I’m running a Sakura VPS 1G plan instance as a web server and storage, but there are some dissatisfactions.

  • Storage is split between home and VPS
  • PC is on at home anyway

So I decided to place a server at home. The requirements are typical, but like this:

  • Has PCI slot
  • Don’t particularly use PCIe, but nice to have
  • Quiet (fanless, spinless)
  • Cheap (total budget up to 40,000 yen)
  • Power efficient
  • 2 or more SATA ports

After some research, I thought I’d use a NUC (Next Unit of Computing) called DN2820FYKH (15,000 yen). It’s simple because you just need to buy memory and storage in addition to the NUC itself, and it meets the price, quietness, and power consumption requirements. Points to note: Use 1.35V low-power memory (DDR3L 1333/1600) for memory, Maximum memory capacity is 8GB, Drives must be 2.5 inches. Also, there’s only one SATA slot and no PCIe slots, so no expansion is possible at all.

Thinking about it, not being able to expand is painful, so even though it costs more, I decided to buy parts separately. CentOS x86_64 Server Construction and Operation - System House ACT Official Blog and Silencing: Mounting Kuroutoshikou AC adapter KRPW-AC120W on SST-ML05B case | Atom Fusion have people who built configurations using the same motherboard, so I referred to them. GA-J1900N-D3V is a bit old with no SATA 3.0 and I’m concerned about memory frequency, but I compromised because it has a PCI slot and two NICs. When actually running it, I noticed the HDD seek noise was loud. Even compared to other HDDs it’s loud, so I either made a wrong choice or drew a dud.

  • Motherboard GA-J1900N-D3V
    • 13,000 yen
    • Mini ITX
    • ATX power supply
    • Has PCI slot
    • Has Mini PCI Express slot (equivalent to PCIe 2.0)
    • Celeron Quad-Core J1900 (Bay Trail-D, 2.0GHz, 4 cores, TDP 10W)
    • DDR3/DDR3L-1333(PC3-10600) 2 sockets (max 8GB, ok with either 1.5V or 1.35V (there seems to be a difference between Japanese and English manuals here))
    • Two SATA 2.0 (3Gbps)
    • No SATA 3.0 (6Gbps)
    • Two GbE
  • Case SST-ML05B
    • 6,000 yen
    • Mini ITX
    • Four 2.0-inch drives
    • One versatile shadow bay that can be used as either a 3.5-inch drive, 2.5-inch drive, or 120mm fan
    • SFX power supply
    • Two 8cm fans can be attached to the case
  • Power supply KRPW-AC120W(KRPW-TX300W/90+)
    • 6,700 yen
    • Supports both ATX and SFX
  • Memory ADDS1600W4G11-R [SODIMM DDR3L PC3L-12800 4GB]
    • 3,500 yen
    • 4GB
    • 1.35V
  • Disk WD20EZRX
    • 8,000 yen
    • 3.5 inches