Aperture

I’ve build before servers in my life, for different peoples and companies, but never for myself. Usually with a brad name like HP, IBM, Dell and others things are pretty straight forward: you choose a model, customize it according with your needs, and also have the option for the equipment to be shipped fully configured (from hardware perspective), or buy the barebones (case + motherboard) and components separately and start assemble on your own.

Here, when you start something from scratch, it’s a bit trickier, because you have to pay real close attention to all details. (for example, a CEB form factor motherboard will not fit in a E-ATX case, and vice versa). What type of CPU cooling is required? Unless the server is rack mountable and the case design supports passive cooling, stay out of setups with heat sink only as most likely you’ll have around 30 seconds of operation time until thermal shutdown. What power supply to use? Very careful here. Consider the following aspects:

Continue Reading »