Zotac nettop home server

After reading the article on Habré about the clever build of servers on atoms, the long-awaited idea of ​​a home server was spurred by a powerful kick and, ultimately, resulted in implementation. But not everything is so fast: in the beginning it was necessary to decide which iron to use.

By a home server, they most often have in mind the file server (file storage), which is convenient for storing movies or exchanging files between home devices. First of all, I was interested in the server in a different sense: so that you can comfortably play apache + php, or even a small https-site (with a free certificate of class 1 ) or an AS like Tomcat or JBoss, raise SVN, in general, for everything the fact that it does not immediately otbtsya, but on another hosting will cost unnecessarily expensive, even with lousy TTX. These considerations influenced the choice of OS, and this has already affected the requirements for hardware: beziksovy linux in any case requires less resources than Windows, all other things being equal. On the other hand, since there is already a server, why not distribute unused disk space to the network?

Selection

It is clear that there was no meaning for my purposes, as in the above article, but, having grasped the idea of ​​using the Intel Atom and the miniITX motherboard, I quickly found ready-made solutions in the form of nettops. It seemed to the server that it was frivolous to put the nyashechka, like in the picture on the left, and after viewing the different options, it turned out that Zotac offers enough options so that you can get out of the way. Since 2007, Zotac has been producing video cards and motherboards, and now minicomputers. The range of minicomputers is striking, in particular, there are lines on Intel , AMD , Via processors. I, as a long-time supporter of Intel, chose only from Intel devices.

In terms of completeness, there are two options: simple and PLUS. The second comes with memory and screws, the first, respectively, without. It was all simple: 2.5 "I have screws, I also have enough SODIMM memory, and 2 GB are included with the memory plus and either 250 or 320 screws, in general, are not a fountain. In fact, there is extra money for unnecessary hardware, if, of course, there is something to put your own.
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In terms of the form factor, there are also two options: simply the ZBOX with linear dimensions of 188mm x 188mm x 44mm and ZBOX nano with linear dimensions of 127mm x 127mm x 45mm . The latter, in spite of the convenience of a smaller size, have a drawback: only one memory slot, which immediately excluded them from my comparison list, since I didn’t have 4GB SODIMM, but 2GB and 1GB didn’t have enough.

So, having decided that I am not taking a PLUS or a nano on an Intel process, I began to consider options. There are quite a few of those at the moment: 5 pieces of devices that are on sale and 3, which are only announced and cannot be bought even on the manufacturer’s website (respectively, we will not consider them). The plate below contains the TTH of these devices for ease of comparison.

Included with all the devices are: a power supply unit, a VESA 75/100 pendant panel (with 4 bolts) for fastening the device to the back of the monitor and a desktop stand, as well as books and a driver disk. Additional delivery options are listed in the table for each device in the corresponding row (if any).

Prices are based on the manufacturer's website. The names of the models in the table header are clickable and lead to the same manufacturer's website.

Model	ID84-U	ID80-U	ID81-U	SD-ID12-U	ID41-U
CPU	Intel Atom D2550 1.86 GHz Dual-Core	Intel Atom D2700 2.13 GHz Dual-Core	Intel Celeron 857 1.2 GHz Dual-Core	Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz Dual-Core	Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz Dual-Core
Chipset	Intel NM10 Express	Intel NM10 Express	Intel HM65 Express	Intel NM10 Express	Intel NM10 Express
Video	NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M (512MB)	NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M (512MB)	Intel HD Graphics	Intel GMA 3150	NVIDIA ION (512MB)
Sound	High-definition analog stereo Optical Digital S / PDIF output	High-definition analog stereo Optical Digital S / PDIF output	High-definition analog stereo Optical Digital S / PDIF output	High-definition analog stereo Optical Digital S / PDIF output	High-definition analog stereo Optical Digital S / PDIF output
Network	10/100 / 1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n / g / b	10/100 / 1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n / g / b	10/100 / 1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n / g / b	10/100 / 1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n / g / b	10/100 / 1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n / g / b
Maximum memory	4GB	4GB	16GB	4GB	4GB
Memory slots	2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM	2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM	2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM	2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM	2 x 204-pin SO-DIMM
Memory type	DDR3 1066 SO-DIMM	DDR3 1066 SO-DIMM	DDR3 1333 SO-DIMM	DDR3 800 SO-DIMM	DDR3 800 SO-DIMM
SATA	1 x 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb / s	1 x 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb / s	1 x 2.5-inch SATA 6 Gb / s	1 x 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb / s	1 x 2.5-inch SATA 3 Gb / s
Video ports	1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI	1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI	1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI	1 x HDMI (720p), 1 x VGA	1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI
USB ports	2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0	2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0	2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0	6 x USB 2.0	2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0
eSATA	-	-	-	+	+
Weight, kg	2.26	2.1	2	1.78	1.72
Delivery options	1 x WiFi antenna 1 x Media Remote w / USB IR receiver	1 x WiFi antenna 1 x Media Remote w / USB IR receiver	1 x WiFi antenna 1 x Media Remote w / USB IR receiver	1 x DVI-to-VGA adapter	1 x DVI-to-VGA adapter
Price	$ 262.99	$ 241.99	$ 230.99	$ 167.99	$ 230.99

As can be easily seen from the table above, the sound and network capabilities are the same in all models and can be excluded from the comparison. The video system for my application is not needed, therefore we will not compare this parameter either. The same situation is with the IR receiver and remote control: on the server it is useless. But there are still a lot of options.

The most tasteless device, as can be seen from the table, is SD-ID12 (it’s the cheapest), and the most tasty is ID81 (although it’s not the most expensive). He has a faster percentage (although the frequency is lower than that of the others), the chipset is newer, and the standard of memory is DDR1333, and it is expandable right up to 16GB. Only one problem with the device - I never found where to buy it. Even where they write that it is available, by phone it turns out that it does not.

The rest are more or less on a par, and I preferred eSATA to the newer process by choosing the ID41 model: it’s convenient, for example, to connect an external RAID.

Unpacking

This is a box in which there was a piece of metal There is also an external box inside which there was this one, but it was completely sealed with transport tape.


The same box, envelope with books and a disk, VESA suspension, bolts to it, DVI-VGA adapter (DVI - dad, VGA - mom).


The device itself with an attached stand and a power supply unit (a thick cord that is plugged into an outlet connects to a box with a thin cord).


Inside view with the already inserted screw (Seagate Momentus 5400.6 SATA II) and memory (Samsung SO-DIMM DDR1333, 2 slats 2GB + 1GB). The memory is inserted quite tightly, because at first I thought that the device did not see memory at all, then - that it saw only one bar, then everything worked out. The mount that holds the screw is rather gentle, it didn’t twist it a bit (it felt like it could crack).


Front view (overexposed). From top to bottom: power button, power indicator, wifi indicator, USB2.0 connector, cradle reader, microphone connector, audio output connector.


Rear view (also overexposed). From left to right: eSATA, 2 x USB3.0, LAN, 2 x USB2.0, DVI, HDMI, S / PDIF, powered by PSU.


The sixth USB (2.0) connector is located on one of the sides behind the rubber flap.

Installation

Next - the matter of technology. I took a flash drive, installed CentOS 6.3 for this cheat sheet (adjusted for version). Put the Apache + pkhp - everything works perfectly. I put and set up an anonymous access for samba and here lay the ambush: I killed quite a lot of time to understand why the config is normal, licked to shine for several hours, the ball appears, and the files on it are not. Everything turned out to be simple - selinux. He disconnected it from this crib (method 2) and it all worked right away.

Using

Apache

For the Apache load test, I made a page with only one call to echo phpinfo (). JMeter configured at 1000 users per second with 100 repetitions. The test showed an average request processing time of ~ 28ms (this is https), and top on the server showed an average processor load of ~ 40% (with a noticed maximum of 93% and a minimum of 17%).

Samba

It shows good speed: on average, both in reading and writing, of the order of ~ 50MB / s with peaks at the start up to 85MB / s and dropping to ~ 40MB / s somewhere after pumping one and a half to two gigabytes.

findings

An excellent device, it works quite fast, small in size, has many connectors, I am very pleased with it, and I wish it to all readers.