains Power Meter with real-time power monitoring - plug in your main-powered devices and see how much they draw - ala Dans data - so far the new server seems to be using 125W
  • Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz Processor, Quad core (Kentsfield) LGA775 95w 2x 4mb cache, BX80562Q6600? G0 SLACR
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P LGA775 M/B, 1333FSB, 2x PCI-E x16, PCI-E x1, 2x PCI, 8x SATA, GigaLAN?, Firewire, Audio w/SPDIF
  • Corsair Twin2X? 4096MB 240-pin DDR2 XMS2-6400 Twin Pack (2x 2048mb sticks) w/heat spreader, 5-5-5-15
  • Antec Sonata designer Miditower Case, 3x 5.25, 1x 3.5 ext/4x 3.5 int, front IO, 12cm exhaust fan, 500w PSU
  • Gigabyte Geforce 8600GT 256mb PCI-E x16 video card, 2x DVI, dual-link DVI, SilentPipe? fanless
  • 500Gb Seagate Barracuda ES 7200RPM SATA-II hard disk, 16mb cache, higher reliability, ideal for RAID ST3500630NS?
  • Pioneer DVR-112D Black OEM IDE DVD-RW, 8x DVD+/-DL, 18x DVD+/-R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 40x CD-R w/software

Its quieter than my thinkpad! Draws only 5 times as much power, and is at least 8 times faster smile

It should make the TWiki nightly builds run much faster too.


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