Thoughts on CPU for small server

[jonathankonrad]

I currently run an atom based Amahi server and love it. It's an Acer home server and has 4 drive bays, is totally quiet, and uses very little power. However, it can not transcode video well. So I use a separate box for that. I've decided I'd like to combine them and create a new, small footprint, server.

I'm looking at various case/mb/cpu combos, but I think I've settled on either an AMD A4-3400 (2.7ghz) or an Intel i3 2100 (3.1ghz) inside the system. Both of these are lower power and should be able to keep up with the tasks I need. Really, the atom D510 running at 1.8 Ghz keeps up with everything I need except the video.

I save $50.00 with the AMD solution. Any thoughts on either of these? Thanks.

[sgtfoo]

The i3 has 2 threads per core. It will feel like having a quad core, and perhaps even perform better than the AMD A-series CPU.

Comparing an APU with a discreet CPU is 2 different things.... tough to compare 2 different products like these.

If you want the best performance per $, AMD has some impressively priced quad core CPUs ... the x4 Athlons and such.

[jonathankonrad]

I was feeling like the i3 might be a bit more CPU as well. I will not have a monitor even hooked up to this rig so I'm not sure what discreet video will get me. Unless ffmpeg uses the GPU for conversions? Anyway I struggle purchasing slightly older CPU when building a new rig. It usually means older RAM or less specs.

I'm building in Fractal's Arrary R2 mini iTX case(http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=pro ... =2&prod=42). Which means a small space. Both the CPUs I mentioned are 65 w so I should be able to keep them cool in the smaller space and save a bit on power. I like the ASUS PH877-I board. It has 6 Sata ports on it, USB 3.0 and can take 16 GBs of RAM. I was surprised at how many mITX boards top out at 4 GBs and use the laptop RAM.

Does anyone know if media streamers or ffmpeg will use the discreet video in the A4 series of CPUs?

[sgtfoo]

With that board, you can use only Intel CPUs.

as for cooling, if the case can accommodate at least 1 fan space, you could throw in a self-contained liquid cooler from Antec or Corsair or Zalman.. otherwise you're stuck with a small fan-based solution.

read-up in http://ffmpeg.org/

[jonathankonrad]

Lol ... Yeah, that is a socket LGA 1155 board. I included it in the discussion since it represents the class of board I can easily find for Intel. An equivalent FM1 board can be found too. My challenge has been to find AM3/AM2+ boards that have USB 3, Sata at 6gb/s and desktop RAM up to 16 GB all in a mITX form factor.

I'll read up on the ffmpeg site as you suggest . I see that you run Amahi in a VM on a multi core box. How is your performance? Do you handle any media?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[sgtfoo]

Lol ... Yeah, that is a socket LGA 1155 board. I included it in the discussion since it represents the class of board I can easily find for Intel. An equivalent FM1 board can be found too. My challenge has been to find AM3/AM2+ boards that have USB 3, Sata at 6gb/s and desktop RAM up to 16 GB all in a mITX form factor.

I'll read up on the ffmpeg site as you suggest . I see that you run Amahi in a VM on a multi core box. How is your performance? Do you handle any media?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813157273


The VM for Amahi is running great. I serve media thru DLNA to my PS3 and have no lag, in fact the power of the new server is running even better than my solo box I had before with dual core and 8 GB of ram.

[jonathankonrad]

Thanks for the link. That is an interesting FM1 board. Looks perfect if I choose the A4. Oh, I see. I thought all the Atholon II x4 ran in AM3 sockets. I see some of them can run in the FM1. I did not know. Thanks.

Very cool that your VM is running that well. Which virtual solution are you running? Virtual box? Is it on top of your regular desktop, or is the physical box dedicated to hosting VMs? That would be another way to go. I have an FX 8120. With 8 cores, I could spare a couple for a virtual VM.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[wobbly]

i too would love more info ..Amahi Vm setup.... thank you
how to ... what you can do with it ?

[sgtfoo]

i guess you guys never noticed our virtualization section in the forum...

http://forums.amahi.org/viewforum.php?f=41


My box is a Proxmox VE host OS with Fedora/Amahi, 3 Windows servers, and 2 or 3 other linux VMs, and soon 3 linux containers.
Only Issue is I came across some bad RAM recently.