[Mpegger]

I'm curious to see what can be put together for my requirements. First off...

I'm currently using a P4 3.2GHz w/HT cpu as a media server/PVR/backup central/etc etc, and I'm wondering if I can upgrade to newer components to save on the electric bill (its on 24/7). Since its a P4 system, it doesn't have alot of the newer tricks available to conserve power that newer CPUs have, although admittedly, the number of hard drives being used would more then likely be the main source of power consumption (nothing really I can do for that other then use WD Green drives whenever I can). Although I have a lower spec P4 system (I think its a 2.4GHz), I used the 3.2GHz P4 because of the Hyperthreading and extra power. The system will be running with WinXP's own built in software Raid 5, so that'll take up some processing cycles everytime the drives are accessed. But the main CPU usage culprit will more then likely be the PVR portion of the system, which will be running BeyondTV in server mode with multiple HDTV tuner cards, serving anywhere from 1 to 3 clients. Recording a HDTV program is no real biggy (its merely copied in its original format straight to the hard drive), but the commercial skip search as well as any conversion from the original .ts stream to a h.264 format is what will really tax the CPU(s), hence why I run with the 3.4GHz with HT and not the 2.4Ghz (no HT). Admittedly, the CPU isn't in use that often, but its nice to have the tasks performed quickly and with little disruption to the rest of the system when needed. When I ran this setup on the 2.4GHz system, I noticed some "hiccups" when streaming HD video across the network while BeyondTV was performing its commercial skip analysis. The faster CPU and HT helped immensely.

So, with that being said, if I were to upgrade to something more modern to save on wattage when the system is idle, what would be the best bang for the buck (meaning as low a price as possible without being a worse setup then what I currently use) dual-core (or greater) and motherboard setup? Keep in mind the motherboard will need plenty of PCI (3-4) and PCIe (2 or more of whatever combination [1x, 4x, 16x, etc])slots, and preferably, lots of SATA ports, so no mini-ATX boards please. On board video would be a HUGE plus so as not to use up any of the expansion slots, as well as built in Gigabit lan. And if o/c the CPU can be done for an even bigger bang for the buck, I'm all for it.

So far, from my very simple search (no research done though), the Celeron E1500 and BIOSTAR T41 HD board seem to be a good price deal on the Egg. 3 PCI, 3 PCIe (1 16x and 2 1x), on board video, and Gigabit lan. Only 4 SATA ports though, which would mean I would definitely need a SATA expansion card. Anything better priced for the performance? Would this even be considered a "upgrade" from what I currently run? Or should I wait for the 32nm CPUs to start filtering in (I can wait if its best)?

[diaz]

*sips coffee*

Both amd and intel have lower power offerings at the moment - both destroying that P4 inperformance while saving power in comparison. You can also go in the bios and further decrease the multipliers or frequency to reach a happy performance vs lowpower ratio.

Bang vs buck, I would go with an AMD offering. I do not know which one is lower power, but I know that you at least want to get 45n.

The celeron you are looking at is definitely an upgrade, since you are using it in server mode and not for gaming - which would require way more cache.

-D

[theflyingrat]

I have an E1500, though I haven't biased my experimentation towards power consumption, I can tell you that although its stock HSF is a sad little affair, it actually works as well as one needs it to at stock speeds. Power consumption is really low. The newer E3200 Celeron produces even less heat and consumes less power than the E1500!

The AMD analogue would be the Athlon II X2 240 - it's faster than either of the Celerons, and doesn't consume markedly more power. Newegg has the Gigabyte MA770T board for $75 with free shipping last I checked, and it's a monster overclocking board to boot. My $80 Gigabyte P43 board is pretty weak in comparison, especially from a PWM standpoint. Add DDR3's silly affordability and low voltage, buying a DDR3 system for either of these wouldn't be a bad idea. But if you've got a bunch of DDR2 lying around, an AM2+ or the aforementioned P43 system would do right by you.

Neither of these has onboard video, so I don't know what you'd make of that. But slap a $35 HD 4350 in either one, and you'd have a super-efficient little machine. I just haven't used any of the newer integrated chipsets myself, so I can't make a recommendation on those...

[Evilsizer]

imo amd would be the way to go since LGA775 is now EOL... more power savings in the amd setup anyway...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211410

[Theocnoob]

Originally Posted by Evilsizer

imo amd would be the way to go since LGA775 is now EOL... more power savings in the amd setup anyway...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211410

Very nice.

Is the OP overclocking? I didn't catch it...

[Mpegger]

I wouldn't mind being able to overclock if it means I can go with a cheaper CPU, but seeing as how even the cheapest might be equal or better then my current main rig (if o/c'd ), I'm wondering if I should just retire my current main rig to server duty and spend extra on an upgrade.

Especially since I see a very nice AMD Quad for $100. It got me thinking verrrrryyyy deeply....

[Theocnoob]

That's not a gaming CPU by any means. No cache.

To exceed, substantially, your red system, you'd need to spend a lot more than what's been suggested above. It'd also be problematic to fit into a miniITX case due to heat constraints and size of components.

For price performance right now you'd be looking at

midrange P55 chipset motherboard
bottom-end i7 series CPU
An Ati 5850
Aftermarket CPU cooler
4GB fast DDR3

For just plain fast:

i7 920 OC to 4GHZ
TRUE heatsink
Asus P6T Deluxe V2 or other high range board
6GB high speed DDR3
ATI 5870

OR build the above system but continue using your 8800 for awhile.

ATI had the price/performance market with their Phenom II/AM3 platform but Intel's P55 platform outdoes it slightly at similar cost so... that's about it for that.

[Mpegger]

Ahh. So there goes that idea.

What about this combo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135085
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706

Even if I can't o/c, it seems like it would make a killer server for my needs being that it is a Quad core. BeyondTV has multi-threaded services that can make use of all Virtual and Logical CPUs. And I could use it as a converter for videos and not tie up my main PC.

[Theocnoob]

I suggest a better motherboard.
Nobody said you can't OC. Be creative. There's some kind of heatsink/heatpipe crazy high speed fan liquid something-or-other you can manage-- just get a good motherboard.

[JCP21]

Motherboard is key, bad mbs i finder to keep constant temps

[theflyingrat]

Originally Posted by Theocnoob

To exceed, substantially, your red system, you'd need to spend a lot more than what's been suggested above..

To substantially exceed a 3.2GHz P4, you certainly don't need more than an Athlon II variant. You do realize just how abysmal the P4's processing power is compared to any dual-core CPU made now, right?

[Mpegger]

Originally Posted by theflyingrat

To substantially exceed a 3.2GHz P4, you certainly don't need more than an Athlon II variant. You do realize just how abysmal the P4's processing power is compared to any dual-core CPU made now, right?

We were referring to my main rig, which is a E6420 o/c'd to 3.2GHz, at that time. I thought that the components would be better then my main rig.

And the reason I was looking at the motherboard is because of the number of ports, expansion slots, on board video, and Gigabit lan that it has. Again, I don't have to o/c, as the system will probably spend the majority of its time idling or with very small usage, I just figure it would be nice to have the option to get a little more umph out of the build. I also wanna keep it as quiet as possible, so I may not even o/c to begin with if it means having to throw on more fans just to keep it cool (summers are bad because of no A/C, and ambient temps are normally = to outside). The board fits the bill nicely, but if its a bad choice because of reliability (it will be a 24/7 system), then of course, I'll continue to look at other options.

So what about this combo; The Quad core Athlon II 620:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706
Along with the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO board suggested earlier:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398

Abit expensive @ $200 for just the CPU and Mobo though. I was hopeing to keep it around $160 to $180 for those two components.

[Evilsizer]

mpegger,
keep in mind somewhat of what Diaz has said... but as he said server mode, i have to disagree a bit. the amount of L2 for your setup will have no impact on performance. simply because your streaming data, which means that nothing has to be processed by the cpu. other then send data to nic,data goes to computer X...

to touch on what rat is saying, the E6600@2.4ghz(stock speed) is only matched by a P4 running at 4ghz. food for thought...

also keep in mind your either moving to 2 real cores or 4 but dont forget amd also has tri core cpus. decent prices with them as well and it is always better to have 2 real cores or real cores then one with HT.

If your still on or sticking with the low power at idle, dual core over quad core any day... even on the off chance you have to encode something the AII will be way faster then the P4@3.4ghz by alot..

[Mpegger]

Power consumption is a priority. I didn't think even if its a Quad core that it would consume more then the Dual or P4 when idle. I was thinking more about being able to quickly convert HD videos over to h.264 format to save on storage space as soon as a TV show is recorded.

I'm only currently running with 1TB of drive space right now (will probably up it to 2TB when I do the upgrade and redo the RAID), which is used to house pretty much everything being served, as well as the TV programs being recorded. SD videos don't take up too much space (around 4GB per 1 hour show), but HD videos take up to 7GB+ per hour. I don't have too many shows I record, but once the rest of the house is hooked up to the PVR and I get Fios here, you can bet that 1TB just isn't going to be enough. Having the Quad would save a ton of space by allowing the video to be re-encoded quickly and with little to no impact to system performance (ie, streaming data to multiple cliets).

Anyone know of a place that list the CPUs and thier power consumption when idle/maxed? Would be nice to help me make a decision, especially since the Quad core has me practically reeled in.

Btw, what ever happened to the multi-core CPUs that could shut down unused/idle cores until needed? Are those only in Laptops or they never came to fruition?

[Evilsizer]

mpegger that never happened, closest thing is power saving mode when cores are at idle. lowest possible clock speed and voltage to make it use as little power as possible.

[Mpegger]

[Thread Revival]
Ok, after some time thinking, as well as deciding what kinda software setup I'm going to have, I've decided on the AMD Athlon II x4 620 Quad and the Asus M4A785TD-V EVO mobo. The only other piece of hardware I would need for this build is the memory (I'm going to reuse my current case, PSU, and of course expansion cards & HDs). I am unfamiliar with AMD systems, but I understand that this mobo uses DDR3 in dual channel mode. I plan on running WHS as the main OS, so although its not a 64bit OS, I still plan on just putting in 2 sticks @ 2GiB each for a total of 4GiB of ram. That being said, what speed rating DDR3 sticks do I need? The board supports up to DDR3 1800, but I do not know whats the minimum speed needed to support the Athlon x4 620, as well as what speed I should go with *IF* I decide to overclock the cpu (I'm still undecided on that as I need to see how the system runs once all the programs and services are installed).

[Evilsizer]

well my suggestion for you mpegger is a i5 label 4gig kit. simply because the voltage needed for stock settings. now consider i5/i7 have IMC's now like amd has had for a while. though it took i5/i7 to get lower voltage ram to market. i would suggest this kit, G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB 2x2gig DDR3-1600 cas7. the ram does oc great from what i have seen so far on XS, DDR3-2000 cas9 1.6v might get tighter timings with 1.7v at DDR3-2000. Just IMO i cant see needing more bandwidth then what DDR3-1600 cas7 can provide...

[Mpegger]

I was looking at these mainly because of the price. Again, I am still unsure if I will overclock (for various reasons), and as this systems main function will be as a media server, not a gaming machine, if I am unable to overclock, its no big deal.

[Evilsizer]

just imo but way to loose on timings for IMC based cpu's esp for that speed. consider cas8 ram then for that speed?

[Mpegger]

Would it really make a difference being that its a server? I know for gaming, I'd want as tight timings as possible, but all this system is going to be doing is streaming media, making system backups, converting video, and maybe a couple of other misc task. I'm just trying to save some bucks where I can, seeing as how I'm already well beyond what I thought I was going to spend on what I thought would be a cheap upgrade.

[Evilsizer]

lol yea in that case i wouldnt worry about timings then...