LOW Power (W) Home Server Needed - Update Time.....

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:22 am

my old/current home server (xp2000, 1GB pc3200, win2kpro - multiple hdds) is starting to show its age as the need for more storage space comes along with it being the place where hdd images from 7 different hdds dump their images using acronis, runs a ftp site, runs a couple of http and https sites along with php and mysql, perl and is also the print server.

i live in the phx, az vicinity and need to make this machine do what 2 are already doing, thus create less heat and have built in support for sata and GbE instead of all these add in cards.

my goal here is a dual core desktop setup that is most importantly in the low power (W) category. i can go the lowest of whichever processor family i go with because although my current machine is starting to get pushed hard, a current dual core of any sort is going to kill the xp2000 in terms of performance, so the bottom end of the performance line is fine with me.

i was looking into something like a 4300 but just noticed the brisbane family of cpus (this one slipped right under my nose) and am impressed by the fact that they are 65nm cpus meaning less power and less heat, and the price is amazing. going to ddr2 is not a big deal as 1GB will suffice and is more than enough as currently i usually don't see anything over 500MB of ram usage. now i will be moving over to xp pro so i understand the need for more ram, but i can lean it out pretty well.

for those that have the brisbane cpus are you happy with them running at their stock speeds? i have read reports but in real world enviornments, do they create less heat?

what is the chipset for the brisbane cpus? i need reliability but don't want to buy a true server class m/b. i will probably be using either onboard video or a pci gpu as the machines duties will never push it in the gpu dept.

my thoughts are of a good quality 80+ 400-500W (depending on how many hdds) psu, a large case with many internal 3.5 bays for numerous hdds, a couple 120mm fans to keep it all cool, the lowest end brisbane cpu, a decent, quiet hsf combo and a m/b that supports it all with at least 4 sata ports (don't care about sata 3.0), hopefully 2x ide along with GbE. pci-e slots, either 4x, 8x or 1x would be a benefit. brand is not too important as i have had good luck with asus, abit, msi, biostar, foxconn, dfi...but would like to stay away from jetway, pcchips and ecs.

so if people could make a cople recomendations for the m/b (since i never was interested in the am2 line due to its lack of performance over skt939) or at least the chipset i would greatly appreciate it.

the current setup is just putting out too much heat, especially considering i am running 2 machines, both of which are old and therefore not efficient.

also, what speed ddr2 do i need with these cpus? no o/cing will be done on this machine, it just needs to run for months at a time

last, what type of heat and W advantage do these have over the 65W am2s?

last i would like to do this as price effectively as possible, so i will be using value ram and m/bs with no frills but put the $$ wher it is need - quality, yet reasonably priced m/b, qualtiy psu, etc.

thanks in advance,
bob

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:35 am

Just a few days ago I was looking around for the current "wishlist" midlevel dream. It seems to match your needs.

CPU Brisbane 3600 X@,pretty obvious its got more muscle -less heat than an plder XP Athlon. The 90nm X2 3800 could easily be Ninja'd and indications are that this chip has a 15-20% advantage when it comes to watts,heat...and a price tag near $100...cheaper than a midrange Venice was a year ago.

I HAD been inclined to cheap + basic for a mobo,as I don't game. Then I stumbled on the Gigabyte M95S....and changed my mind.
The S Series uses all solid capacitors-a plus for me as they give less noise for the soundcard-and ausio is my focus. They also up the reliability factor-and hint at the level of engineering in this board. It has a pretty neat dual bios with some other sweet features to tajke the hassles out of bios flashing. If the bios fails-it goes to it's backup bios and repairs the regular bios. Nice.

The heatpipe setup cools nothbridge + southbridge and moves the heat to radiators above and to the rear of the CPU. In a Ninja setup,a rear fan and a PSU fan would ideally be lined up nicely. This has Giga Lan and a deluxe audio,can do,as I recall 6 or 7 SATA2 HDs,los of RAID options,has eSATA which may be handy for you

My strategy on MOBOS is the consensus. I go browse Newegg user reviews and look for the item where there are a LOT of reviews and a high% of happy campers plus few bugs,failures etc. This had 130+ reviews and a % that was pretty far beyond the norm that were very happy,even orgasmic.
Veteran builders were saying "best ever",noobies were saying easy and stable. That it's got SLI means nothing to me. That everything else is just excellent makes it seem worth the cost diff from the M55S,or other boards I'd seen. $160 ain't cheap,but for such a nice reliability-durability-features-power package-it's pretty much worth it.
Figure a Core 2 and the cheapest Mobo would cost near as much.

I'd be tempted to "experiment" picking a PSU,Xclio has one I like. For you? Seasonic. Quiet,efficient,and mainly the best rep for reliable. An always up Server needs max durability,quality control,details that you pay for-true-but in that role-worthwhile.

Samsung's T Series took the fine P series and made it less noise,drawing less power and with less heat. They have a 500g SATA2 at a good price.
Maybe a couple of those eventually can replace some of the smaller/louder HD's you have? 2 x 500 would equal 4x 250 but with way less sound and watts used. If there's a drive in he setup that's not needed 24/7,it could be put in an external housing,eSATA or USB2,and switched off when not used.

This Mobo/CPU can use DDR2-800, PC6400 RAM,besides the recomendeds on the site,there are others mentioned on New Egg that users have working well. One had DDR2-1000, very exotic stuff-overclocked and still stable,said this board is great with pushing the RAM. No doubt the basic,ultra stable Value RAM will be no sweat.

The N Force M555,M575,M595 are all prety much latest gen high end. M555 apparantly does not do SLI, the top of the line brings in EVERY feature you'd need and a few you don't.

You can't touch a Ninja for the quietest cooling. If you actually end up with
6-7 HD's in the case,I guess the rear exhaust should run at about 1000 rpm. If the HD's/CPU are still pretty cool-try dropping that.

I don't know how much space you have or how the HDs mount. I'd construct a pair of HD cages that can be suspended,and if possible,would have a duct around all that,drawing from a floor cutout. I'd get a 140 mm Aerocool to pull outside air across all those drives and push it toward the upper rear exhausts. The Aerocool is 1000 rpm at 12 v,but 700 rpm,undervolting,should do. This ought to be a potent but very quiet machine. Built to last.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:34 pm

How about this board? It is a good low power board that will run much cooler than the gamer boards and allows you to run onboard video which saves power and money. It has very good expansion with 4 pci slots and 2 x1 slots. The only thing you wanted that it does not have is 2 PATA connectors but the 4 sata controllers do 0/1/0+1/5 raid. If you still have PATA drives a pci card is only $10. It is probably better to move to SATA anyways.

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:43 pm

There was a good "green computing" thread a while back about what made the most efficient DivX-cruncher that had broader application:

viewtopic.php?t=35472&highlight=

It's not clear why you are looking at dual-core. Most of your tasks do not sound CPU-intensive. For a file and web-server, having enough RAM and fast disks are usually the key needs.

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:24 pm

thanks for all the info

my current hdd setup is 1x30GB, 1x60GB, 1x80GB and 1x500GB and i will probably be adding a 36GB 10K scsi as the main boot/app/db drive. yes, i definately need to get rid of the smaller drives and get just another 500GB and be done with it

the 500GB i currently have is a maxtor maxling pro 500 and it runs very warm, warmer than my 10 and 15K scsi hdds i have in other machines. i am a bit surprised about that, but with a 120mm fan blowing directly on the hdds they all stay relatively cool, but i must say i am surprised that active cooling is nearly a must for a 7.2k hhd.

renron - that is probably the brand psu i will be going with, or possibly a fsp, enhance or enermax, but definately an efficient one. i have had good luck with antec psus for over a decade, but would like to try something new.

autoboy, i do like that board as it is in the price area i am looking at and i like the fact it is full size atx

any new hdds i buy will either be scsi ( i just like them

), sata or sas

vincentfox - the reason for the dual core desire is because the machine also gets used periodically as a game server along with other tasks i didn't mention such as some xvid and mp3 enccoding here and there. personally i know going dc is a bit overkill but i want to build this machine and have it last for as long as this xp2000 has

and the price of those brisbane cpus are so cheap it is almost criminal not to go with one

one other question - how do the brisbane 65nm cpu compare to the 90nm ee cpus in terms of W? the m/b autoboy recommends doesn't specifically state it is brisbane compatible, so is a 90nm ee cpu pretty good? also, are there different levels of the 90nm part - i have seen 85W and have heard 35W for some others, any idea wha the brisbane draws power wise?

also, just out of curiosity, what is the most ee single core cpu atm? that could be another option that i may look into.

thanks for all your assistance

the_beast · Post by **the_beast** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:18 am

You say you don't need performance as this is a file server. Do you really need the upgrade at all? You could probably underclock that 2000 you have (if I remember correctly it'll be running around 1.6Ghz. If you knock your fsb down you you will drop the power output etc. Also if you have integrated graphics available use them, if not use the lowest powered, oldest card you can as its a server. The new fast system disk also seems a bit of a waste for a server. I would doubt you would notice any performance gain over putting your OS on a small partition at the start of your 500Gb drive.

I would say the only upgrade you really need is to get rid of some of your drives. By a single 750Gb or 1Tb drive and your power will go right down. If this is a home server that is mainly used for backup but the odd database hit through a website then you basically need no processing power whatsoever. Add a decent 80+ psu and your energy consumption will plumet.

By the time you start to save money on your reduced power output after having to shell out on a new system, your current replacement will need replacing. Similarly if the environment is your concern all the energy that goes into making your new system and the landfill your current one will create will more than ofset the slightly higher energy cost.

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 2:24 am

the_beast wrote:You say you don't need performance as this is a file server. Do you really need the upgrade at all? You could probably underclock that 2000 you have (if I remember correctly it'll be running around 1.6Ghz. If you knock your fsb down you you will drop the power output etc. Also if you have integrated graphics available use them, if not use the lowest powered, oldest card you can as its a server. The new fast system disk also seems a bit of a waste for a server. I would doubt you would notice any performance gain over putting your OS on a small partition at the start of your 500Gb drive.

I would say the only upgrade you really need is to get rid of some of your drives. By a single 750Gb or 1Tb drive and your power will go right down. If this is a home server that is mainly used for backup but the odd database hit through a website then you basically need no processing power whatsoever. Add a decent 80+ psu and your energy consumption will plumet.

By the time you start to save money on your reduced power output after having to shell out on a new system, your current replacement will need replacing. Similarly if the environment is your concern all the energy that goes into making your new system and the landfill your current one will create will more than ofset the slightly higher energy cost.

you do make some good points. i will drop the fsb and see how that works out. man i have the desire to build another rig, but don't need a faster one as my main rig is still plenty, but the desire is still there. i do have a sata card with 2 ports on it, so if i add another 500GB unit, mixed in with 1 system hdd and an optical drive. i think that will be good for quite some time. my current psu in that machine is one of the antec 350W blue units - anybody have any idea of efficiency?

the_beast · Post by **the_beast** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:27 am

I ALWAYS have the desire to build a new rig. Sadly I rarely have the funds...

No idea on the psu efficiency I'm afraid. You can buy a device that will measure the power input from the wall however. If you work out roughly what your system should draw you can calculate a rough measure. But it will likely be very inaccurate. It'd give you an idea though.

Your cpu is probably running on a 133MHz fsb. Drop it to 100 and it'll still be nice and stable. You might be able to undervolt it too, but this depends on your board. You may well have no voltage control on it as it is now a few years old. Dropping the voltage even a small amount helps a lot with power consumption however, so it is well worth doing.

As for the drives - adding an extra system disk probably isn't necessary. If you do buy another 500Gb drive put a small partition at the start of it (this is the fastest part of the disk). This will be much faster than any of your other, older drives. You will still be able to use RAID if you want to as well. You can also use this method to speed up any database transfers etc. Basically the closer to the start of the disk a partition is, the faster it will be. So put OS, swap, database etc at the start, and leave media & backups at the end. This allows you to save the power and noise of another spinning disk.

If you really want to build something buy a few upgrades to your current desktop. You will notice the performance change more there. Or build an HTPC. Or a CarPC, or...

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:40 pm

My Athlon 2000+ undervolted to 1.2V at 1Ghz. At this speed it almost didn't need a fan on the humble spire heatsink. I also used it as a server. It held all my TV tuners and disks and ran SageTV. Sometimes it would transcode a show but it was slow.

I replaced it with an athlon 3500+ only because I had it from my old gaming rig. It still runs at 1ghz but now at .9V. It is all I need.

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:19 am

autoboy wrote:My Athlon 2000+ undervolted to 1.2V at 1Ghz. At this speed it almost didn't need a fan on the humble spire heatsink. I also used it as a server. It held all my TV tuners and disks and ran SageTV. Sometimes it would transcode a show but it was slow.

I replaced it with an athlon 3500+ only because I had it from my old gaming rig. It still runs at 1ghz but now at .9V. It is all I need.

for some reason, if i mess with the fsb in any fashion the machine will not start up. i have o/ced many machines, and this one doesn't like it at all, either o/c or u/c. it is running on a biostar m7ncd pro m/b which has been incredible in stability if i run it at 133fsb.

as far as running 1 smaller hdd for the os/app/db files, that is just how i have done things for years, and in this case it will probably be a 10k scsi since i have one laying here on my desk unused, which is pretty equal in power +/- 3W compared to a 7.2k counterpart. it is because my maiin rig runs 15k scsi and when i am using this server machine i hate to wait - been spoiled by my main rig - using my laptop w/ a 5400rpm i am always thinking it crashed...hahaha

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:33 pm

dubob4432 wrote: vincentfox - the reason for the dual core desire is because the machine also gets used periodically as a game server along with other tasks i didn't mention such as some xvid and mp3 enccoding here and there. personally i know going dc is a bit overkill but i want to build this machine and have it last for as long as this xp2000 has and the price of those brisbane cpus are so cheap it is almost criminal not to go with one

You should have mentioned additional requirements in your original post.

In general I'm skeptical of dual-core bringing anything to a game server. I'm also skeptical of layering DivX encoding onto a file-server. The Core Solo or Celeron-M listed in the thread I posted, seem very capable and stunning low power needs. Lots of bang for the buck.

On the other end of the scale for a long time I had a Celeron1.1A as the a household server. It took 12 hours or so to encode a 2-hour file, but who cares? I start the encode, or batch up several, check on them later. I now have a nice desktop gaming machine with dual-core that can encode DivX quite fast and then I turn it off when it's done, that's low power for ya!

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:41 pm

I don't understand why anyone would want to build a single core p-m or c-m or core solo. The processors are expensive and the boards are hard to find and very expensive. A cheap sempron or athlon 64 can be undervolted to just to as low power as a m.o.d system and the parts are easily available. The performance is the same

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:38 pm

I don't recall too many of those AMD-based systems reaching 20 Watts for the whole system. 20 Watts for just the CPU, maybe. I could be wrong.

I have a couple of my old low-wattage lightweight servers on my repair bench right now. Shuttle SV-24 units equipped with Via 800 CPU and laptop drives. Pretty nice little low-power units. Unfortunately it looks like they are victim of the all-too-common "bad cap" problem of aged computers. I'm deciding whether it's worth it to me, to pull the mainboards and replace the electrolytic caps with new solid-state ones. On the one hand, old computers, on the other it would be recycling and they are still fast enough.

You may not understand many areas in which people spend their money to achieve some goal, that's okay. I don't understand people who buy $40,000 SUV's that they never get in the mud.

the_beast · Post by **the_beast** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:02 am

I agree about mobile processors and boards being an odd choice for a non-portable system. If you want a powerful yet economical cpu get a c2d or ath64 & undervolt/underclock agressively when idle to drop the power usage (or even power the system off or suspend to ram, then restart over the network if its a server). If you want low energy usage 24/7 then get a via chip as they are hands down more economical than anything else. The mobile systems seem a waste of cash unless you actually want to go mobile with them.

I agree about the SUVs though. I never understand why people would want to drive around guzzling fuel in something bigger than my house...

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:30 am

I agree about the SUVs though. I never understand why people would want to drive around guzzling fuel in something bigger than my house...

For men, because it makes them feel big and important. For women, because they accept the myth that SUV's are safer than ordinary cars.

the_beast · Post by **the_beast** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:36 am

jaganath wrote:For women, because they accept the myth that SUV's are safer than ordinary cars.

Exactly. The only real-world crash tests I have seen involving an SUV resulted in the SUV driver being killed both when hitting another SUV and when hitting a saloon car. The high roof pillars and long roof panels on many SUVs buckle resulting in major head injuries.

A little off topic maybe, but still pretty scary...

GLO · Post by **GLO** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:50 pm

Any updates on this topic!

I want to build a 24/7 media, file, web proxy server, that will also have utorrent duties and run mysql and a few other things.

What are people suggesting for case, hdd's, fans etc etc.

Thanks

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:36 pm

Do you have new specific questions? How about just posting a suggested system setup of your own and people can pick that over.

GLO · Post by **GLO** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:14 pm

My idea has spawned into a dedicated very small server, with plenty of ability to add more storage as required.
I want to build a webserver cache/proxy server so that info can be sourced faster locally and to also reduce data usage for frequently visited http: site and ftp sites. (Squid Proxy server comes to mind, but im fixed on a Windows OS, either XPprosp2 or Windows Server2003)

Plus i want it to be file, photo, video and music server.

I'd like it to be able to handle my downloads using utorrent and shareaza.

As well as automatically backup data from some of my PCs.

Possibly add a mailserver too! So that my internal mail doesnt have to go via the internet. (this is very low priority, and i have a program in mind already)

Is this feasible? I'd imagine so.

I was/am tempted by the HP e-Vectra but that only holds a single HDD.
Otherwise I like the Masstige-25 or the iCute S901-5G1 or more recently the Coolermaster Centurion RC532. I like the ones with the mesh front and washable dust filters

I have a Windows Exchange 2003 licence, but im not sure if this is better setup using just XPpro sp2.

What would be a the minimum spec cpu and ram for this type of server setup? (note: standard cpu cooling will be used, so cool and quiet is the objective)

What input do you have? And have i missed anything?

Thanks

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:36 pm

Probably half your tasks are not worth the cost/benefit.

Let's take mail-server as an example. For a probably tiny chunk of your overall traffic, you are going to devote resources to running Exchange and keeping it maintained? If it's a mail-server exposed to the Internet, it *WILL* get probed and possibly broken into unless you keep it up to date. A lot of work. Aside from which some ISP now are not so friendly towards running SMTP servers on their network due to spam problems.

Squid can be a moderate savings, but ONLY if you have a bunch of people involved. If it's 10 or more users who tend to hit many of the same sites, there is a benefit. If it's 1 or 2 users, there is no benefit as your browser already caches much content, so Squid would just become redundant second level of the same stuff. No benefit there.

I'd do these tasks with Linux, it's much easier to build a small system that doesn't hog up 2 gigs of RAM and have a bunch of junk running that you don't need.

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:08 pm

does anybody know the real world difference between say a nf4 m/b w/ a 3200venic w/ c 'n q setup and running vs the xp2000 in terms of temps? also, what about a am2 setup w/ the new 65nm am2s vs the 939 3200 and xp2000? i could probably swing a low end am2 m/b, a 65nm single core cpu and 1GB of ddr2-800 since it all just went down in price, but i would defiantely like to see a total W and heat difference. i don't want to do this and find out that my computer room is still hot has hell....

also, what about a more efficient psu than the antec 350W blue one i have in there now vs one of the enhance or fsp green ones? also, i have a 300W antec in the https server that is running 24/7 too.

i am curious to know if my time and $$$ to build a new rig would be worth it in the temp dept of the room which is the main reason. i know that when i ran a opty144 it would throttle down to ~1V, and i think the xp2000 is ~1.75V cpu and then i run an entirely different machine (underclocked 733 P3) for the https server, which i need to put them all together as one but since i will be doing a fresh install, may as well do it so it will last me for a couple years or so.

after thinking more about it, a 300W psu would be more than enough and newegg has the fsp 300W green unit for ~$32. anybody know how efficient a 350W antec blue one is? this may be my first buy for the new rig if i can find a real world test comparing like these 2 units together....

the_beast · Post by **the_beast** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:35 am

As I said earlier, I very much doubt you really NEED a new machine to handle what you are trying to do. For file serving tasks for small numbers of users (as on a SOHO network) the network and hard drives will limit speed far more than the cpu will. Your XP should be easily fast enough to handle it's current load and that of the P3 machine. This would straight away remove a couple of hundred watts of heat from the room as you would only be running 1 mobo, psu, etc. It's worth remembering that a cpu actually uses a relatively small percentage of the total power in a low power system, as the motherboard, hard disks and psu inefficiencies soon mount up. You may save a few watts on the cpu power with the new AMD chip as it will throttle down with CnQ etc, but the overall output will not change that much. In fact (as I said in my earlier post) you will make more savings by dropping a hard drive or 2 as that will instantly give you lower noise and ~20W savings per drive. Use your cash to buy a new big disk or 2, retire your current small drives and you will be sorted. 2 500Gb disks would give you massive storage, and with the correct partitioning will be as fast as your current disk options, but much lower heat output and noise. You could even sell the P3 and the redundant disks on eBy and you might end up saving money in the end, and still reduce noise and heat whilst improving performance.

Still, if you really WANT to buy a new machine then the 65nm parts do look like your best bet for heat output. I don't know how efficient your current psu would be compared to the newer ones on the market, but as I said earlier the savings in electricity and to the environment won't be worth the difference. A VIA Mini-ITX motherboard would be even better for heat etc (and still be plenty fast enough for a server), but still your drives will be the limiting factor as to how cool it will go.

I still think you may be more pleased if you spend your money on your main rig instead. I doubt buying a new server rig will really gain you anything but a lighter wallet.

HolyBastard · Post by **HolyBastard** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:22 pm

I was also looking to build a powerful server that would be my only computer always one that would be used for a web server, downloading maybe hosting game server too.

I tried to go for something that is quiet while minimizing the cost here is what I came up with:

Antec P150 (Power Supply is included and is supposed to be quiet)

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 (Integrated graphic 4 sata port) I though about going for the
ECS GeForce6100SM-M wich is under 50$ but it only has 2 sata port and I was not sure a tower heatsink would work on this motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane (65nm and so cheap it is not even worth considering single core)

WINTEC AMPO 1GB (2x512 PC2-6400) cheapest 800mhz pair I could find

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD403LJ (400GB, I could add more if I wished)

all this for under 500$!

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 12:26 am

as time has gone one, the machine has evolved a lot. i was able to do some trading and for very little $$$ (probably out of pocket less than $100) i now have on the bench a asus a8n5x, a 3000venice, a x2 3800, another 1GB of pc3200, pci gpu, one of the zalman 92mm cpu fans, a passive mcp hs and a ultra black case that was ~$7 ar (decent amoutn of internal space, front fan and a 120mm out back, along with a side fan. i know this is overkill but the trades i got were excellent, so i couldn't pass them up. after i make my final decision as to what i am gonig to use i will probably sell off the other stuff.

i have also decided on more than likely going a 1TB raid 5 array. this will hold me over for a loooong time. in addition to that i will just be using just 1 more drive and i will probably be using the 3800 x2 since my buddies and i have been gaming bf2, poe and desert conflict again and since i am on a 1Mb/s up connection, i can handle ~16 real players + me, so it is getting worked decently especially since i am using the coop mode in the game mods that have it so the bots are taking up some cpu cycles.

i still need to acquire a sata/sas 4-8port raid card in either pci-x or pci-e flavor. this setup will also let me move up to at least 1.5TB if need be in the future. with this much space i should be able to stream all of my most watched dvd movies directly from the server to my 360 in the bedroom where it is connected to a 40" lcd and a decent 5.1 setup (for the room size) in addition to all the other backups.

this weekend i will probably mock it up on the kitchen table to make sure there are no issues w/ the board and 3000 with a live cd w/ memtest and prim95 on it.

sadly it is probably not the most energy efficient machine, but cnq has done a good job in the past and the xp2000 is getting taxed during the gaming times.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:28 pm

jaganath wrote:
I agree about the SUVs though. I never understand why people would want to drive around guzzling fuel in something bigger than my house...
For men, because it makes them feel big and important. For women, because they accept the myth that SUV's are safer than ordinary cars.

In my area its all mountains and quite a few dirt roads. My friend has a huge 4x4 van...it's role is ski trips and Mt bike trips to the Sierras-their dogs always go too-and they all sleep in the van. It has a huge V8 because they go to some very wild places. I got to drive a friends Mazda MPV when my car broke...looks like an SUV-but is 2 wheel,handles like a sports car-got the same MPG as my Camry did. Would be great for a family with some kids.

I think my 57 Pontiac was pretty safe-a guy smashed his 914 Porshe int the side of it....pretty much finished his little car but only left a tiny ding on the Pontiac...didn't knock over the 3 grocery bags on the back seat.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:33 pm

HolyBastard wrote:I was also looking to build a powerful server that would be my only computer always one that would be used for a web server, downloading maybe hosting game server too.

I tried to go for something that is quiet while minimizing the cost here is what I came up with:

Antec P150 (Power Supply is included and is supposed to be quiet)

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 (Integrated graphic 4 sata port) I though about going for the
ECS GeForce6100SM-M wich is under 50$ but it only has 2 sata port and I was not sure a tower heatsink would work on this motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane (65nm and so cheap it is not even worth considering single core)

WINTEC AMPO 1GB (2x512 PC2-6400) cheapest 800mhz pair I could find

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD403LJ (400GB, I could add more if I wished)

all this for under 500$!

This is a well planned rig in terms of cost effective/low noise components.
I suppose some kinds of Games,and some aspects of Vista are demanding-but a 3000 Sempron would have dominated the cutting edge "performance" rig of just a few years ago. My XP1800 cost more than the current price on an x2 3600...which can be run quieter. That 400 Samsung is just a bit more than what one of my 30g drives cost new.

That we can get 1G of 800mhz RAM..and think it a thrifty buy...how sweet is that?

Nice MOBO for a budget/powerbuild-I'm not even aware of another full size board with onboard vid.

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:52 pm

I would recommend, if you haven't purchased already, look at the DS version of Gigabyte products.

I've had enough experiences with capacitors going bad after a couple of years. When I saw the DS3 with all solid-state capacitors that's what I bought.

HolyBastard · Post by **HolyBastard** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:25 am

I have not yet bought my system but I just looked at the DS3 and none of them are for the AM2 Platform so this is not an option for me. Maybe if the Intel processors go down enough after the price cut it will be worth it but for now it would increase the price of the machine by a fair margin.

dubob4432 · Post by **dubob4432** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:50 pm

well after going w/ the 3800 x2 (939) and have being able to let the lone 500GB be enough room by doing a little trimming, i am happy to report that the room temp has dropped 7-9F, which to me is simply amazing. now i am hovering around 79-81 instead of 87+.

the machine is rather quiet to - not quiet like most of you like it, but quiet compared to my other rigs, in fact i can't even tell it is on.

all in all i am happy w/ the $$$ spent, the performance and the temp difference. obviously now that amd is putting out their new line of 45W x2s, that would be better, or any am2, the way my dealings and trades worked out led me to do a 939 for very cheap.

next i will be picking up another 500GB hdd, putting it in a external enclosure and then getting a safety deposit box and do weekly backups to the drive that will stay in the bank