On 13/08/2011, at 11:08 AM, Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org> wrote:
Beyond that, a nice home file server, rsynced to something in a real data center each night. This a combo of backup plus high speed access no matter which side of the home connection you are on. I currently use a PC I built myself, which is good, but I would like something that uses less power. I'm looking hard at a Mac Mini "server", with an external RAID (perhaps 2x3TB drives, RAID 1) as I think it will draw even less power, but I'm not sure yet.
You might notice a trend with me, low power, which means low heat output and long runtime on UPS, fanless so no noise, small footprint. Gotta have GigE to every room wired for desktops, printers, cameras, TV's, playstations, etc. Netgear 5 port switches are awesome, lifetime warranty, small, cheap.
The holy grail I'm searching for now? A GigE switch with POE, unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective; but with NO FAN.
We moved overseas and power/space/cooling is harder to provide so out with all of the rack-mount gear, in with the efficient and small stuff. I had a 42U rack at home full of various kit that I'd collected. Much of the rack mount went to work where I've squirreled it in to a closet and use it to archive my mail -- much cleaner solution than the crap (Exchange with mandatory automated archiving) that IT provides. @home: X-Serves running OS X Server became Mac Mini's without much fuss. Rackmount Cisco 35xx's became 3560's (fan less) and I added a small Netgear GigE switch. Moved away from the Nokia IP380 running pFsense and back to a Soekris. By far my favorite addition was a used QNAP from Ebay. 6 Bays - holds 4 x 2TB drives currently and has my movies, music, laptop backups, family pictures, and so forth... QNAP client for the iPad has saved many a fight over the TV. Still working on the Asterisk server to power the VoIP phones -- moving from a 4U rack mount intel to a dedicated G4 mac mini. Also bought a Intel Solo Mac Mini for cheap and upgraded the processor to a 2.33Ghz Intel Duo -- fun project and dedicated the box to PLEX in the media center. jy