fracturedmind

I was thinking of making a new computer for a file server / general server (web, maybe mail) ... but I want to cut costs, I don't want keyboard, mouse, monitor, graphics card, sound, etc.

I was thinking of getting one of those new small cases, a nice motherboard (probably nForce2, so I can have onboard (pref. 2) ethernet) and an Athlon XP chip, 512 mgs of RAM, a nice powersupply, and a big hard-drive (maybe one for OS, one for storage).

I was wondering if anyone could explain if this would be possible: First, I want to use Linux, probably Gentoo (my favorite), so my plan is to SSH (telnet, basically) into it to use it (fast so I can encode movies, etc, in the console)... I'll set up sharing, so I can copy files from my windows machines using Samba...

My only problem would be installation, I don't want a CD Drive even, I understand with new boards (like my current one) you can boot off the network... what do I need to setup for that? I'd like to put this computer together, and be able to possibly boot off the Gentoo CD on my current computer, and once it's booted, I can ssh in and install it from my current computer... right?

Or how does network booting work? Ideas? Comments?

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It won't give up, it wants me dead, god damn this voice inside my head.

DEI37

You'll have to have a video card, otherwise it won't boot. Keyboards and mice are cheap, so there isn't any point in skipping those. I understand no sound. A server doesn't need it. If you want a mini-computer, then the Shuttle series is good. You add the processor, RAM, HDD, OS, and video card, and you're good to go. If you can find one that supports the VIA C3 processor (Socket 370), you're in great shape, because you don't need a CPU fan. A heatsink would be recommended, but a fan isn't necessary. They have 933MHz & 1000MHz versions, and are quick enough for this kind of thing. I don't know anything about Linux...never used it, so I won't get in to that, because I don't want to mis-inform you.

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Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

Moskie

Would using a KVM switch be useful? It would let you split your Keyboard, Video, and Mouse connections (hence "KVM") to two computers, and you can switch between them at will.

Also, what about just temporarily installing a cd-rom for the install process, then once you get it up and running, put it back into the first computer.

I've also messed around with a network install of... I think it was Suse. It was kind of a pain to get working, but I think it worked eventually. So it's definately an option to explore. You'd boot up using they're boot disk, and if your network card and connection is working well, you just provided an address for it to download what's neccessary for the install.

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Greetings and salutations.

fracturedmind

I need a graphic card to boot? Are you sure?

I don't want a keyboard and mouse at all, I want to cram this comp back in a corner and never touch it once I turn it on, I can control it fine from my computer over the network once I get an OS installed...

I can put a graphics card / monitor / keyboard / mouse / cd-drive on it to install, I guess, but I'd like it to work without any of those (graphics card included)...

What about rack servers, they don't have graphics cards do they?

Also, the network boot I mean isn't like SuSe... thats a CD boot, that you then use the network to download the rest of the OS with... theres a new network boot type thing, where you literally boot off the network, no CD or anything, like you give it an IP or something and it searches for something there to boot with, I guess?

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It won't give up, it wants me dead, god damn this voice inside my head.

sailor

If it is an nForce board, I believe it has an onboard video card, so you shouldnt need one.

I also think you should plug a CD drive in temporarily to install. If you dont have a spare, just rip the one out of your other machine for a bit. A KVM is also a huge boon--you will want some way to get to that machine other than SSH. If something happens to the box and SSHD goes down or something, you have no way to get to it. Again, a KVM switch is a good thing. I got a 2 port one that came with cables and works pretty damn well off of Newegg for like $30.

Rethink the movie encoding too. That is the only thing on that box that needs any sort of CPU power. If you decide to forget about that, you could go grab an old Pentium I machine for like $50 and just spend the rest of the money on hard drives.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

fracturedmind

I do have a KVM switch, I'd just rather not deal with it... if I do have a problem I can easily plug another keyboard/mouse into the machine... it's not that I don't have the junk lying around, it's that I want minimal crap under my desk and plugged into this machine.

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It won't give up, it wants me dead, god damn this voice inside my head.

sailor

Fair enough. I still think you should look at an old box though--thats what I did, and it works pretty well. Basically got my webserver for free.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

fracturedmind

Do the new 200gig drives still work fine hooked up to an old craptastic board? I agree with you, I probably won't use it much for anything intensive, but I want it to be able to transfer files as fast as possible, and not have any corruption problems or something because it's ungodly slow... does RAM make a big diff. on a file server?

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It won't give up, it wants me dead, god damn this voice inside my head.

sailor

As long as it has 128, RAM shouldnt be an issue. And speed of the processor has next to nothing to do with network transfer speed. The new drives should work fine with an old machine--it is the software that must overcome the 137GB barrier, and any newer install of Linux will. The only place I can foresee trouble would be in standards--for example, if the board is ATA66, and the drive is ATA133. They should still work fine, it just might slow the drive down some. But since the network still wouldnt be able to transfer data as fast as the HDD could write it, it wouldnt matter. If it bugs you anyways, get an PCI IDE controller and drop it in the box. It should still be cheaper than building a box from scratch.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

tritium

Considered a Network Attached Storage Device (NAS)? That might be a cheaper (long run) alternative to you setting up another meadiocre computer. They cost a little more up front, but you don't have to worry about maintaining an OS. They wouldn't be able to do any actual number crunching activity, but for a network attached HDD, they can't be beat.

Just a thought.

And, yes, having a video card is an absolute MUST for most BIOSes.

Good luck then.

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Blah.

Cocktopus

I took a crappy P2 450 system through in an IDE controller card, a 120G drive, ethernet, and I left the video card, memory and cd-rom. I formatted the drive fat 32 (so I can easily toss it into a win machine) and run hacked up knoppix for ssh and samba. There's a slight delay when accessing the machine when its sleeping (the cd has to spin up), but it works pretty well otherwise. I have it running in the closet. I've only had to boot it twice but since the outlet near the closet is nowhere near my pc, I had to string 3 kvm cables together to changes some bios settings.