Server OS

[code_glitch]

I'm finally getting round to building that all important server, based on a D510 motherboard (atom dual core with hyper-threading so 4 threads in total). It all comes down to around £170 for everything. However, it leaves one MAJOR gap: The server has to be able to use the WH1081 weather station sitting outside - and thats Millenium or later by M$ only. So the question is:

What would you use as a server os? Bearing in mind it also has to run PHP, Apache, Ftp, weather (cumulus) and dish out data at the end of the day; I had windows server in mind or possibly a REALLY sliimmed down version of vista (I got one running comfy on 128mb ram, celeron M (single core 1.8ghz) at one point) thanks to vlite... I'm not keen on xp for cache and security reasons as well as compatibility issues with software I run.

Any thoughts?

The specs are as follows:
1.66GhZ Cpu
2GB - 2.5GB depending on whether I find that spare 512 lying around and if it's compatible
500gb Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA 2 16MB cache@ 7200rpm
120watt (plenty) psu
all wrapped in a compucase 8K07BU for mini-itx

I do have doubts on the hard drive but the price goal is around £35.

Edit: The atom is the (funny enough) D510 chip with GMA 3150 (not really important) and I might blog the building with a few snaps perhaps... At least its cheaper that other Atom rigs like the eeeBox or Revo (around £280)... And if you dont need weather data, use ubuntu - its free. I just happen to have licenses for windows lying about randomly. Like when I upgraded my Vista premium x86 machine to 7 ultimate x64... I wonder why? No names mentioned *cough*Hp*cough* and bloatware =]

[paul_nicholls]

I would use Windows 7 over Vista, less resource hungry and is even better...

You would have to check if your hardware is compatible with Win7 first though.

cheers,
Paul

[code_glitch]

As far as I know I should have no problems: School uses 7 enterprise on latitudes that are early atoms so yea... One of my great fears is that it will be powered up 24/7 365.25 days a year: and no atoms support ECC RAM... Whats the stability of certain editions of win7 on the long term? My win 7 (new) does 4 days non-stop before starting to screw up... Vista on the other hand (for unknown reasons does not do this) and I find I customize vista to use less resources than 7. In this case its not resources thats the problem but rather what the community would chose out of them all (preference wise). Im leaning towards Vista right now... My best boot times for vista (ever) is around 22 seconds from cold -> HDD activity off. But thats just core everything on a 2ghz machine.

Also, does anyone know if the GMA 3150 supports WDDM and how well? I HATE the basic look...

Edit: or i could get a really basic £15 graphics card; but only if there is no hop with GMA bearing in mind it will never use a monitor after install. XD I so want to see how long I last before I hook up that old CRT in the attic... Lol, its like a dare contest: every second I win. My record is around 1 week...

[noeska]

Linux should also be possible with your station: http://blog.naturalnetworks.net/2008/08/weather-station.html / http://www.weather-display.com/index.php

You need to use a 32bit linux distribution due to the weather display software, but that would be fine with your atom choice.

Also take a look at this atom barebone pc: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Barebones/NT330i/index.html

[code_glitch]

Nice links... My weather data is currently run by cumulus (love the local and net UI) and I also have needs to run other M$ specific software unfortunately... Also I looked into the foxconn machine and I have to say: those are some darn good deals. However, I found I could get a differnet hard drive (caviar blue 640 sata II from WD and keep it under £180) cheaper than £130 + HD + RAM.... Any thoughts on which version of M$ I should go for? Severly leaning towards home server/vista/7 now... Its in the high NT range. Just have a few more benchmarks to run in my VMs.

The reason I posted this was to avoid choosing something with a killer niche problem or missing out on some very sweet config of some M$ OS... Have done so in the past, dont intend to do so again. XD

[User137]

As far as Windows system stability goes, Win 7 should be the clear winner in theory. It was designed to be more efficient than Vista or WinXP from the core.

But as far as i've been extremely happy how well Win 7 works i haven't kept it on longer than 48 hours as that'd be bad for electric bill in long term. Before Win 7 came, Vista was the common laughing stock of how slow and bloated it is. It was infact worse than WinXP.

[chronozphere]

I'd definitely pick some version of linux. If you're not familiar with it, it might take some more effort to maintain, but in the end its the lightweight-est sollution out there. Almost anything you want to do with a server (with a notable exception of running game-servers) you can do with linux. :)

[code_glitch]

The thought had crossed my mind chrono; but the problem is it has to run other apps that are windows only at the moment. Thanks for that user137, the longest my win7 has stayed booted up is around 72 - 100 hours and I can say it develops some weird behaviour. My research says I should perhaps go for that Windows Home Server edition thing since it stays stable, even when booted up 24/7 weeks on end.

Or my other option (which could be a hassle) would be to run a script that reboots once every X hours? But then I have to make a failsafe startup sequence... Still thinking about it for now while those parts ship. Don't know why my motherboard ships between the 22/11 and the 22/12 when all the rest ship between the 22/11 and the 24/11... Considering its from the same seller and it is in stock.

Ps: Has anyone bought parts of amazon before? Whats the chances of them getting damaged? My last order came 'flatter' than expected. But since it was a flash drive, no harm done :P

[Brainer]

My server's running Windows XP and doing really well there. :) No need for Vista. I think you could do with Linux, too. Mint/Ubuntu/Debian are good ones for starters, if you ask me.