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Red Kelly
August 27th, 2010, 02:56 PM
My old server packed it in so great excuse to get a new one. Only thing is I have been out of the loop as for new good hardware and was looking for suggestions.
I would use it mainly for file sharing, streaming and myth tv.
I'm thinking i5 prosessor, i don't know what motherboard tho.
motherboard needs atleast 2 pci slots and 1 pci e mini.
So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Grenage
August 27th, 2010, 03:08 PM
So you are basically after an HTPC? Something low power, with HDMI? You can get pre-built Atom ION machines, which are pretty good. I usually opt for non-atom, because I like to use my HTPC as a video converter, too.

linux18
August 27th, 2010, 03:24 PM
If you can give up the pci slots, a laptop with HDMI and an i7 CPU makes a great low power server. My laptop has an i7 with 6 GB of RAM for under $1000. just remove the screen, attach a huge intercooler, and upgrade to 8GB of RAM. It's worth a look if the pci slots aren't absolutely necessary

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 06:18 AM
So you are basically after an HTPC? Something low power, with HDMI? You can get pre-built Atom ION machines, which are pretty good. I usually opt for non-atom, because I like to use my HTPC as a video converter, too.

No I have an htpc (asrock ion 330) i am after an upgrade in servers i have 2 1TB hdd and stream media to htpc, laptop, desktop, and phone.

The server I have at the moment only has 2 sata conections for 3 hhd and a dvd player.

I would like to future proof as much as i could so 6 sata and a few PCI (for Tv tunercards).

but thanks for the sugestion.

Paqman
September 5th, 2010, 06:23 AM
If it's just serving files you don't need an i5. My file server has a little ARM chip, and works great.

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 06:39 AM
Yer i gess your right i5 might be a bit of over kill how much prosseing power would streaming a tv card use? i3 good enough?
could i ask what motherboard u use?

Austin25
September 5th, 2010, 06:42 AM
Yer i gess your right i5 might be a bit of over kill how much prosseing power would streaming a tv card use? i3 good enough?
could i ask what motherboard u use?
I would go with an AMD.

CharlesA
September 5th, 2010, 06:55 AM
I would go with an AMD.

+1. Cheaper and all AMD CPUs support hardware virtualization.

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 07:05 AM
Thanks so AMD it is then.

still need to find a motherboard. any ideas?

BkkBonanza
September 5th, 2010, 08:39 AM
+1 Low power.
Save the planet. Save money. 24/7.
My mini-itx C2D w/T5440 uses about 20W instead of 130W on the desktop.
With Atheros miniPCIe wifi for AP.
Boots from usb flash stick.
Dual LAN to use a router/firewall.

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/nf93r_lf

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 09:07 AM
@BkkBonaza thanks I like the look of it. will investigate further.

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 09:10 AM
MSI MS-96D7 looks good to. not as energy efficent but I can sleep a little easyer nowing that it will be mostly powered buy the solar panals on the roof during the day.
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=133&prod_no=2085

If i could just find a price.

toupeiro
September 5th, 2010, 09:12 AM
I second the statements about the use case of your server.

General file serving doesn't require much horsepower at all. If you were going to have a multi-tuner DVR, having an i7 to thread on with a lot of RAM would be beneficial.

It's hard to argue with an i7 right now. The price point is good, the performance scalability is huge. Make sure you install your DIMM's in quantities of 3 to take advantage of the triple channel memory controller.

Red Kelly
September 5th, 2010, 09:53 AM
@toupeiro So are u saying I need the power of an i7 to use DVR?
I didn't think it would take that much power.
If an i7 then what motherboard to go with it?

CharlesA
September 5th, 2010, 02:46 PM
You'd only really need that much horsepower if you are transcoding video on the fly, or running a boatload of virtual machines.

Paqman
September 5th, 2010, 09:05 PM
These days with stuff like VDPAU you can offload a fair bit of the processing for video to the GPU instead of the CPU. I'm not really up on MythTV, but it looks like (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU) you can get VDPAU working with it alright. I'm using it on XBMC and that was a doddle to set up.

Red Kelly
September 6th, 2010, 10:53 AM
Zotac NM10-B-E-ION?

EDIT: forget that not enough pci slots

zdenal
September 6th, 2010, 02:29 PM
I have running small green linux server for a year and I'm satisfied with power consumption and others.

Check this link:

http://polach.cc/small-and-green-linux-home-server

Maybe it fit your needs.

Slug71
September 6th, 2010, 02:47 PM
Asus or Tyan Opteron board.

Red Kelly
September 7th, 2010, 02:21 PM
ASUS P5BV-C/4L ?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZLTO7E/ref=asc_df_B000ZLTO7E1241721?smid=A2JUPN4BTA3CZV&tag=dealtmp445894-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B000ZLTO7E

CharlesA
September 7th, 2010, 02:48 PM
ASUS P5BV-C/4L ?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZLTO7E/ref=asc_df_B000ZLTO7E1241721?smid=A2JUPN4BTA3CZV&tag=dealtmp445894-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B000ZLTO7E

That would work, but It would probably be more cost effective to just use a regular desktop CPU instead of getting server-class equipment.

Delvien
September 7th, 2010, 02:48 PM
If you can give up the pci slots, a laptop with HDMI and an i7 CPU makes a great low power server. My laptop has an i7 with 6 GB of RAM for under $1000. just remove the screen, attach a huge intercooler, and upgrade to 8GB of RAM. It's worth a look if the pci slots aren't absolutely necessary

That would be a really expensive low power server.. The same can be accomplished for under half what a laptop can cost.

Red Kelly
September 8th, 2010, 10:31 AM
@CharlesA yer your right looking at the cost I probably dont need to be that reliable.

Asus M3A?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131234
reviews for this are a bit up and down.

Dam too many to choose from. This feals like it will never end. :) not complaning tho.