2013-02-07, 23:06
Hi, all - time to pick the brains of the XBMC Massive. Can I ask for some opinions here, please...?
I've convinced myself that I'm finally going to have to take the plunge and build my own server - my Synology box doesn't hack it any more, and I can't find what I need off the shelf. I want x86 because of flexibility (I thought about ARM and PPC in various guises, and dismissed them).
Given the price of electricity, power consumption is important, since this is a 24x7 NAS, proxy/filter, tvheadend server, maybe some more. From what I can work out, while the Atom looks low-power, and is in use, it doesn't have any idle states, so isn't so great in the background. Any Ivy Bridge i3/5/7 will actually idle at lower power, and then have more oomph when (if) needed. I could also go down the Celeron route if that makes sense - I don't *have* to do any transcoding or anything CPU-intensive, not really.
I'm thinking of a 5 x WD Red RAID5 setup with separate (maybe 2.5", because I have them spare) boot drive, using rsync to back up to my now-repurposed Synology.
PicoPSU if I can make it work, since the efficiency appeals - 160W should drive the whole system if I get it all right.
Probably ECC RAM (software RAID, I'm expecting), single stick to save the power.
Unlikely that I'll get many PCIe slots so I'll keep my tuners on USB. SATA-3 or SATA-6, doesn't matter in practice, but I clearly need half-a-dozen of them.
But the motherboard... it seems that a mobo can take anywhere from 7W to 50W on its own, and that's a big chunk when you've got maybe a 35W or 45W TDP CPU, plus the motherboard doesn't idle at all. Then you're into bigger fans to keep it cool, and I'd like it to be quiet and unobtrusive (I was considering the Fractal Design R4 case, since it'd live in my office at home).
Thoughts? Am I on the right track with the broad components, and what are the thoughts on CPU/mobo given the "low power" brief?
Supermicro do a decent Atom board, but everyone does a socket 1155 board, so it's really hard to make sense of what's out there...
Thanks for any opinions/experience/guidance.
I've convinced myself that I'm finally going to have to take the plunge and build my own server - my Synology box doesn't hack it any more, and I can't find what I need off the shelf. I want x86 because of flexibility (I thought about ARM and PPC in various guises, and dismissed them).
Given the price of electricity, power consumption is important, since this is a 24x7 NAS, proxy/filter, tvheadend server, maybe some more. From what I can work out, while the Atom looks low-power, and is in use, it doesn't have any idle states, so isn't so great in the background. Any Ivy Bridge i3/5/7 will actually idle at lower power, and then have more oomph when (if) needed. I could also go down the Celeron route if that makes sense - I don't *have* to do any transcoding or anything CPU-intensive, not really.
I'm thinking of a 5 x WD Red RAID5 setup with separate (maybe 2.5", because I have them spare) boot drive, using rsync to back up to my now-repurposed Synology.
PicoPSU if I can make it work, since the efficiency appeals - 160W should drive the whole system if I get it all right.
Probably ECC RAM (software RAID, I'm expecting), single stick to save the power.
Unlikely that I'll get many PCIe slots so I'll keep my tuners on USB. SATA-3 or SATA-6, doesn't matter in practice, but I clearly need half-a-dozen of them.
But the motherboard... it seems that a mobo can take anywhere from 7W to 50W on its own, and that's a big chunk when you've got maybe a 35W or 45W TDP CPU, plus the motherboard doesn't idle at all. Then you're into bigger fans to keep it cool, and I'd like it to be quiet and unobtrusive (I was considering the Fractal Design R4 case, since it'd live in my office at home).
Thoughts? Am I on the right track with the broad components, and what are the thoughts on CPU/mobo given the "low power" brief?
Supermicro do a decent Atom board, but everyone does a socket 1155 board, so it's really hard to make sense of what's out there...
Thanks for any opinions/experience/guidance.