On Feb 19, 2009, at 4:34 PM, Jake Pollmann wrote:

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Kimball Larsen
<kimb...@kimballlarsen.com> wrote:
<SNIP>
See, but some basic math tells me this:
Expected lifetime of server (based on lifetime of last 3 I've had at home)
4.5 years
Expected cost of new server $400
4.5 years * 12 months = 54 months
$400 / 54 months = $7.40 on average / month.

if ($7.40 < $20)
{
  buyHomeServer();
}
else
{
  useExternalSharedhost();
}


How much are you paying for bandwidth?  How much are you paying for
electricity (maybe more than you think)?  How much does down time
cost?

Kimball's conclusion is still probably right, but there should be more
factors in the decision.

JP


Bandwidth cost is fixed to my home DSL connection, which will remain whether or not I am running a server there, so it cannot be factored in. The only real additional cost that having a server at home causes is the cost to power the darn thing, and I am quite certain that powering it will not affect my entire home electric bill to the tune of $20 - $7.40 = $12/month.

Even if it did, the convenience of having ready physical access to the server has been helpful to me in the past. Say I want to upload 500 pictures to my family website.... if I'm in a hurry, I can always just run out to the (already built for food storage, and climate controlled to be < 65 degrees with low humidity year round) server room and plug my lappy directly into the server.

The point of this discussion was to solicit responses to the question of what you would purchase if you were building your own server to run linux today, not to posit alternatives to the stated goal.

Oh, wait, this is PLUG    > -)



-- Kimball


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