Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:38:20 +0200 From: "Jonas Lund" <whizzter@gmail.com> To: "Olivier Gautherot" <olivier@gautherot.net> Cc: Mark Powell <M.S.Powell@salford.ac.uk>, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Need motherboard for home fileserver Message-ID: <436c7eda0710241138m46839017t77081954a83b4620@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <dcfb161c0710240706i56aa0d59xa22f388abfad0732@mail.gmail.com> References: <20071002164246.GA986@hades.panopticon> <20071003003329.GA78359@hades.panopticon> <20071023214838.P57575@rust.salford.ac.uk> <471F1D1B.4090007@gyrec.cz> <20071024131634.M64075@rust.salford.ac.uk> <dcfb161c0710240706i56aa0d59xa22f388abfad0732@mail.gmail.com>
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Now that via got mentioned. i just built a via based server. i went with this because my girlfriend wants to sleep in silence (we only have a 1 room apt) and to keep the bill low. fanless epia 1.2ghz (has sse instr,etc) 1 gb of memory fanless power supply 2x 500gb sata disks with software raid-1 1 120mm fan revved down Positivie Silent (If i put on a silencer on the fan i actually have to Cool - cpu is only 7 degrees hotter than the ambient temp in the room WITHOUT the fan turned on) - cooling the harddrives is actually the problem, going with 2.5" drives could help here - Gigabit eth - The motherboard manual says it can be pinned and connected to do 5.1output, apart from supporting a number of output channels. Is there a huge difference in sound chips these days unless you want professional quality? Negative - Apperantly Epia boards doesn't support more memory than 1gb - .... and watch out to make sure that the memory you buy doesn't have individual memory chips larger than 64mb. The board will fail to use anything above 64mb so a 8x128mb memory stick will give 512 mb because of this limit, beware! I had to buy a 16x64mb chip - The board only has 2 SATA connectors (maybe 4 with some settings and extra connectors) - SATA -1 not 2 - Only one PCI connector, no PCI-E . so attaching more drives ? might not yield top perf. - My board had some problems with a Rocketraid SATA card (that i later learned to be somekinda software hack, hopefully the problem was due to bios incompabilities in SW). / Jonas Lund 2007/10/24, Olivier Gautherot <olivier@gautherot.net>: > > Hi Mark! > > On 10/24/07, Mark Powell <M.S.Powell@salford.ac.uk> wrote: > > On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Karel Rous wrote: > > > > > I think overclocking shoudn't be understood as a feature you pay for. > > > > Yeah. It's a bonus right? > > Some of these budget end cpus are clearly underclocked by the > > manufacturer so that they simply have products which satisify ever price > > bracket they consider there is a market for. In fact they are often the > > same silicon. They re-label, lower their price, cutting into the profit, > > but hope to sell more of them [....] > > It is indeed the same silicon. They test it with the lower-grade first and > increase the speed gradually to fill the pending orders. If a part is > specified > for 1.8GHz for instance, it will never run faster before leaving the > factory. > That's why you're very likely to be fine at higher speeds but can't > complain > if the processor smokes :-) > > > > It's mainly a matter of luck. > > > > Everything is a matter of luck. You can reduce how much you depend on > luck > > by doing some research. Isn't that what is performed when any hardware > > selection is made? > > Not in an industrial context. The point is not only **IF** a processor > works > at higher speed but ***FOR HOW LONG***. If it runs faster, it runs hotter > and, > therefore, will age faster (we're still missing the right glue to stick > the ions > in the substrate :-) ). Your server may be fine for 2 years instead of 5 - > you > won't know in advance. Make sure you have a good air-flow in the chassis > and > keep the machine in the cellar (or the coolest place in your home). > Running > slower, in the same conditions, will definitely increase the lifespan. > > > > NB I suggested this only in the context of a home server, where the > > financing is coming solely from one individual's pocket. I would not > > recommend any of this for a production server e.g. I wouldn't have > > recommended that motherboard in the production case, etc. > > If cost is an issue, you may consider electricity bill too in the balance: > you > may find that the power consumed by the processor alone would cost you > the price of a brand new CPU every year! For a home server, do you really > need a fast, dual-core machine? What is the speed of your network? How > big is your repository? How many clients do you have? How many hours > do you actually use it per day? What apps do you plan to run? > > My home-based web server and file server runs off a 400MHz, 4W PPC-based > motherboard (with Linux, shame on me :-) ). As was mentioned before, VIA > has great boards with low power consumption (below 20W), which could > probably fulfill your needs. They are relatively cheap too. I've been > using one > happily for the last couple of years, doing some occasional, heavy stuff > (like > "make buidlworld installworld" ... although I would not do it every day > :-) ) > Building OpenOffice, for instance, takes 2 days (my other Athlon does it > in > less than 8 hours...) On the other hand, I can have the VIA board running > day and night for a week without sensitive increase of the electricity > bill. > If I run the Athlon for 3 days in a row, my wife starts complaining about > the > cost... > > My cent worth :-) > Have a nice day > -- > Olivier Gautherot > olivier@gautherot.net > www.gautherot.net > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@freebsd.org > " >
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