Looking for an old computer

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Does anyone here have an old computer currently gathering dust that they're looking to get rid of? I am looking for a machine to store digital photos on and I need something with the following specs:

- SATA support (anything made in the last 6 years or so should have this)
- Room for at least two 3.5 inch hard disks (any non-low-profile machine should have this but if you're in doubt let me know what you have and I will try to research it myself)
- At least 1 gigabit ethernet connector OR an empty PCI slot (most machines made in the last 5 years will have at least one of these too).

The machine need not have any hard disks at all (but I'll take them if you're willing to part with them for free) as I'm planning on putting two fairly large ones in there once I have the machine.

I'll pay up to $75 depending on the machine. This appears to be about how much I'd have to spend to buy it on eBay, but I'd rather buy local if possible. :-)

Any takers?

Comments

buy something new

[wardv.livejournal.com]

I'd buy something new; if you buy carefully you'll save a ton on power over time.

I replaced my home server recently with a low power atom-based system, and that shaved $25/month off my power bill. That's $300/year...

I wrote up some details here: http://ward.vandewege.net/blog/2009/09/a-new-home-server/

Re: buy something new

[m00n.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting thought, although when I looked into building a new machine of my own, it looked like the cost would be at least $400 even when using very low-end parts. It's slightly more if I want to do it with AMD equipment (the chip and boards are cheaper, but everything else is marginally pricier because there are fewer hardware options overall). If I were to get a machine for $75 and spend $160 on disks, that would still amount to a difference of at least $165 which, assuming a power savings of roughly $9 a month (which is what a 70 watt power savings would amount to at current rates), would take roughly 18 months to recoup. That's kind of a long time for such a small amount of money and a power savings roughly equivalent to replacing a single incandescent light bulb. It also assumes that I'd leave the machine on 24/7 which I'm not yet sure I'm going to do.

That said, it may still be worth thinking about though. It will likely depend on whether the machines people offer (if any, of course) are significantly more power hungry than what I can build. And of course there is the matter of what happens to this equation if someone decides to donate a machine rather than selling it to me.

Re: buy something new

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Have you looked at the SheevaPlug (http://www.marvell.com/products/embedded_processors/developer/kirkwood/sheevaplug.jsp)? Costs $99, has built in gigE and a USB 2.0 port to plug in drives. Power draw: 5W. Add a two-drive enclosure for $30 or so, and throw in your two drives at your $160 price and you're under $300 *and* have low power draw.

Re: buy something new

[m00n.livejournal.com]

This does look cool enough to buy just for the geek factor, and it would be the cheapest option so far especially considering its tiny power draw (although the disks, it turns out, are going to be more like $90 each, and you can only get a two drive enclosure for under $40 if you're willing to go with something exceptionally crappy). That said, it also looks like it's very much in the early adopter phase and I wonder if anyone's managed run a RAID 1/0 array via USB on it (as would be necessary in my case). Definitely worth at least reading the Gizmodo article I think. Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: buy something new

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

It runs regular Linux, so you'd certainly be able to run the (very good) Linux software RAID 0/1.

Re: buy something new

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Have you looked into getting a Buffalo Tera Station? Perhaps one of the older models (1 or 2T RAIDs), to save money. You can install Linux on it (it's a hack, but it works great). Then you have your huge network storage server. They are pretty cheap. You can probably find an old one on ebay, and install your own, bigger, disks. You can also add external USB disks to it.

Re: buy something new

[m00n.livejournal.com]

OK let me head off a correction at the pass and indicate that I was mistaking the Atom for something else I had been looking at. Maybe I should research that one more. :-)

Re: buy something new

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

$25/month? I think you're probably mistaken. What are the rates around here? Guessing around $0.10 a unit. That would mean a reduction of 250KWh, or 350W on average (250/(30*24)).

You're hard pushed to find a machine that draws that on average. I had a twin Xeon machine once which would draw 120W at idle, 240W fully loaded, and that was extreme.

Your typical current machine will average 60-70W or so, and an Atom might be 25W... you might save $3/month. Compared to an old power hungry machine with a Pentium 4 or something, it might save up up to $6.

If you're worried about the environment, there's also the manufacturing to worry about.

Re: buy something new

[wardv.livejournal.com]

I think you need to look at your power statement a bit more closely. My last one came to $0.193/KWh when simply dividing total cost by number of KWh used. There is a (small) fixed component in the bill, so YMWV a bit. Power pricing came down a bit lately - the average for the past year or so has been around $0.22/KWh.

I agree, $25 was more than I expected, and I'm waiting for time to pass to see what my next power bills are like. I was expecting around $10/month based on what my kill-a-watt told me. My power bill was suddenly $25 lower than expected the first month after I installed the new machine. The second month has just rolled by but Nstar decided to bill me after 24 days instead of the usual 30 - I wish I knew why...

Looks like, prorated and adjusted for the slightly cheaper power, the drop is about $19 compared to last year. So, not quite $25, but still a bigger drop more than expected.