Thinking about an energy efficient home server

[starfry]

Hi scan guys,

I am contemplating building a dedicated server intended to be on 24/7/365. I currently run a load of VMs on my i7 box that I got from you last year but I don't really like leaving that box on all the time.

So I am looking for thoughts and suggestions. I was thinking of a lower end core processor, the core i3 or i5. The box would need a basic terminal for maintenance only (so chip-onboard gpu will sufice). Capacity for storage and a couple of network ports. Plus the ability to connect a number of TV tuner cards to it.

The server will be Linux based.

The big question is what's the best we can do to keep the power usage down so the running cost is negligable ?

Cheers.

[starfry]

*Bump*

Any information forthcoming from Scan would be good here.... You're missing out on a potential purchaser....

[Pete the Painter]

Hi Starfry,

In your position I'd opt for a H55/57 motherboard. Most boards are mATX which would be fine except for the fact you need the ability for multiple TV Tuners and that they all only come with a single network port means you'll more than likely need an ATX board to fit in an extra nic and TV Cards. Below is a selection of parts that would fit the bill,

Motherboard - Gigabyte-GA-H55-UD3H

CPU - Intel Pentium G6950 Although branded as a pentium it's actually part of the i3 arcitechecture.

Ram - 2GB Corsair 1333

HDD's - WD Green Drive or even a 2TB version depending on how much storage you need

The only other bits would be a case, PSU, extra network card and TV Tuners.
Is this a system you're going to build or would you like it to be built by the 3XS Team?

If you need any more help just ask


Pete

[Funkstar]

If the main duties for this are just TV recording from DVB-T and file serving you will need very little processing power at all. An Atom should provide enough power to handle several TV streams (especially under linux) the main issue will be throughput on your drives, especially if you are time shifting to disk on the server or are recording whilst also playing back previous recordings.

How many streams are you looking at servicing at a time? Do you really need dual gigabit? you can easily sustain 60MB/sec over a single port (I do this when copying data from my desktop to my server). The absolute maximum a whole DVB-T multiplex manages is about 32mbit/sec, and that will probably have 6 or 8 channels in there as well.

[starfry]

Thanks Pete, this is good and I'd probably look to you guys to build it (although I could do it myself also - my last PC, got from you, is the only one I haven't built myself. The convenience was nice!).

I'd probably want to stick a 2TB drive in there and wondered if 4Gb RAM may be a good idea (more RAM for transcoding, etc). The 4 PCI slots on that board will be useful for the tuners I already have. What size of and type of PSU would I need to for such a machine? What PSU would you recommend ? What do you think the overall power draw would be (so I can calculate a running cost) ?

I may have a suitable PSU and case lying around here so perhaps I should build it myself ? Not sure...


@Funkstar: Interesting. I will be running Linux and I have at present Two DVB-T cards. It would be good to add a couple more, possibly DVB-S so all bases are covered. Video will then be served over DLNA (most likely a combination of MythTV and MediaTomb) to whatever devices I have that can consume it. It would be nice if the server could handle, say, 4 clients to receive separate streams concurrently. I wouldn't want to rule out the possibility for some of that streaming to require on the fly transcoding however the server must be able to transcode recorded material for later streaming. The other thing to consider is the possibility HD streaming (or is this a step too far?). I fear an atom would restrict it too much ?

I'll also stream audio using MPD as well as plain audio via the machine's on board speaker outputs driving an FM transmitter. The server will also act as a file server using SMB and NFS.
However, I doubt these demands will have any markable impact on the specification.

The reason for dual Network is so the machine can also act as a web proxy and firewall so I can control what the kids can use the internet for It will probably run at 100 rather that 1000 but that's because of the switch I have rather than anything else.

Oh, something else. I may run a couple of Windows VMs on the box using VirtualBox. These would be accessed over RDP.

[Funkstar]

Dual network: yup in that case, that is a good idea

HD rtecording and streaming should take any more processing power than SD, just more bandwidth. But if you are going to that extent, a full blown ATX board would be required. And once you start with the transcoding, you will definitely need a beefier CPU.

If you are interested, have a look at the project log linked in my sig, I'm doing all this already but with a home build system and MediaPortal.

[Pete the Painter]

Thanks Pete, this is good and I'd probably look to you guys to build it (although I could do it myself also - my last PC, got from you, is the only one I haven't built myself. The convenience was nice!).

I'd probably want to stick a 2TB drive in there and wondered if 4Gb RAM may be a good idea (more RAM for transcoding, etc). The 4 PCI slots on that board will be useful for the tuners I already have. What size of and type of PSU would I need to for such a machine? What PSU would you recommend ? What do you think the overall power draw would be (so I can calculate a running cost) ?

I may have a suitable PSU and case lying around here so perhaps I should build it myself ? Not sure...

I have a Home Server in a Fractal Designs Define R2 Chassis with approx 8TB of storage. It's lovely and quiet even with all my kit in there. If you're going to be transcoding on the fly a i3 530 would do the job depending how much you throw at it. You could use a number of CPU's in that board including an i5 760 should you want a quad, but then you'll need to an a VGA card. It all depends on your budget and how much juice you want it to consume if its running 24/7.
I wouldn't expect PSU requirements to be huge. I use a Corsair 400W but even thats overkill for mine but it's a quality PSU for the price.
Not having the exact specs tested/running as to what you want I can't be 100 % accurate but I can tell you my G45 with 2GB of Ram, a Core 2 Q9650 with all energy saving turned on, 8x Samsung F3's and 3x 120mm slow running fans consumes approx between 85-125w from the wall depending what the system is doing. So in theory an i3 530 should be the same if not better considering you'll not have as many HDD's to start with but you will have extra expansion cards.
I have another Home Server with a H55 Gigabyte Mini ITX mobo and an Intel G6950 with a single 2TB disk and that only consumes 40W idle at desktop

I'm sure we can put a spec something to your requirements.

If you need to speak to a sales guy give Paul M a nudge, I'll work with Paul in ensuring you get the right spec

Pete

[starfry]

Thanks Pete,

I like your case - It’s very similar to my i7 box (Antec P182). I couldn’t find it on the SCAN site though. I have to make the decision between getting a new case and having 3sx build the system or using a big case I already have lying spare (antec HX08) which will mean me building it myself.

Can you explain to me how these motherboards with on-board video work? I assume from what you’re saying it only works if you have a CPU chip installed that has an integrated GPU (i.e. there is nothing on the motherboard chipset providing graphics).

I’ve done a bit of checking up on the i3 and i5. If I understand it correctly
• the i3-500 and i5-600 series have integrated GPU but the i5-700 does not.
• The i3-560, i5-650 and i5-655 are only 32 bit processors (no EM64T)

Also, are all the GPUs on the the i3-500 and i5-600 series the same, i.e. with nothing to choose between them? (I see one exception being the 661) ?

I’m thinking the i5 660 is probably best value for money £161.15 considering the specifications and what the work load will be – would you agree or recommend something else ?

Cooling: stock cooling supplied with CPU.

Power supply, like you, Corsair 400W £32.88 LN24874

Motherboard (because it has 4PCI to take the DVB cards I already have):
LN31610 Gigabyte GA-H55-UD3H, Intel H55, 1156, PCI-E (x16), DDR3 1600/1800/2133, SATA 3GB/s, ATX, VGA £85.25

Memory: motherboard needs dual channel DDR3 non-ECC Unbuffered 4 slots to max 16GB.
I thought one option would be to move 4Gb from my i7 box (based on asus p6T deluxe) but I think that’s triple channel so won’t work. Do I have that right ?

Memory High end option: 8Gb 1600 (2*4Gb) £210.47 LN33669
Memory Low end option: 4Gb 1600 (2*2Gb) £77.69

Optical Drive: DVD-ROM £9.98

Floppy Drive: none.

Hard Drive: 2TB Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green, SATA 3Gb/s, 5400+rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms LN31417 £82.04

Operating System: none (will be a Linux box)

161.15 + 32.88 + 85.25 + 77.69 + 9.98 + 82.04 = £448.99 plus case and cables (581.77 with 8Gb).
The above gives me a budget below £500 with 4Gb memory or below £600 with the 8Gb memory. Sounds reasonable for what would be quite a decent server box.

Can you tell me what cabling I will need ?

Let me know what you think.

Many thanks for your help.

[oolon]

If you want to run VMs make sure you get a processor which support VT instructions ATOM processors do not. if you don't do this your be limited to running 32bit vmware server clients and vmware server does not run very well at all since they changed the GUI. GUI crashes all the time does not work under new firefox at all etc. You want to be running XEN which now uses KVM which requries VT instructions.

[starfry]

@oolon: thanks!

make sure you get a processor which support VT instructions

All of the i3 and i5 have Vtx and I will be getting one of those

You want to be running XEN which now uses KVM which requries VT instructions.

I'll be running mainly LXC containers and one or two headless VirtualBox VMs that will be accessed over RDP.

[Methanoid]

ITX case - Chyang Fun make a nice 4 bay hot swap server case - see my sig for pictures etc

[starfry]

ITX case - Chyang Fun make a nice 4 bay hot swap server case - see my sig for pictures etc

Your "bargains here" link doesn't work. The HEXUS forum it points to appears to be empty.

[zugged]

Starfry, the classifieds board has a warning:

Classifieds - Sell your stuff! Once you have 100 posts and have registered on trust.HEXUS.net then you can advertise for FREE any items you have for sale

I think you can't see forum?