Initial Take

Amazingly quiet.  I use it as my home office server, turn it on every morning, and leave it running all day.  It's so quiet that sometimes I almost forget to turn it off at night.  I don't know how Dell does it.  Even in the summer, with the temperatures reaching easily 105 degrees F, the fan kicks into high gear only occasionally, and yet still the doggoned thing is quieter than my laptop!!!  Sheesh.

I don't like paying the Microsoft Tax, and was well pleased that Dell offered the unit sans OS.    Amazingly, the unit, in the configuration mentioned below, the price was $279 (May 2009).  Dell plays around with the configuration from time to time, so keep a watch on their Small Business server section for the latest deal.  Don't go to the page for Dell Server Deals: you probably won't find theT105 listed, even though it's the best deal on the Dell website.  Here's the (current) link: http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/servers/pedge_t105/pd.aspx?refid=pedge_t105&s=bsd&cs=04.  The current deal only has a single core Sempron, so wait a bit until they play around with it again.  The unit with the dual core Athlon is currently at $399.

Installing Linux

When I first received the server, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on it.  I was amazed that the installation "took" right away with no glitches whatsoever.  Amazing.  Never had that happen before.  Could be because the components are all pretty standard, and I'm not trying to do things like watch videos purchased in Thailand.   

But what was even more amazing was when I took the plunge and upgraded the thing to Ubuntu 9.10.  When I did the same thing on my laptop (Dell E5400) ... it was a complete and unmitigated disaster.  In fact ... I had to downgrade my laptop back to 9.04.  In contrast, the T105 installed 9.10 like a charm.  Unbelievable: first time, no glitches.  So now my server's running 9.10, and the laptop 9.04.

Networking

Network operation is fast.  I've seen complaints on the forums about the speed of the NIC which comes with the T105 PowerEdge.  Not sure what all the chatter is about.  I've not had a single problem with the NIC, and get performance consistent with gigabit Ethernet.  I've got my server hooked up to a Linksys Gigabit 5 port Ethernet switch, and have had solid, consistently reliable network operations over the 9 month period which has elapsed since I bought the server.

Conclusion

• Reliable
• Solid Performance
• FAST
• Quiet!!!

Configuration

• Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 (4450B)
• 2 G RAM
• 2 x 250G SATA Hard Drives
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 5 x USB 2.0 ports
• DVDR / CDR
• No OS
• No Monitor
• No Keyboard
• Built-in Video (nothing fancy)

Ran into this excellent article the other day on how to create an encrypted private directory on Ubuntu Linux in Linux Magazine:

http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7568/1.html

Here is the procedure (for Ubuntu 9.04 and below):

1. sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils
2. ecryptfs-setup-private
3. Enter a login passphrase
4. Enter a mount passphrase (or leave blank to generate one)
5. Logout and then back in again
6. DONE

Ubuntu 9.10 has this feature built-in, and you can make your entire home directory encrypted during installation.

Use ecryptfs-unwrap-passphrase to retrieve the mount passphrase.

See the above article for more info.

THANKS TO DUSTIN KIRKLAND, the author of the Linux Magazine article.