[OT]: Mini-ITX systems (was Re: server questions)

[Bruce Marshall]

On Thursday, May 12, 2011, Yu Meng Chong wrote:
> t very sure. The problems
> I have been seeing recently all relate to weird environmental changes
> in my country. Some days it gets so hot outside that it knocks out the
> air-conditioning in the server room (normally just a closet space), 
> which is why I need something that runs cool; other times, when there
> is a thunderstorm (and those seem far more violent now than maybe a
> decade ago) it can fry systems if there is no surge suppression (and 
> sometimes, even when there is). I've had to replace quite a few power
> supplies already.
> 
> One last question: I suppose you are using 2.5-inch hard drives in 
> those boxes - how are those for running 24 hours? Are they reliable?  

Very nice! I wish they sold casings like that here in Singapore, but
all we get are very kitschy ones with floral designs(!).

Is the power supply for your casing one of those external power 
bricks similar to laptop power supplies? I think those are more 
reliable than ATX power supplies, but I'm not very sure. The problems
I have been seeing recently all relate to weird environmental changes
in my country. Some days it gets so hot outside that it knocks out the
air-conditioning in the server room (normally just a closet space), 
which is why I need something that runs cool; other times, when there
is a thunderstorm (and those seem far more violent now than maybe a
decade ago) it can fry systems if there is no surge suppression (and 
sometimes, even when there is). I've had to replace quite a few power
supplies already.

Yes, all of my pwr supplies are the bricks, even the earlier ones that aren't 
RoHS compliant.

http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-power-kit



One last question: I suppose you are using 2.5-inch hard drives in 
those boxes - how are those for running 24 hours? Are they reliable?  

Yes, and those too come in  'slim' and 'not so slim'  but I don't know what 
the real designation is.   For example, I originally bought a box from 
polywell.com   computers that had an 80GB drive.  I figured "what the heck", 
why not upgraded it to 250GB since they don't cost much.  But the 250gb drive 
was about twice the thickness of the 80GB drive and wouldn't go into the 
polywell chassis.   Which set me off to build a whole new box.  The M350 has a 
different mounting system and can handle either thickness.

There are good 2.5 inch drives and not so good ones.  Here's a good one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148703

with Highest nearline reliability with an MTBF of 1.4M hours

I haven't had any problems with lower costs drives save one:

After about 12 months of 24/7 running, I awoke one morning to find that my 
email/firewall  drive was doing strange things.   A list of any files would 
show many were ?????  for the information.  No commands would run save those 
that are in the bash shell.   In short, I figured the drive was shot and began 
work to rebuild the server on another mini-ITX I just happened to have ordered 
recently.   So I rebuilt the box....

After putting the new box in place, I fired up the old box to see how bad it 
was...    and everything was just fine!  Some sort of glitch??  Don't know but 
the box is still here but not running at the moment.  I may put it to some 
lower level use or replace the harddrive.  But I think I would want to give it 
a workout to see if it has problems again.