The Server

I always find it interesting to see what hardware delivers a website to my screen, and since this is a site about home servers here is a tour of my home server setup.

Since starting I've used dozens of computers as home servers, mostly cheap second hand desktop machines purchased on eBay that satisfied my performance needs at the time but with no overhead for the future. For my current servers I decided to invest in decent machinery that was designed to be a server and would last well into the future.

Server 1: HP Microserver N54L

Acquired in June 2015 to run alongside my other server below and handle all internet related tasks, keeping my data and backups separate to websites for security. To keep costs down I chose a second hand Gen 7 HP Microserver over a new machine and from my other server I knew they were reliable and suited my requirements. This cost £180 for all the specs listed with the exception of the two WD Green drives I had spare.

This machine runs Windows 2012 R2 and runs Web, Download, Remote and a bit of Storage services.

	Processor: AMD Athlon™ II Neo N54L 2.2Ghz Dual Core
	Memory: 4GB (1 x 4GB) PC3-10600E DDR3 UnBuffered ECC
	Network: Embedded NC107i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server
	Network: HP Intel 82574L PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
	Storage Controller: Embedded SATA Non Hot swap
	Hard Drive: 2x1TB Westen Digital Caviar Green SATA II on RAID1
	Hard Drive: 2x2TB Seagate ST2000D 7200rpm SATA II on RAID1
	Optical Drive: HP GH82N 16x DVD-RW DL & RAM SATA
	Power Supply: 150W Non-Hot Plug, Non-Redundant
	Operating System: Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard

Server 2: HP Microserver N36L

Purchased from new in April 2011, this machine spent four years as my main server, taking care of all server roles, web, media, download and backup. Originally started as a stock system with added 2 x 1TB WD Green drives in RAID 1 as storage and the original 250GB drive as boot, later upgrading to 4GB RAM and an additional 2 x 2TB drives in RAID 1, moving the 1TB drives to boot partition. Original cost of the system came in at £240.

Running Windows Server 2003 R2 it has been a very reliable server, with the only downtime as a result of my careless actions. However since Win 2003 finished its extended support phase from Microsoft, it's roles have been downgraded to just media and backup.

	Processor: AMD Athlon™ II Neo N36L 1.3Ghz Dual Core
	Memory: 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-10600E DDR3 UnBuffered ECC
	Network: Embedded NC107i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server
	Storage Controller: Embedded SATA Non Hot swap
	Hard Drive: 2x1TB Westen Digital Caviar Green SATA II on RAID1
	Hard Drive: 2x2TB Westen Digital Caviar Green SATA II on RAID1
	Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA
	Power Supply: 150W Non-Hot Plug, Non-Redundant
	Operating System: Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise

Server 3: Raspberry Pi B+

In operation since September 2014, this is my second Raspberry Pi, the first was intended as a learning and server system but quickly became a media player once I found out its capabilities. This Pi however is functioning as a learning tool for Linux by running Raspbian (Debian Wheezy), running in most part as a Usenet, Torrent and http download server, as well as a web server for testing and whatever else I like to try. The OS runs off a 8GB micro SD card while data is saved on a Toshiba Stor.e 1TB drive connected and powered by USB.

	Processor: Broadcom ARM11 SOC 700mhz
	Memory: 512MB SDRAM
	Network: Embedded 10/100 Base T Ethernet
	Hard Drive: Sandisk 8GB Micro SD Card (Boot)
	Hard Drive: Toshiba Stor.E Basics 1TB via USB
	Power Supply: Generic 5 Volt 2 Amp USB Micro B
	Operating System: Linux Debian 7 Wheezy