WHS server with TV recording

maarten77 · Post by **maarten77** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:53 am

Hi, I'm new to this forum but I have been lurking for quite a bit while researching a new server that I would like to build.

The purpose of the server is to run Windows Home Server and MediaPortal's TVEngine3 server (a PVR application) as a service in WHS. TVEngine needs MySQL server to be installed.

The TV recordings will then be streamed to the HTPC over a gigabit network. The server might also need to check for commercial breaks in the mpeg streams which might take up some processor power (but not too much).

The computer will be on 24/7 and I will install two Hauppauge PCI cards (onboard MPEG encoding) that will record analog TV (yes it still exists).

Priorities are (in the following order):
1. low power consumption
2. quiet
3. must be able to add HDD's.

For low power consumption, I started out with an AMD Athlon 3000 (Vienna) that I could get second hand. I couldn't find cheap motherboards with that socket that had enough PCI slots and SATA connectors (minimum for me is 4). Overall, I had some trouble finding compatible "old" stuff (esp. ATX sized motherboards) and found that a little bit more expensive processor would be equalled out in price by a cheaper motherboard.

So this is the list:

1 AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 2.3GHz 45W TDP AM2 Box
1 Antec Midi Tower NSK6580 New Sol. ATX 430W
1 Asus Processor Cooler Triton 75 AMD & Intel
1 Corsair 2x1GB DDR2 SDRAM PC6400 CL5.0 Tw.X D.
1 Microsoft Windows Home Server UK OEM
1 MSI K9N NEO-F V2 nForce 520, SATA2 RAID
3 Samsung 500GB SATA300 16MB FDB, HD501LJ

I need one more fan for the Triton and I'm thinking of going with the Nexus 120. Total price of this system will be around US$900

I know that the processor may be a bit much for my purposes; an alternative might be to use a Celeron processor?

I appreciate any comments.

fwki · Post by **fwki** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:05 am

The first thing you should do is determine if there are Windows Server 2003 drivers available for your motherboard components. I checked the MSI site and it does not look promising. In the WHS forums, some folks have had success with the Nforce 550 K9N using XP drivers after some trial and error but I could not find any reference to the Nforce 520 K9N. If you do not already have the board, then choose one with explicit support for Windows Server 2003 or search the WHS forum for options. I used a Tyan MB, but I had to take out a loan.

blaster5k · Post by **blaster5k** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:50 am

For low power consumption, I would consider using Western Digital GP drives instead. That'll save a fair number of watts at idle when running multiple drives.

That motherboard, with its nVIDIA chipset, will not be particularly power efficient. The most efficient motherboards around at the moment seem to be mATX ones based on the AMD 690G chipset. Those will only support RAID 0, 1, and 1+0 though, which may complicate things for you, but WHS doesn't need RAID anyway. It has its own hot swappable replication scheme.

In a month or so, AMD will be releasing the 700-series chipsets (they're technically available now, but only in China). Boards based on these will have even lower power consumption. The SB750 southbridge is supposed to support RAID5 too, so there's hope for low power motherboards with better built-in RAID options.

The other thing that may affect your power consumption would be the power supply. It's rated pretty high for a low power machine, so its efficiency won't be spectacular. A picoPSU would probably work best, but it is a bit pricey.

I just bought some parts to assemble a low power home server of my own (hoping to run WHS when it's released at retail and the corruption bug is sorted out).

AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 2.1GHz 45W TDP
Asus M2A-VM AM2 690G mATX
A-DATA 2x1GB DDR2 PC6400
2 x Western Digital Caviar GP 750GB
Antec Solo case
Seasonic S12 430W (overkill, but I already have it lying around)
IDE DVD R/W

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:26 am

the Hauppauge pvr 500 card is just 2 pvr 150's on 1 board. It saves 1 pci slot

Mine works fine

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:07 pm

blaster5k wrote:(hoping to run WHS when it's released at retail and the corruption bug is sorted out).

I don't think it will ever be retail. I bought mine (OEM) over the counter without any problem.

As for the bug, that can't come soon enough but hasn't prevented me using my server for nightly back-ups and even successful multiple drive restores.

maarten77 · Post by **maarten77** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:10 am

@ fwki:

yes obviously i should have checked that out first. as far as I can see, the Realtek LAN chip on this board has given some problems on other boards, but it seems that there are drivers available. but I agree that it is safer to take a board that is proven compatible/has windows server 2003 compatible drivers.

@blaster5k: you are right that I have not given enough attention to my #1 priority, low power consumption. the problem is that I feel that my choice for a low power processor and my two existing Hauppauge cards (3 PCI slots mean ATX form factor) seem to have narrowed the choise for a motherboard down. I now tend to compromise on the PCI slots.

Thanks for the tip on the 690 chipset. Are you aware of any sites or lists that focus on power usage of motherboards?

I need to investigate further and I am currently looking at the MSI K9AG Neo-F (ATX) with the 690V chipset (no DVI/HDMI needed) (no known compability with WHS) and the Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 (690V chipset, mATX, only two PCI slots, but proven compatible with WHS).
i tend to go with the Gigabyte, but will investigate further into MSI compatability. I will also look again at the case (and maybe choose a case without PSU) and the hard disks.

back to the drawing board! (but that's a fun part also!)

@ sjoukew: you're right, but i have two hauppauge cards already.

@ firetech: I could buy the OEM version on-line no problem.

maarten77 · Post by **maarten77** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:20 am

btw: if the Gigabyte motherboard and the MSI use the same chipset (690V) and the Gigabyte is compatible with WHS, could you safely assume that the MSI is as well?

FlorisNielssen · Post by **FlorisNielssen** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:53 am

Why gigabit lan? Is it allready there? Because you don't need the speed for streaming. I've saw HD-streams over LAN that worked perfect.

The Triton is a good heatsink, but you might also consider the Scythe Mini Ninja (or the big one, although it's overkill). It's about the same price, there's a fan included, and you probably don't need the fan at all if you're using the 45W CPU.

About the hard disks: why three? If you buy 2 750GB models you'll have the same capacity and more space to add more.
If you buy 2 WD GP's, it might even be better, they are slower, true, but I don't really think it matters that much with tv-recording. Furthermore, they are quiet and have little vibration.

maarten77 · Post by **maarten77** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:27 am

The Gigabit network is already there. If it would help in motherboard choice, I might forfeit on Gigabit LAN, but see no reason to do so yet. I have no idea what the difference in power consumption would be.

As for the HD's: I want WHS to use two drives in the WHS drive pool and one outside of it. the reason for that is that WHS manages the WHS drive pool in such a way that it might interfere with continuous TV recordings.
I'll look into the WD's though!

blaster5k · Post by **blaster5k** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:08 pm

I'm not aware of any sites that really look at motherboard power consumption all that closely, but I've gathered enough information from various benchmarks to conclude that mATX is generally better than ATX and the AMD 690 seems to be the low power king. The AMD 700-series has a die shrink that should make it an even better performer. nVIDIA's upcoming chipsets may be better power performers too.

Enthusiast motherboards/chipsets with lots of features and PCIe lanes tend be poor in the power consumption area.

Is Windows Home Server picky about what hardware it installs on? I ended up buying a copy myself, so I'm certainly hoping it works on my system.

maarten77 · Post by **maarten77** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:11 am

ok, these are the components that I finally bought:

1 KINGSTON 2X 1GB PC2-6400/800 (13731)
1 ANTEC NEW SOLUTION NSK6580 EC (15137)
1 GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H (15150)
1 AMD ATHLON 64 X2 BE-2400 1MB AM2 BOXED (15988)
1 Arctic Silver 5 (tube 3.5 gram)
1 Nexus 92mm Real Silent case fan, 1500 RPM, Black/White + fanmoun
1 Scythe Ninja Mini Heatpipe
1 Microsoft Windows Home Server UK OEM
3 Western Digital 500GB SATA300 16MB, WD500AACS

First I'm going to check what this setup uses for power. Then I might change the PSU.
I'm not sure whether I will actually need to use the 92mm fan on the case (HD's). I might also end up replacing the Ninja fan with it.

I'll post back when everything is up and running...

thanks all for helping me out