Thinkpad x240 as a server

[IgorM]

Looking for options to make a server that is faster, cheap and consumes as little energy as possible I found a thinkpad x240 motherboard for about 60 bucks online that comes with a cooler. Since it's processor is soldered what do I need for it to run without being in an actual laptop, like RAM, charger, a HD and a way to create a power button?

[star_pilot475]

7 minutes ago, IgorM said:

Looking for options to make a server that is faster, cheap and consumes as little energy as possible I found a thinkpad x240 motherboard for about 60 bucks online that comes with a cooler. Since it's processor is soldered what do I need for it to run without being in an actual laptop, like RAM, charger, a HD and a way to create a power button?

I wouldn't even try that. If you could get it to work, results would most likely be deplorable. 

[goto10]

depends on what you want to do with it

 

that x240 has a very weak cpu

 

sometimes if you want low power, best option would be a single board computer, like raspberry pi, but if your task requires a windows os running you need to buy one with a atom cpu or something faster than a atom

 

the cost is also important or just power consumption and size?

[IgorM]

39 minutes ago, star_pilot475 said:

I wouldn't even try that. If you could get it to work, results would most likely be deplorable. 

Why do you say so? It's for basic tasks as a home server. For comparison I currently have an Orange Pi running a lot of stuff and it's decent for what I need. I also have a full PC but it's not worth it for me to leave it running 24/7.

[IgorM]

20 minutes ago, goto10 said:

depends on what you want to do with it

 

that x240 has a very weak cpu

 

sometimes if you want low power, best option would be a single board computer, like raspberry pi, but if your task requires a windows os running you need to buy one with a atom cpu or something faster than a atom

 

the cost is also important or just power consumption and size?

Cost is also important. I currently have an orange pi running 24/7 and want to get something better just for a really simple server. As I plan to run it 24/7 power is also very important since the price of is/h where I live it's ridiculous.

[goto10]

10 hours ago, IgorM said:

Cost is also important. I currently have an orange pi running 24/7 and want to get something better just for a really simple server. As I plan to run it 24/7 power is also very important since the price of is/h where I live it's ridiculous.

well, you cant go lower on price and power consumption that on a single board computer, consider buying a raspberrypi 4 with a big heatsink and fan, it had a considerable speed bump, more cpu performance, faster usb ports, faster ethernet and 4 gbs of ram

[IgorM]

2 hours ago, goto10 said:

well, you cant go lower on price and power consumption that on a single board computer, consider buying a raspberrypi 4 with a big heatsink and fan, it had a considerable speed bump, more cpu performance, faster usb ports, faster ethernet and 4 gbs of ram

I can't buy it currently where I live. Buying it on AliExpress or importing from Amazon would take a lot of time and cost a lot. I don't see why a 4th gen i3 on a x86 machine can't beat a raspberry pi. I don't think a raspberry pi can transcode video on Plex. This video gave me the idea of using a ThinkPad as a server:

Also looking online some people got the power consumption of a x240 down to almost 4W on idle 

[goto10]

2 hours ago, IgorM said:

I can't buy it currently where I live. Buying it on AliExpress or importing from Amazon would take a lot of time and cost a lot. I don't see why a 4th gen i3 on a x86 machine can't beat a raspberry pi. I don't think a raspberry pi can transcode video on Plex. This video gave me the idea of using a ThinkPad as a server:

Also looking online some people got the power consumption of a x240 down to almost 4W on idle 

yes, its viable but usually you end up with a complicated solution, go ahead and follo those instructions, but power consumption and ease of use is not ideal, no like the solution you have now, of course, yes, for plex you need something stronger, have you considered a old dell desktop, instead of fight with a old laptop motherboard?

[IgorM]

2 minutes ago, goto10 said:

yes, its viable but usually you end up with a complicated solution, go ahead and follo those instructions, but power consumption and ease of use is not ideal, no like the solution you have now, of course, yes, for plex you need something stronger, have you considered a old dell desktop, instead of fight with a old laptop motherboard?

I currently have a desktop PC with an i3 3220 running only plex so far, but because of it's power consumption I only power it on when needed which isn't ideal. My Orange Pi PC + is running most of my stuff like plex (without transcoding), file server, radarr, sonarr, torrent client and a bunch of other stuff, but despite being able to do all that stuff it can't transcode stuff on plex and doesn't have a gigabit connection(which is not the end of the world for me since my lan is currently running at 100Mbps). I don't really need a full server, it's only for simple use with a maximum of 2 people using it at the same time. The part of setting it up doesn't seem to bother me and should not be that complicated. 

[goto10]

2 minutes ago, IgorM said:

I currently have a desktop PC with an i3 3220 running only plex so far, but because of it's power consumption I only power it on when needed which isn't ideal. My Orange Pi PC + is running most of my stuff like plex (without transcoding), file server, radarr, sonarr, torrent client and a bunch of other stuff, but despite being able to do all that stuff it can't transcode stuff on plex and doesn't have a gigabit connection(which is not the end of the world for me since my lan is currently running at 100Mbps). I don't really need a full server, it's only for simple use with a maximum of 2 people using it at the same time. The part of setting it up doesn't seem to bother me and should not be that complicated. 

you are convinced, go ahead, i wish you best of luck on this fun task, be patient, as you see on those videos the biggest problem is power button and mount the motherboard well enough while it remains functional and not a fire hazard

[IgorM]

2 hours ago, goto10 said:

biggest problem is power button and mount the motherboard well enough while it remains functional and not a fire hazard

That part is ok for me and not much different than what I currently have.

 

What I'm not sure is if I would need to add something more to make it work. As for the performance part of it as I've said the most heavy thing I will run on it is Plex for streaming some basic and light movies at original quality (not even 4k, 720p at most), and rarely transcode 1 movie at a time.

 

So far that's the best option that I've found since it doesn't cost much, and doesn't consumes a lot of power, unlike a full desktop PC.

 

Other suggestions are welcome for sure and everyone is here to help!

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, IgorM said:

I can't buy it currently where I live. Buying it on AliExpress or importing from Amazon would take a lot of time and cost a lot. I don't see why a 4th gen i3 on a x86 machine can't beat a raspberry pi. I don't think a raspberry pi can transcode video on Plex. This video gave me the idea of using a ThinkPad as a server:

Also looking online some people got the power consumption of a x240 down to almost 4W on idle 

I have a Plex server running on a Lenovo Y70-50. It has a 4th gen i7. It works though I do see performance issues sometimes. But most of my media files are in the proper format as to reduce transcoding. Full tilt I’ve been told this laptop can push over 100 watts. 

 

If if your looking to do Plex I suggest you look over at there site for hardware suggestions. They use passmark scores to give you an idea for cpus and such. Depending on the stream count and resolution will determine what cpu you need. 

[IgorM]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I have a Plex server running on a Lenovo Y70-50. It has a 4th gen i7. It works though I do see performance issues sometimes. But most of my media files are in the proper format as to reduce transcoding. Full tilt I’ve been told this laptop can push over 100 watts. 

 

If if your looking to do Plex I suggest you look over at there site for hardware suggestions. They use passmark scores to give you an idea for cpus and such. Depending on the stream count and resolution will determine what cpu you need. 

I've looked online and it seems that the x240 with a 4th gen i3 can run up to a single 1080p transcode which is fine for me. The main purpose of it wouldn't be Plex thought.

On your current setup what's the average idle power consumption? That's one of the reasons I'm planning to use a laptop. 

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, IgorM said:

I've looked online and it seems that the x240 with a 4th gen i3 can run up to a single 1080p transcode which is fine for me. The main purpose of it wouldn't be Plex thought.

On your current setup what's the average idle power consumption? That's one of the reasons I'm planning to use a laptop. 

No clue on the power consumption. As Ive never really checked. 

[goto10]

a i3 under those circumstances using the charger should use around 20 watts, under load around 45

 

you will have to buy a killawatt to confirm those values

 

my laptop that is not a i3 but is a old 15watt amd cpu when  connected to the charger without the battery has a similar power consumption, yours should be more or less the same