Low power mITX home server

[rob4001]

I want to set up an always on home server with linux. I don't want something that will make my electricity bill go through the roof (already high enough)! I was looking at a dual core atom 330 but I've been told although that is low powered the 945 chipset it runs off is not so low powered so I am wondering what the solution is.

Many thanks

[strike-down]

http://forums.hexus.net/small-form-f...ia-server.html

Take a look at that thread. I completed the build a while ago, and the electricity bills havent gone up that much at all.

[DDY]

While it's true the current Intel Atom platform isn't as energy efficient as it should be, its power consumption is still relatively low. As you mentioned, the Intel 945G chipset used in today's Atom systems is a power hog compared to the Atom CPU itself, overall power consumption is still somewhat lower than your average PC setup. Since ITX boards share the same spec as ATX boards, you can simply substitute an ATX motherboard and CPU in a normal PC build with an Intel Atom ITX board and save some energy.

The link posted by strike-down is a useful resource, link to my post - a similar project.

[Methanoid]

Given the rubbish 945GC chipset if you can wait I'd aim for the Asus Eee D200 which is ideal for this role. It uses the 945GSE which uses less power (a lot less) than the 945GC.

[DavidM]

I rather like the J&W motherboards

[rsachoc]

Yeah I'd go with a Jetway, I built myself a Atom based machine, and it only uses about 35W. However, as mentioned above the chipset is the biggest power hog, the CPU uses very little. The Jetway apparently are a lot less power hungry. Also, consider an Intel chip with a X31 chipset if you need alot more computing power at a little less power usage, there was an article on Toms Hardware recently.

[Metasoda]

There is now a jetway atom board with a 945GSE chipset rather than the 945GC,
which is supposedly a lot less power hungry.

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12326

[rsachoc]

There is now a jetway atom board with a 945GSE chipset rather than the 945GC,
which is supposedly a lot less power hungry.

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12326

Nice, but pricey! My Atom board and CPU cost around £60!

[Maccer101]

You may get similar power consumption with an AMD 740g board and a low power Sempron/Athlon CPU. Plus the benefits of having more SATA ports PCI slots & gigabit ethernet etc.

Also down the line you could use it as both a HTPC + Server since the onboard GFX are pretty good.

How much storage do you need on the server? if its not too much you could use a 2.5" drive and save a few more watts, I read a thread on the silent pc forum of a guy using a Biostar TA690G board and an undervolted Athlon + 2.5" laptop HDD and it only drawing 20w!

[harshw]

I use the DG45FC with an E5200 CPU, 4GB DDR2, UJ-845 DVD-RW, WD10EADS 1TB HDD powered by a PicoPSU 120W. Power consumption is 30W ~ 35W idle and 55W load ( playing H.264 ). The CPU is cooled by a passive heatsink. I think if the DG boards had voltage control, it would be easy to get power consumption down even further. It's not only Intel's Atom that has low power consumption. Their latest 45nm CPUs are real power misers.

[spamsizer]

How about a list of Atom-based mobo's/systems?

[spamsizer]

Since we're in the topic of low-power systems, you might might to check the list of atom-based based mobos posted here:
kramfs.com/list-of-intel-atom-singledual-core-compatible-motherboards/

that is if you're considering this efficient and powerful enough for a home/storage server....