On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 11:43:06AM +0100, Alex Scotton wrote:
(Sorry if this reposted; I keep getting mails about postponed posting because of "suspicious headers")
Putting all your eggs in one basket, aye? I want to do this too, currently running a media server, wow server, ftp server on my windows box (hides head in shame ha ha) and with 4 other pcs in the house all from time to time using bittorrent (especially me hehe).. would love to set up a buntu box as a server providing dns, possibly a few domain services (i.e. possibly storing user info etc.. people in the house log onto the server not their local account...) and in so doing provide an intranet possible of handling the bittorrent web ui, enabling peeps to upload their torrent file to the server and then leaving that to download the file and place it on a public drive when it's finished downloading.. would love to have a service that detects network load and adjusts bittorrent's bandwith allocation as appropriate...
Would also love an app to sense new computers on the network and ask my permission for it's access etc..
Let me know how your venture goes chris
I've done the sums again and it really doesn't add up from the savings point of view. It's *fairly* easy to put a 'standard' PC (i.e. one with a micro-ATX motherboard in a conventional case) that uses well under 100 watts. My current garage backup system runs at around 70 watts, even my desktop with a quad core Intel uses less than 100 watts.
On our electricity tariff that costs something like £70/year so a system that would cost getting on for £400 (with a largish external disk) to replace really doesn't make sense. It would still cost something to run so the payback period would be considerable.
I'm actually thinking again on the 'fairly economical' conventional system front, a system based on the Gigabyte GA-EG31MF-S2 motherboard (which one can actually buy, unlike the Foxconn G31MG-S which features in the same TomsHardware review) should be possible to get down below 50 watts at idle and wouldn't be very expensive. It's easy to expand, can run anything you fancy (within reason), can be pensioned off as a conventional desktop, etc. and is almost certainly significantly cheaper than a Fit-PC with similar disk space.