Mini ITX Server

[nslay]

I recently built a Mini ITX server to replace a larger, more power hungry, desktop server.  This is the setup.  The motherboard is relatively expensive but includes dual RJ45 jacks, 64 bit dual core HT Atom D510, and PCIe.  You can find cheaper boards with dual RJ45 jacks, but with legacy PCI (some with Mini PCIe which is worthless) and x86 VIA processors. I'm hoping to get many years out of this system and I don't want legacy hardware or software interfaces.

This server serves as a Wi-Fi access point, ethernet router, stateful firewall, NFS server, SVN server, SSH server (tunneling), and web server.

The D-Link DWA-556 is one of two PCIe wireless cards that I could find (Neither Netgear nor Linksys produce one).  It's based on the Atheros AR5008 chipset and works swell for hostap in FreeBSD and Linux (as with previous Atheros chipsets).  The other PCIe wireless card is the cheaper Asus PCE-N13 which is based on the Ralink RT2860 chipset and presently only supported by OpenBSD and Linux.  I have no experience with Ralink cards and hostap.  I would only recommend Atheros cards for Wi-Fi access points.

For size comparison, here is a picture of a mid-tower ATX case and a Mini ITX case side-by-side.  Here, the Mini ITX system is being configured to assume it's new role.

NOTE: If you build a Mini ITX system with a slim drive (e.g. like a Laptop DVD drive), be sure to order a Slim SATA cable as slim drives don't use the ordinary SATA cables.  Slim SATA cables combine power and SATA into one.

[deadly7]

I personally dislike ITX cases--many personal experiences with awful heat dissipation resulting in destroyed parts.. yech.

[nslay]

I personally dislike ITX cases--many personal experiences with awful heat dissipation resulting in destroyed parts.. yech.

Nice thing about this particular setup is that the Atom is passively cooled.  I'm still shocked that a dual core processor with HT (quad core-ish) stays cool to the touch.  The only thing that would get hot is the hard drive, but it has it's own dedicated cooling fan at the top of the case.  Even so, I got a WD Caviar Green that's supposed to consume 40% less power and run much cooler than standard drives. 

[while1]

Nifty, I may have to do something like that.