Small Eco Friendly Powerful Quiet Linux Box Recommendations

[BreakingDad]

OK,

Joking aside I have decided to break down the new toy and sell the parts on Ebay, while it is working well and seems a shame (It's Original cost was in the region of 3K (12 years ago), it is just too noisy, energy consuming (160w on boot, 106w on idle, I bought a watt meter, best thing ever).

Now I have seen and tested Kubuntu, got vnc working on it etc I can see what can be done with something a little more modern.


So I am looking for another new toy.

Requirements.

Linux, Ideally Silent (top priority to get around the wife, if she doesn't hear it she doesn't notice it, but if not ultra quiet, Small Size, Powerful CPU 3.5ghz (Ideally more) Multicored + , 16gb+ memory, SSD, Cheap as possible, Low wattage. Will probably run a Steam Server or similar on it 24/7.

Any recommendations good people and @Tech9 ?

 

[eightiescalling]

OK,

Joking aside I have decided to break down the new toy and sell the parts on Ebay, while it is working well and seems a shame (It's Original cost was in the region of 3K (12 years ago), it is just too noisy, energy consuming (160w on boot, 106w on idle, I bought a watt meter, best thing ever).

Now I have seen and tested Kubuntu, got vnc working on it etc I can see what can be done with something a little more modern.


So I am looking for another new toy.

Requirements.

Linux, Ideally Silent (top priority to get around the wife, if she doesn't hear it she doesn't notice it, but if not ultra quiet, Small Size, Powerful CPU 3.5ghz (Ideally more) Multicored + , 16gb+ memory, SSD, Cheap as possible, Low wattage. Will probably run a Steam Server or similar on it 24/7.

Any recommendations good people and @Tech9 ?

Interested to see recommendations here.

When I was trying to get something for this setup a while back, silent typically meant passive cooling which wasn't compatible with small. And airflow for cooling with small devices meant loud fans.

Have you got any asks of the GPU in this? Plex transcoding for example.

 

[Tech9]

When I need a small PC I buy one of those:

HP EliteDesk 800 Mini, different generations are available, they come in different configurations from i3 to i7, accept standard size SSD, 2x SO-DIMM slots available inside, all USB3 ports + USB-C. I have 3x in use on my personal networks, i5-4590T and i5-6400T. Power consumption on idle is <20W and they are plenty fast for all OS/tasks. Small, reliable and very quiet.

The last one I've purchased 2 months ago off eBay was G2 with i5-6400T, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 240GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro pre-installed, power adapter included, USB Wi-Fi adapter included - 180CAD or 132USD. It comes cheaper than new Raspberry Pi4 kit and is much faster and more universal hardware.

 

[Tech9]

One more picture showing better the size of this PC:

And more information about it from LinuxLinks:

HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Mini Desktop PC running Linux - Week 1 - LinuxLinks

The first in a new series looking at running Linux on a refurbished HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Mini Desktop PC with Intel Intel i5-6500T.

www.linuxlinks.com

 

[BreakingDad]

Have you got any asks of the GPU in this? Plex transcoding for example.

Short answer is no, I won't need a GPU for running a games server.

Yes I took a look at the HP's earlier, also Lenovo M Series Tiny which seem cheaper than the HP ones.

 

[Tech9]

Lenovo Tiny and Dell Micro are similar and all good quality. Just check the specs and if you can modify it as per your requirements. Lenovo has proprietary slim tip power supply connector. May be harder to find.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I use an Intel nuc.

 

[BreakingDad]

https://store.minisforum.com/ was also looking at these, bang for buck, incredible

 

[BreakingDad]

I use an Intel nuc.

Looked at those, super expensive. (Depending on which model)

 

[Tech9]

bang for buck, incredible

Everything new is going to be expensive. What do you need for 4+ core CPU and 16+ GB of RAM? The Mini/Tiny PCs are $200 or less off-lease and most Linux distros are lighter than Windows. HP/Dell/Lenovo are well known brands with good quality and reliability. The little guys are actually business class PCs.

 

[BreakingDad]

What do you need for 4+ core CPU and 16+ GB of RAM?

Multiple instances of cs:go server with cs:go tv.

Is Lenovo ThinkCentre M70Q 11th Gen i5-11400T 16GB Ram 256 SSD @ £359 anygood?

Apparently M70Q are decent and that CPU benchmarks at 13330

That said a Minisforum Elitemini HM80 brand new with shipping is about £400 with a AMD Ryzen 7 4800U that benchmarks at 17003 and has 2 x network ports one at 2.5

 

[Tech9]

I know nothing about cs:go servers, but your hardware requirements are quite high and all available options are going to be expensive. What you're looking at is >4x faster hardware than your old Xeon server toy in 1L volume and 1.5kg weight. I've never heard about Minisforum brand. Shop local and with warranty.

 

[Tech Junky]

I know nothing about cs:go servers

Gaming....

Maybe use a case that holds dual MOBO's and hide your CS setup inside with the "normal" configuration. While it's not really going to get you to a low power setup like these doorstop PC's it does conceal it from your wife @BreakingDad

https://www.pcguide.com/pc-case/guide/best-dual-system/

 

[BreakingDad]

Gaming....

Maybe use a case that holds dual MOBO's and hide your CS setup inside with the "normal" configuration. While it's not really going to get you to a low power setup like these doorstop PC's it does conceal it from your wife @BreakingDad

https://www.pcguide.com/pc-case/guide/best-dual-system/

I never knew such a device existed.

 

[Tech Junky]

I never knew such a device existed.

Yup. there's more than just those few listed there but, it's an option. There's also some cheap thermaltake ones you can stack like jenga cubes on top of each other.

 

[tgl]

I use an Intel nuc.

Me too, I have a NUC 8i7 I bought a few years ago that I use mainly as a hot spare server and software-upgrade guinea pig. It's okay and pretty powerful for the size ... but it's got a fan, and lately it seems to spin up the fan with even moderate CPU load. I'd like to find something that's actually fanless when I replace it.