running a shuttle pc as a server

[digininja]

Inspired by 2x10 I decided to have a look at my server and realised it is making a lot of noise, using too much power, and taking up too much space so I'm thinking of swapping it.

I have a spare shuttle pc (LINK) which, when I bought it, the shop said that it wasn't suitable for leaving on 24/7 which the server would be.

I am usually the only user on the server, so it is never really stressed, my only concern is with cooling as the shuttle uses its own cooling system rather than having a fan on the cpu.

Does anyone leave a shuttle running 24/7? Has anyone seen one burn out or do they run fine?

Comments please

[Deveant]

my shuttle crashed a few times when using just as a LAMP server (it would be on for about 78h's a week) this was due to over heating, though i fixed this by removing one side and placing a 12cm Turbo'ed fan (turbo = 2x more the voltage than specified, 1/10 of the normal life), this droped the heat enough to keep it on for the 78h's with out it crashing.

If ur thinking about running it longer, then i dont really think a shuttle is the right choice.

[digininja]

My server runs 24/7/365 so over from your experience over heating would be an issue.

I suppose I could look at getting hibernate working and have it hibernate overnight then it would only need to do 18 hour days.

[cooper]

I think you're better off replacing the CPU in there with a less capable one. You could even consider going into the BIOS and underclocking it.

Make sure your OS supports the power-saving features of the CPU, and uses them. If it's only you using the system it should be using very little power regardless.

[digininja]

Its been a while since I powered it up so I can't remember what the CPU is, I think it is an AMD 1800.

What would be good would be to have hibernate setup and some way to auto wake it up in the morning and sleep it at night. I may see if it does wake on lan and have my openwrt router wake it up and a cron job put it to sleep.

Only problem is that I've never managed to get hibernate to successfully work. I'll have to give it another try.

[Atari6502]

I had a Shuttle that I ran 24/7 running Folding@home, when I wasn't using it as my main PC.

It died. Pretty sure it was the motherboard that went after swapping out parts(which was a real pain, considering it's cramped quarters).

I still have one that works, but it does light duty, as it sits in my work locker and only comes out a few hours a night.  :)

[VaKo]

If your using windows there is this: http://www.exoid.com/?page_id=47

[digininja]

If your using windows there is this: http://www.exoid.com/?page_id=47

Nah, the server is currently ubuntu and would stay as either some flavour of linux or bsd

[VaKo]

I'm pretty sure linux can do the same thing though, just need to tweak it so it sleeps when your not using it. no point having it run full pelt when your asleep.

[digininja]

I agree, that is why I was thinking of a cron job to put it to sleep at night and a wake up script on my router to prod it in the morning before I start so it is up and ready for me. An extra idea I've just had is to have a port knocking setup on the router to wake it up if I'm away and need to access it remotely while it is turned off.

All this is good in theory but I've got so many other projects on the go or waiting to start it will probably be christmas before I get round to actually doing this!

[colemanguy]

I have a shuttle aswell with  a 2500 barton overclocked to 2.1 ghz from stock 1.83, no cooling mods, that runs a web/file/php server nonstop and have no issues with cooling.

[digininja]

Is yours one with the ICE system rather than a fan on the CPU?

[tanda333]

ive never had a shuttle, but i have had heating issues with comps before, to solve: (in most cases)

1. get out your dremel

2. cut lotsa holes

3. fit fans to holes (set it up so air flows in one end, out the other)

4. repeat.

if you putt on enough fans (40mm fans are actually just about the best size to CFM ratio wise, if you get good ones) it will keep it cool easily.

there is never a thermal related problem that cannot be solved with dremels and fans.

(may want to look into a 5.25" bay PSU just for fans.)

[digininja]

There isn't much room for any extra fans in the case, the lid basically fits around the drive bay and the space underneath it is taken up with the expansion cards.

I'm going to look at cpu freq scaling as well as the approach I mentioned about sleeping it overnight.

The only thing I'm not sure about is getting the drives to power down as I have fetchmail retrieving mail every 5 mins and so the drives will be up and down too much.