Atom based server?

[soulprops77]

Hey folks,
I know that the atom couldn't possibly handle any kind of worthwhile HD playback, but could it do as a server?

My idea was to run my HDHR and HD-PVR through something like this:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/29/a...priced-at-189/

Then use an extender for playback.

Nothing about recording from the HD sources is particularly taxing on the CPU, no?

Thanks,
Chris

[bhyman1]

It should be fine as a server. Doesn't really take much to pass data out to the network which is really all the server does.

This might be a better value however, its a more complete barebones setup. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856167032

[rtengvad]

I would wait until Intel has solved the chipsets power consumption problem.

Rasmus

[CollinR]

This one is even better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121354

Better storage the little valley and little falls only have 1 IDE and 2 SATA. The new one has 4 SATA and 1eSATA and supports RAID10.

Not to mention it's onboard video can do MPEG2 HD without troubles.

In my testing the Little Valley has dominated the Little Falls in normal tasks.

[QueOnda]

The only thing which will take cpu cycle if if your running commercial detection software or transcoding video from one format to another.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by rtengvad

I would wait until Intel has solved the chipsets power consumption problem.

Rasmus

+1... Atom motherboards are currently saddled with a desktop chipset. You would actually consume less power with a low-end AMD CPU/780G mobo rig. Atom is best suited for UMPC/embedded applications. VIA's NANO chips actually are quite a bit faster and use roughly the same power.

[soulprops77]

Thanks for all the replies.

That chipset issue is surprising to me. Looks like I'll wait and see what happens.

[taylormadearmy]

Has anyone gone down the route of running sage on an Atom? If so how did it go?

The reason I ask is that this WHS setup looks mighty appealing: http://www.tranquilpc-shop.co.uk/acatalog/SQA-5H.html

T

[gplasky]

My only worry would be if you are doing any commercial skipping on the server or if you had to do any transcoding the Atom processor is going to run out of breath pretty quickly. But if all you're doing is serving up media you should be fine.

Gerry

[Surtr]

I'm using an atom based system for my carputer. I personally wouldn't try running a sage server on it because it really is pretty slow. Things like transcoding and commercial detect would probably bring it to its knees. Additionally, the board I got only had 2 SATA ports and I really like my sage server to have plenty of room for hard drives.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Surtr

I'm using an atom based system for my carputer. I personally wouldn't try running a sage server on it because it really is pretty slow. Things like transcoding and commercial detect would probably bring it to its knees. Additionally, the board I got only had 2 SATA ports and I really like my sage server to have plenty of room for hard drives.

Yep. The main reason why it would suck as a Sage Server (even if you didn't care about transcoding or commercial detect) is the limited expandability of the Atom based computers. The computers come with very few if any expandability as far as PCI / PCI-E slots, SATA ports, etc. Yes you could go all external devices (USB), but then you run the risk of maxing out your USB bus and limiting your options......

If you are looking for a low power system, look at the AMD 4X50e chips or some of the low power intel chips. It probably won't be as low power as the atom based pc's, but it won't limit your expandability.

[neilbradley]

Originally Posted by GTwannabe

+1... Atom motherboards are currently saddled with a desktop chipset. You would actually consume less power with a low-end AMD CPU/780G mobo rig. Atom is best suited for UMPC/embedded applications. VIA's NANO chips actually are quite a bit faster and use roughly the same power.

Sorry to say it, but this is both misleading and just plain 'old false. While it is true the chipset consumes more than the dual core Atom, let's get some perspective, here. This is an often repeated rumor without any actual numbers to back it up. I have those numbers from direct experience with the product. Most wattage numbers include the entire system and not just what the motherboard pulls. I've heard people claim as much as 40 watts being pulled, and that might be for the whole system, but not the motherboard!

I own three Intel Atom motherboards, two of which are the dual core (330), one is the single core version (230), two motherboards of which are SageTV and DVD servers respectively. I have also owned the VIA versions and they are terrible performers as compared to the Atoms. I had a 5TB DVD array and I had all kinds of oddball controller stalls (not to mention horrible network throughput), yet the Intel based Atom motherboards, in my experience, have been flawless with the 3ware 12 port controller (9500S-12). I can get a full 60-70MB/sec with its onboard 33Mhz PCI slot, which is the maximum one will realistically get out of 33Mhz 32 bit PCI.

Here we go:

* Lite-On DVD drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106261
* Dual core Atom 330 board - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121360
* Kingston 2GB SDRAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134192
* Fan/heatsink for chipset - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835108072
* 380 watt 80+ supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371005
* Samsung 32GB SSD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147053

Utilization/wattage specs on this exact system under FreeBSD 7.1. Mind you, this is the entire system, not just the motherboard!

Sitting in BIOS : 19 Watts
Sitting at the FreeBSD login prompt : 19 Watts
Kernel "make depend" : 23 Watts
Kernel "make" : 23 Watts
Installation of FreeBSD (CD spinning) : 26 Watts

Now, the same box, with a 3ware controller in it, 4 1.5TB hard drives, running Windows XP, add 61 watts to all of it. The additional power is consumed by the hard drives and the controller itself, which has 256MB of cache and a backup battery (it matters because it does charge occasionally). So, ~80 watts or so for a ~4TB available (RAID 5) DVD server? That rocks.

I have also run the 230 system with XP, a PVR-150 and SageTV 6, and it ran flawlessly. I just couldn't have two tuners due to lack of expansion ports. ;-( I didn't try the USB route, though I'm about to...

The chipset itself consumes 10 watts. It also gives you video. That isn't egregious, and certainly doesn't approach any desktop system's power consumption with any video card. Most who say that it has a "problem" are just parroting what they've heard. To say that it has a "problem", well, desktop machines must have a total disaster on their hands power-wise. ;-) C'mon folks, we're talking about 10 watts of total consumption for the chipset. That's also your video card. Hardly egregious. So if you're waiting for this power "problem" to be fixed, you're really not waiting for anything appreciable.

And lots of people are running these "low power" systems with low efficiency power supplies, and are losing more in power supply loss than they would by going with the Atom based board.

If you do go this route, get the fan I posted above for the chipset. The built-in one is noisy.

Also, consider getting the 330 instead of the 230. Not only is it dual core, it also has gigabit ethernet. It's ~$10 more than the 230 version. At idle or low CPU utilization, both boards consume the same amount of power. The 330 consumes ~4 watts more at full load (with both cores at 100%) than the 230, so it's not really that big of a difference.

Someone else mentioned expansion is a problem on this board, and I have to agree. One PCI slot. Can't even do PCI express! Supposedly the Atom specific chipset is due out in 2Q '09. Here's to hoping we get at least a couple of 1X (hopefully at least a 4X) PCI express slot.

So, as a SageTV user and owner of the Atom based boards, I highly recommend them. I'm about to try the "two R5000-HD" and Dish Network VIP 211 approach to see how well that'll do as well... wish me luck!

[bigbill]

I would also check out the HP Mediasmart ex470, they are getting real cheap, I purchased one two weeks ago for $369, and I noticed the link that the original poster of this thread had an update that it was close to $500 once you add the chip and other needed parts. I would bet the ex470 will be less than $300 soon. I shoved in a second 500GB drive and it currently pulling 70 watts when recording from two HVR-950's. Its been up for a week now and so far bullet proof. Kind of nice as it's headless, no monitor or keyboard ports, almost seems like a NAS. And you can install Sagetv for WHS which gives you a free placeshifter license. (I have not tried using that, so I'm not sure the horsepower is there to drive that) This weekend I will be moving my HDPVR to it also and only using the HD200 connected to the TV.