How much CPU for Sage WHS box?

[wayner]

I am just converting over to Sage from MCE. I also have a WHS that is running on an older Dell PC. I am thinking of buying new hardware for my WHS machine and I want to keep open the option of using the WHS as my Sage server although I don't think I will set it up that way in the short term.

I was going to go with a mobo that has Gigabit ethernet and at least 6 SATA ports in an Antec 300 case. If the machine was only going to be a WHS server and not have Sage then I would think 2 GB of memory and an E7200 CPU would be more than enough. My existing WHS has 2GB of drives that I would move over to this box.

If I want to use this machine as a Sage server with 1-2 HD-PVRs, an analog tuner (such as a PVR-150) and an OTA tuner then do I need any more CPU or memory in the box? Anything else I would need on this box?

[MeInMaui]

If you plan to do automatic commercial skipping with something like ShowAnalyzer on H.264 files (from the HD-PVR's), I would consider getting a quad core CPU. Otherwise everything looks fine to me.

Aloha,
Mike

[wayner]

Do you really need 4 processors rather than 2? I currently like the 45nm CPUS from Intel - hence the E7000 and E8000 series. I believe the Quad core 45s will be out soon as well, or have they already arrrived?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by wayner

Do you really need 4 processors rather than 2? I currently like the 45nm CPUS from Intel - hence the E7000 and E8000 series. I believe the Quad core 45s will be out soon as well, or have they already arrrived?

Well, you don't actually need 4 processors...

On my Q6600, I can process commercials for a single H.264 video at about 3x real time maxing out all 4 processors.

Aloha,
Mike

[Brent]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Well, you don't actually need 4 processors...

On my Q6600, I can process commercials for a single H.264 video at about 3x real time maxing out all 4 processors.

Aloha,
Mike

Mike is that with the beta of SA? Are you processing the h.264 at off-peak times or does it matter?

[DOS64K]

I'm only using an old Athlon X2 4200 in my WHS/Sage server and it works just fine for the capturing I'm doing (see sig below), but I'm using HD-100s for all of my clients.

I do agree with MeInMaui though about commercial skipping H.264. The more flops the better

[wayner]

Do you guys have Sage record TV content to a drive mounted in the storage pool or do you initially record to an unmounted drive and then process/copy to file to the pool? What about memory - is there any reason to have more than 2GB in a WHS/Sage server? In terms of CPU then I am assuming that something like a Q9300 would be good - 45nm so it uses less power and runs cooler but has 4 CPUs and a clock speed of 2.5GHz.

[DOS64K]

Don't add recording drives to the WHS pool. Per Sage, they need to be formatted at 64K clusters. I suppose you could move transcoded files to the WHS pool afterwards.

As for your CPU choice, I do recommend the newer lower wattage chips. Afterall, this is a server that'll be running 24/7 and as such, you won't want to deal with a lot of heat, power use or constant upgrading to handle future requirements.