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On 15/06/13 19:16, Daniel Robinson wrote: > how credible are HP microservers for; > Drupal based website for self-contained social media. > mail server for your own private emails > file server for LAN and WAN, > > e.g > http://www.ebuyer.com/430446-proliant-microserver-turion-2-2-2gb-250gb-nhpl-sata-lff-in-704941-421 > > this has been a project on the cards for me for sometime, with privacy at > an all time low - is now the time to host your own? > Well, to start with your last question, I'd have to say yes, now is definitely a good time to host your own. I'd go further and say it's always been a good time to host your own but in the midst of the current privacy shit-storm it probably really is high time for those that care to roll up their sleeves and setup your own system. Sure, it may well not be as fancy, advanced or feature-filled as even the lamest free-to-use commercial offering but at least it's 100% yours, and there is a lot to be said for that. I've never used one of those HP Microservers to be honest - the specs do seem a little anaemic to me but at £109, it's difficult to argue that it doesn't seem like good value for money. It doesn't seem like you're going to need much firepower to serve up your needs: maybe a low cost/low power device would suit you just as well? I'm thinking a Pi (with external USB disk(s)) or perhaps a Shiva plug or similar? If you happen to have a big box of spares lying around, you could probably just build a Frankenstein machine out of anything you've got lying around - the only issue there is you will save money on the build, but if it's an older inefficient CPU it might end up burning a lot of power if it's running 24/7. A couple of things: it looks like it requires ECC RAM - although it may only prefer it, not demand it - and as you only get a paltry 2Gb included, if you want to upgrade it it will be costly. ECC RAM is much more expensive than the regular DDR crap you stuff in your PC. The onboard RAID will be laughable, and not fit for purpose. And although I seriously doubt you were considering it, don't even think about Microsoft Home Server even if it comes bundled for free. Even I'm not even going to attempt to defend that bag of crap. Let us know how you get on if you decide to go down the roll-your-own road. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq