Low powered 1U servers (local)

DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

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Hey guys,

Anyone know where I can get a hold of some low powered (e.g. Atom) rack mount servers?

Our company firewall is on the fritz and looking to replace the tower unit with a rack-mountable unit.

It's going to be used as a PfSense firewall so must be able to accommodate enough network expansion (4 gigabit ports).

I found this site: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/rack, now just need to find out if I can something like this in Cape Town.

TIA
 
Just asking, but why an atom processor? You can fit normal processors into 1U units.
 
Pinnacle does the supermicro brand. Otherwise look on ebay. A friend recently got a second hand dual socket zeon for 5k
 
ghoti said:
Just asking, but why an atom processor? You can fit normal processors into 1U units.
Click to expand...

Basically for power consumption. It's only going to be use for a firewall. Don't need unnecessary power where I don't need it, especially with the cost of electricity these days.

paul5186 said:
Pinnacle does the supermicro brand. Otherwise look on ebay. A friend recently got a second hand dual socket zeon for 5k
Click to expand...

I'll take a look on eBay, I just usually find it costs too much to ship larger items here to make it worthwhile.

Regarding Pinnacle, I don't have an account with them and not looking to go through that effort either.
 
Pinnacle do SuperMicro. Need to be a dealer obviously.
 
Thanks guys for all your input.

Morkhans, thanks for the contact, ITS were very efficient. Should be placing our order soon.

Also, if anyone is interested the motherboard used in the unit (http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5018/SYS-5018A-FTN4.cfm) is the exact same hardware used in the pfSense branded box which they sell here: http://store.pfsense.org/c2758/. It's just a lot cheaper but obviously no Gold level support included.

Getting ours with 4GB RAM and 80GB SSD for around R10k, the pfSense hardware is close to R17k for the same thing.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Thanks guys for all your input.

Morkhans, thanks for the contact, ITS were very efficient. Should be placing our order soon.

Also, if anyone is interested the motherboard used in the unit (http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5018/SYS-5018A-FTN4.cfm) is the exact same hardware used in the pfSense branded box which they sell here: http://store.pfsense.org/c2758/. It's just a lot cheaper but obviously no Gold level support included.

Getting ours with 4GB RAM and 80GB SSD for around R10k, the pfSense hardware is close to R17k for the same thing.
Click to expand...

Lol it's identical.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Thanks guys for all your input.

Morkhans, thanks for the contact, ITS were very efficient. Should be placing our order soon.

Also, if anyone is interested the motherboard used in the unit (http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5018/SYS-5018A-FTN4.cfm) is the exact same hardware used in the pfSense branded box which they sell here: http://store.pfsense.org/c2758/. It's just a lot cheaper but obviously no Gold level support included.

Getting ours with 4GB RAM and 80GB SSD for around R10k, the pfSense hardware is close to R17k for the same thing.
Click to expand...

Lol it's identical, they just stuck a badge on it.
 
WOAH that is super expensive...

Was looking at something tiny for home, but at that price won't even bother. Getting your own chassis + atom board still works out cheaper, and I thought it is getting expensive at the R3000 mark.
 
Excellent to hear.

I'm busy with a connectivity project, and is looking around at options. The Atom CPU is an excellent idea. You really don't need a power-hungry CPU unless you do virtualization.

I have a Smoothwall running on an Atom-based motherboard at home, and it works just fine. And it doesn't guzzle power either. I reckon it's on the same performance level (if not better) as an Intel AL440LX motherboard (Pentium2 based). Best motherboard I've ever seen so far.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Yep. I will do a mini review and setup guide when we get our unit for those interested.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it will be appreciated.

When do you think will you be finished with this? I may jump the gun and get identical units for my project... (jumping into the deep end without a proper review :p)
 
Tinuva said:
WOAH that is super expensive...

Was looking at something tiny for home, but at that price won't even bother. Getting your own chassis + atom board still works out cheaper, and I thought it is getting expensive at the R3000 mark.
Click to expand...

Yep, this enterprise/business grade stuff isn't cheap. R10k for this bundle is really not bad actually, especially for a Supermicro unit.

The fact that it has 4 Intel based gigabit ethernet ports onboard is a big bonus though, getting a separate expansion card for this purpose is not cheap.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Yep, this enterprise/business grade stuff isn't cheap. R10k for this bundle is really not bad actually, especially for a Supermicro unit.

The fact that it has 4 Intel based gigabit ethernet ports onboard is a big bonus though, getting a separate expansion card for this purpose is not cheap.
Click to expand...

Cool, even better!
 
The_Librarian said:
Excellent to hear.

I'm busy with a connectivity project, and is looking around at options. The Atom CPU is an excellent idea. You really don't need a power-hungry CPU unless you do virtualization.

I have a Smoothwall running on an Atom-based motherboard at home, and it works just fine. And it doesn't guzzle power either. I reckon it's on the same performance level (if not better) as an Intel AL440LX motherboard (Pentium2 based). Best motherboard I've ever seen so far.
Click to expand...

Also have an Atom pc for my pfSense box at home, really helps with power consumption seeing as it runs 24/7.

The chipset in the Supermicro unit is actually quite beefy (for an Atom) with 8 cores it's pretty sweet. Virtualisation is definitely doable, not for resource hungry applications but firewall, mail gateway, etc it will be fine.

I had a few requirements when making a choice on hardware:

1. Must be rack mountable.
2. Must have low power consumption.
3. Must have at least 3 or 4 gigabit ethernet ports.
4. Must have pfSense (freeBSD) compatible hardware.

With these requirements it does make it tough, that's why this unit was an easy choice when I found it.
 
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