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ok recently my personal server has started to act flakey. it wasn't really all that suprising considering it was one of those sketchy all in one ECS mobo. everything was included including sound video processor. so now I'm in need of something to server stuff up forme. but theres some limitations. first it has to be x86 because it needs to run game servers. next I already have some DDR memory laying around that i could use. Third I'm trying to keep this all around $100. finally it would be nice if it had gigabit ethernet because my university is rigged up with fiber everywhere so it would be very benificial. besides that I have no clue what to get.

I built a cheap server around an MSI K8MM-V and Sempron64 not too long ago; it's been rock solid. No gigabit though... but I think it's about the best you're going to be able to do for around $100.

I just built a micro atx based on a biostar motherboard for a friend today for under 200, without a HDD + case though. Slap a hdd and get a cheap case for another few bucks and you're easily under $300.

Actually we order 3 of each so 3 new micro ATX, he owns a bar so he wanted it cheap so the drunk can browse as well! Perchange I shall ask about folding

I was thinking of 798 sempron and a via chipset but I've had some bad experiences with Via chipsets. how are VIA chipsets for the K8? I just saw that there was some nf 6100 boards but I was hoping for a 6150 or the one with a DVI port but ofwell. also the 430 south bridge with raid 5 would have been interesting as well.

http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813138268

what do you guys think of this board. with a proc that comes to 130 ish but I can deal with that. and I think this should be a sight bit more stable then what I have now.

Stranger wrote:

I was thinking of 798 sempron and a via chipset but I've had some bad experiences with Via chipsets. how are VIA chipsets for the K8? I just saw that there was some nf 6100 boards but I was hoping for a 6150 or the one with a DVI port but ofwell. also the 430 south bridge with raid 5 would have been interesting as well.

Yeah, I've had bad experiences with some of VIA's older (Socket A) chipsets too. They actually seem to be pretty reasonable these days; I've not had any significant chipset issues with any of the K8 VIA systems I've built. Don't expect them to be especially feature-rich or blazing fast, but they seem to be quite stable.

DVI for a server seems rather pointless, unless you also plan to use it as a part-time desktop. The Sempron64 server I put together doesn't even have a monitor -- or keyboard or mouse, for that matter -- connected to it! If you need to, you can always add a DVI port later on by dropping an AGP card with DVI into it.

Unless you're building a mission-critical server, RAID-5 is massive overkill; "mission-critical server" and "$100 mobo & CPU" are pretty much mutually exclusive anyhow, so I'll assume you're not doing that. RAID-5 write performance also sucks pretty badly, unless you use an add-in controller card with hardware RAID-5 acceleration (XOR engine) capability.

Stranger wrote:

http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813138268

what do you guys think of this board. with a proc that comes to 130 ish but I can deal with that. and I think this should be a sight bit more stable then what I have now.

Any 6100 board should suit your needs, slap a cheap Sempron on and you are in business. You missed the $50 Sempron deal though.

Since there is a PCIe x1 slot, you can also slap a gigabit ethernet card when/if you feel like it.

And, the 6100 can play some old games if you also feel like it too! Of course it is a pure server who cares. Don't forget to fold though.

How about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131588 = $62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819104251 = $70

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819112207 = $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130466 = $76 (with gigabit)

lex-ington wrote:

How about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131588 = $62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819104251 = $70

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819112207 = $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130466 = $76 (with gigabit)

Hmm.. essentially $16 more for a GbE card for the Intel platform, but the Celeron D's won't run as cool and will draw more power than the Sempron though.