new SageTv server build

[jpimlott]

I am thinging about building a new sagetv server. It will only capture video
and store the videos on the UNRAID NAS. Playon and all play back will be done on a I7 box that I am currently using. My I7 box uses over 200 watts of power which is too much to leave on 24/7. I am thinking about build a server only system from a Intel Atom 1.6 gig from mini-box.com

http://resources.mini-box.com/online...EJT-manual.pdf

Total cost would be about 200 bucks for a system. The cost of running the I7 is about 20 bucks a month and i am on a grid tied solar system so my power is only 9 cents a watt.

What are other users thoughts on minimun system requirements and an atom.
The I7 would still be the HTPC with storage on the UNRAID.
John P

[CollinR]

Make sure it's got gigabit, also PCIe would be nice, I think Asus might have one that fits the bill. I have several little valleys (pre-atom mini-ITX) and I love them. They couldn't come close to taking the place of my server but they are cool. Also as mentioned super low power, my whole boxes run sub 30watt.

[jpimlott]

It has pcie for a wireless adapter and gig ethernet. I am most concerned about the processer having enough. I use sage default with jetty web, movie wall, and meta data. Playon would be done on an I7 as well as comskip if i us it.
Thanks
John

[CollinR]

Whats your setup now?

[jpimlott]

nvidea 9800 1 gig , core I7 sagetv server/htpc doing playon, bmt, jetty,movie wall, light gaming, dvd rippping , hdpvr capture, blu ray playback via tmt and cyberlink 9. Files are stored on UNRAID nat using smb and gig network. Works great now just 200 watts is pricey to power plus the NAS.

john

[jpimlott]

Update to the Atom setup. I have an Atom motherboard an Intel D945gclf2 with a hyper threaded dual core atom. 2 gigs of ram. winxp pro. Storage is on an UNRAID NAS. The system draws 39 watts when recording. I have playon, movie wall, bmt, fanart all installed. The have near perfect video from playon sources. I even watched a Netflix video and worked flawlessly.
My old server/htpc/gaming box draws about 200 watts 24/7. that is about $15 a month in power. I now can turn it off when not in use and let the atom
do the recording.

John

[spirix]

let me know how recording to unraid works out, I tried it and it didn't work out well, I ended up just putting a tb in the sage server and using my unraid for movies and music only.

[thomaszoo]

I have an Atom 330 based Sage server. I have 2 HDHRs, an HD-PVR and a older Hauppauge card for SD cable installed. It has no problems keeping up with multiple simultaneous recordings, viewing via HD-100s and running 2 Comskip threads all at once. Comskip can be done in real time for everything but the HD-PVR. I have not had any sucess running Playon on it or transcoding video. But those are easily done on other networked PCs. I haven't checked the wattage, but I'm sure it is pretty low.

Wayne

[jpimlott]

I have been using UNRAID since i built the box in Nov. It works great for everything storage. live recording, playback, both blu ray and Sd movies, DVD.
I can watch one show, record anouther, and rip a DVD to UNRAID all with no with no problems. The dvd is ripping at about 10Bytes per sec or about 10 min per DVD. I am using decent mohterboard and a dual core e7500 with 2 tB green drives. I have seen copies from UNRAID to a drive on a client at about 40 Mbytes per sec. I am using gig network. I was watching Hulu last night with playon on the ATom box and looked perfect. New case for the atom comes on Monday , a small cube one.

John

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by jpimlott

My I7 box uses over 200 watts of power

My i5 and HD 5770 are running at 77W right now (idle). What video card do you have in there? Any other power hungry hardware? That 200W number is awfully high..

[jpimlott]

video card is a nvidia 9800 gt, i7 1366 chipset p55 at 2.8 gig with turbo 1.6 gig without, 2 drives. 180 watts idle and 280 when and if it is hammered.
The 920 i7 wants about 130 watts by itself.

john

[davephan]

Originally Posted by jpimlott

The cost of running the I7 is about 20 bucks a month and i am on a grid tied solar system so my power is only 9 cents a watt.

What are other users thoughts on minimun system requirements and an atom.
The I7 would still be the HTPC with storage on the UNRAID.
John P

Do you mean that the solar system costs 9 cents per KWH as an ongoing cost or 9 cent a watt as a one time cost? How would the atom system help reduce power consumption if you still need a second system running all the time for your Unraid NAS system?

Originally Posted by jpimlott

My old server/htpc/gaming box draws about 200 watts 24/7. that is about $15 a month in power. I now can turn it off when not in use and let the atom
do the recording. John

A $15 dollar monthly electric cost does not seem very expensive for California, where the electric cost is twice the rate of Minnesota. Although the electric cost in California is about half the rate of Hawaii.

Your SageTV system reliability will improve by changing your multipurpose computer to a headless computer.

Dave

[jpimlott]

Originally Posted by davephan

Do you mean that the solar system costs 9 cents per KWH as an ongoing cost or 9 cent a watt as a one time cost? How would the atom system help reduce power consumption if you still need a second system running all the time for your Unraid NAS system?




A $15 dollar monthly electric cost does not seem very expensive for California, where the electric cost is twice the rate of Minnesota. Although the electric cost in California is about half the rate of Hawaii.


Your SageTV system reliability will improve by changing your multipurpose computer to a headless computer.

John


Dave

The cost of the system was about 9 cent per watt when it was installed 2 years ago. Not it is half of that

The 9 cents for watt I buy is the rates for solar customers. Regular rates start at 12 cent for the first 400 kilowatts for the month up 45 cent above 1000 kilowatts ouch

That was anouther driving factor. I was able to uninstall all hdprv applets, drivers, and playon. the ATOM just barly does playon as it cpu runs about 80 percent during transcoding. Video is good and steady on a seperate client.

[Fuzzy]

As nice as UnRAID is, if power consumption is your concern, you would be FAR better off just putting your storage on the Atom server. Aside from the power consumption being lower by not powering a separate system for UnRAID, you'd get better performance with the drives being local.

[jpimlott]

UNRAID being a stripped down slackware install does not support sage server directly so local storage is not an option. The unraid server has 6 drives in it now and climbing. I just saw a link to a ATOM system that has 4 onboard plus a pcie 8x slot so that can make a nice low power smaller NAS. I am going to also install twonky media manager on it (sale for 20bucks) for upnp music videos.

The new atom box shares the desktop hole as my I7. I got a KVM switch so i can the atom as a desktop when not needing a big monster to check a web page or viewing tv.

The unraid box draws about 70 watts normaly so that is not to bad for 6 terabytes and climbing.
John

[davephan]

Originally Posted by jpimlott

The cost of the system was about 9 cent per watt when it was installed 2 years ago. Not it is half of that

The 9 cents for watt I buy is the rates for solar customers. Regular rates start at 12 cent for the first 400 kilowatts for the month up 45 cent above 1000 kilowatts ouch

Just to clarify. You purchase the solar equipment for 9 cents per watt. I assume that a house would need about a 10 - 20 killowatt system. Therefore, the system would cost $900 - $1,800, which would be too cheap. I thought a whole house solar system would cost about $30,000 to $60,000. I assume you can sell the excess electricity back to the utility if there is extra, and buy more from the utility when the sun isn't shining.

Dave

[jpimlott]

Originally Posted by davephan

Just to clarify. You purchase the solar equipment for 9 cents per watt. I assume that a house would need about a 10 - 20 killowatt system. Therefore, the system would cost $900 - $1,800, which would be too cheap. I thought a whole house solar system would cost about $30,000 to $60,000. I assume you can sell the excess electricity back to the utility if there is extra, and buy more from the utility when the sun isn't shining.

Dave

My bad make that 9 bucks a watt , bad brain CRS or something on that one.
solar systems have dropped big time now to about $5 a watt or so. Dont know what a i was thinking there. My system did run about 28k not including discounts from the state and federal govs.

John

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jpimlott

UNRAID being a stripped down slackware install does not support sage server directly so local storage is not an option. The unraid server has 6 drives in it now and climbing. I just saw a link to a ATOM system that has 4 onboard plus a pcie 8x slot so that can make a nice low power smaller NAS. I am going to also install twonky media manager on it (sale for 20bucks) for upnp music videos.

The new atom box shares the desktop hole as my I7. I got a KVM switch so i can the atom as a desktop when not needing a big monster to check a web page or viewing tv.

The unraid box draws about 70 watts normaly so that is not to bad for 6 terabytes and climbing.
John

I was suggesting dumping unraid altogether, and putting the storage in the sage server.

[jpimlott]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I was suggesting dumping unraid altogether, and putting the storage in the sage server.

I like having the data on a Raid setup so when a drive crashes there is no data lose. Windows media server is raid 1, way to many drives. raid 5 not expandable easily and all drives have to spin. Performance of raid 5 not needed for htpc. unraid can grow to 38 terabytes (more than ill ever need i think). I did see a realy great supermicro atom server motherboad micro atx size with pci-e and 4 on board sata. I have not seen anouther good storage platform that will expand past 4 drives. I also plan on running vmare on the unraid to host a windows mail server. This will allow anouther 24/7 pc to be turned off and enough resourses for anouther if needed. That was part of my plan from the start with unraid.

John

[Fuzzy]

For me, i prefer the simplicity of keeping drives seperate. RAID 1 for my critical storage (not much), the rest is all recorded tv and ripped discs that I own. Losing them is hardly catastrophic. Separate drives are by far the most expandable, performace is more than adequate, and most importantly, it removes an extra computer running 24/7.