HW recommendations for light weight server

[Al Plant]

Jeffrey Goldberg wrote:
> I know that this is pretty far off topic, but I'm asking anyway.
> 
> I need to purchase/rebuild a relatively light-weight server for a small 
> LAN.  It will run a small MySQL server, DNS, DHCP, nagios, LDAP, 
> syslog-ng and a few other things, serving only a LAN.  My previous box 
> running this was a cheapo Fry's reject.  I went through two power 
> supplies on that one, before I gave up on it.
> 
> My current box is an HP Pavilion Slimline s3220n
> 
>   
> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01154947&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3548659 
> 
> 
> that I got at a CompUSA fire sale.  Although it is still running, the 
> case near the power supply is very hot to the touch and it is giving off 
> a terrible stench.  CPU temperatures are perfectly fine, but I'm taking 
> the smell as a very bad sign.  That machine came with many things that I 
> don't use (DVD burner (only used during FreeBSD installation), TV tuner, 
> Wireless, etc) so they shouldn't be drawing any power.
> 
> I need something that will run 24/7 in an environment that can sometimes 
> get up to 30C.  (I live in Texas, and try not to over do the air 
> conditioning.)
> 
> Something with an amd64 architecture would make the transition easier, 
> since I might be able to use my current disk.
> 
> So any thoughts or recommendations will be welcome.  If people wish to 
> email me off list, I'll provide a summary of responses.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -j
> 
> 
Aloha,

My servers are housed in a shed. I have louvers at the top and bottom so 
  the laws of convection work well. I have had hot powersupplies at 
times. I usually change them to a heavy duty one mostly taken from cast 
off military or HP boxes. This usually solves the problem nicely. Also 
in every one of my servers I added a big fan over and above the ones 
that come with the box. (I dont have to worry about noise with the 
servers since that are in the outside shed).

For reference: I live in a uplands area on Oahu where our night 
temperatures is in the upper 60's (18c) and in the fall the daytime can 
be in the low 90's (35c)


~Al Plant - Honolulu, Hawaii -  Phone:  808-284-2740
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"All that's really worth doing is what we do for others."- Lewis Carrol