[Tfug] Using a Laptop as a server

[John Hubbard]

On 3/13/2013 12:30 PM, keith smith wrote:
>
> Hi TFUG!!
>
> A number of years ago, maybe 10 years ago, TFUG was run on a laptop 
> for a while.  I did not notice any difference. It was during a time 
> when the list was a little more active.
>
> I was thinking of hosting several websites from my home office using 
> my Cox business account.  I do not want all the extra heat of a 
> mini-tower and have found laptops to produce much less heat.
>
> I've been looking at an i3 HP as a potential web server. Of course it 
> is not going to be as fast as a mini tower with faster drives, however 
> I think it will beat shared hosting or even a lower priced VPS.  It 
> probably will not compete with a dedicated or managed server, however 
> I'm not sure I need that much power right now.  And if I do need that 
> much power that would be a blessing and I would make the move to a 
> server in a data center.
>
> Any thought about using an HP i3 with 4G of RAM as a LAMP server?
>
> Thanks!!
>

If you are really power concerned you might consider an Atom server 
processor [1].  Alternatively Intel makes both a 17* and a 20 watt Xeon 
E3 [2].  If you are willing to go up to 25, or 40 watts you get even 
more options.  Now you'll have to be a little bit careful to choose a 
power efficient motherboard, but one of those Xeon options will give you 
the ECC memory others have mentioned, and will be MUCH more flexible.  
If you do need more horse power, you can drop in a higher power chip.  
You'll have plenty of space for redundant HDDs (or small SSDs, which I'd 
vote for).  If you disable the chipset features that you don't need that 
might save a little more power. Add in an appropriately spec'd high 
efficiency power supply should get you pretty close to the laptop power 
draw.  You'll probably spend a similar amount (and not get the 
'keyboard' or 'display' but the ones that come on cheap laptops aren't 
much).  Unfortunately I can't easily get you the power consumption of my 
Atom/ION system (zotac mini-itx).  If you're interested let me know and, 
I'll power down/unplug some other stuff hooked up to my UPS.

Keep in mind that as long as Intel holds the process advantage it will 
be hard for other x86 systems to compete on power consumption given 
similar performance.  There is always Arm though...

* Note that the lowest power third gen I3 is 13 watts, but most are 17 
or 35 watts.
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/65503/3rd-Generation-Intel-Core-i3-Processors/mobile

[1] 
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/71263/Intel-Atom-Processor-for-Server/server
[2] 
http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t&FamilyText=Intel%C2%AE%20Xeon%C2%AE%20Processor%20E3%20Family&MaxTDPMin=0&MaxTDPMax=43

-- 
-john

To be or not to be, that is the question
                 2b || !2b
(0b10)*(0b1100010) || !(0b10)*(0b1100010)
         0b11000100 || !0b11000100
         0b11000100 || 0b00111011
                0b11111111
255, that is the answer.

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