[geeks] More thoughts on the server situation

[Bill Bradford]

An update on the eventual SunHELP server move (and replacement):

- A couple people promised monetary donations, but nothing's shown up.
  Thanks for the thought, though!

- I'm no longer considering advertising on the mailing lists.  I've not heard
  back from the interested party (a long-time SunHELP sponsor/supporter) in
  more than two weeks.

- One person had promised a pair of dual-1Ghz 2U P3 boxes for cost of shipping,
  but this is now unfeasible as I'll explain below.

This weekend I built my third VIA C3-based Mini-ITX system (for details,
see http://weblog.mrbill.net/archives/2004/10/31/more-mini-itx-goodness/).

As I was doing tests after the system build, I thought "This is virtually
silent, uses next to no power, and is tiny.."

Then it hit me - why don't I just build a pair of boxes, use one for 
web/mail/etc, the other for offloading MySQL queries (Solaris x86, of 
course), and host the site on a static IP via SpeakEasy DSL when I get 
relocated?  I can get their 6M/768kbps plan for $109.95 a month, and 
that's more than plenty of bandwidth for my personal use and what the site 
currently does.  

This would kill two birds (home access, site hosting) with one stone, 
and give me 24/7 access to the hardware, but wouldn't have the noise, 
space, or power usage of rackmount or even normal desktop PC systems.

After getting feedback in private from many members of this and other 
lists, I may go for a "you can make donations, but I'm not going to 
actively solicit and shove it down your throat" fundraiser.  I'm open
to suggestions on how to do this.

I figure this for costs (based on prices from directron.com, where I
get all of my mini-ITX stuff from, and they're in Houston):

VIA EPIA V10000A Mini-ITX motherboard/CPU:	$87.99
Mitsumi 24X Laptop CD-ROM drive:		$45.99
Hitachi Deskstar 80G HD:			$59.99
CaseTronic 2699R Mini-ITX Case/PS:		$62.99
512MB PC133 SDRAM DIMM:				$78.99
Extra-long ATA100 IDE cable:			$14.95
-------------------------------------------------------
Total per system:				$350.90 (+ tax/shipping)

Alternately, I can go with a bigger case (and normal 
CD-ROM drive); its bigger and noisier but cheaper.  
I'd prefer to go with the CaseTronic cases with the 
external "brick" power supplies due to the "virtually 
silent" factor, but it all depends on what I can afford.

Aopen H340D MicroATX Case:			$48.50
Lite-On 52X CD-ROM drive (black):		$17.99
------------------------------------------------------
Resulting in a total cost per system:		$308.41 (+ tax/shipping)

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  I run the site and lists for you folks,
so I'd love to have some feedback.

Bill

-- 
bill bradford
austin texas