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new home server

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MattB   03-29-2006 at 01:10:56 AM

Hey, I currently have a Dell 8100 as my home media/print/file server running Win2k3. It's OK (especially considering I got it for $75) but I'd like something a little faster. At first I thought I'd just add RAM but that stupid machine takes that Rambus RDRam, which is like $250 for a gig (2x512)! That won't be worth it for the money when I can buy a whole new system (sans drives) for about the same price.

I saw this Asus Barebones system at NewEgg, which seemed like it just might do the trick.

ASUS Vintage-PE1
I was going to put my existing (2) ATA drives for now.

As for ram, I'm thinking this:
Rosewill 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel

And my big decision is the CPU. I first chose this:
Intel Celeron D 331 533MHz FSB LGA 775 64-Bit Processor

But then I also saw for about the same price I can get a barebones/CPU bundle with this CPU:
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T Processor

So I think the second one looks better, but is there anything I need to look out for with that? This system doesn't need to be blazing fast, but just not the total dog the old P4 1.5 GHz/256 MB is for when I need to transcode some content on the fly.

Any opinions on this? Seems like good bang for the buck, but I'm not as current with hardware as I once was when I did that for a living (now I do software).

Thanks!

Matt

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EllisD420   03-29-2006 at 01:33:51 AM
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If i were in your shoes, i would probably go for the last option, the P4 bundle. The only thing that you should keep in mind though, is that the stock HSF probably isnt going to keep this chip cool enough. You should probably get that Zalman HSF that they have a combo option for, i hear they are pretty good. They dont call them PressHOT's for nothing ;P

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MattB   03-29-2006 at 01:38:35 AM
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Thanks for the reply. I guess the heat is a little bit of a concern since this system would be on all the time.
Do you know if that Celeron would be a lot cooler? If it runs a lot cooler and (maybe) uses less power it might be worth a little slower performance. I'm not sure if I'd even notice the difference in a server.
In either case I wouldn't be overclocking. No need.
Thoughts?

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EllisD420   03-29-2006 at 01:53:59 AM
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Well the Celeron quoted i believe is still using the PressHOT core, so i dont think that the temps will be drastically different. If your looking for a cooler running chip, AMD is always an option..i believe they also consume less power too. Check out Newegg for AMD combo's and see what you come up with for about that price, then we can compare and decide. Another thing that may have been overlooked, is the ram for this new system. You wont be able to use the old RD ram from your old system, so you will have to basically get CPU, MOBO, Case, and RAM.

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EllisD420   03-29-2006 at 02:11:52 AM
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Check this out perhaps...or something of the likes

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6856110043

the only problem i see right off the bat is that its only got 1 IDE channel, so thats 2 hdds, 1 hdd + 1 optical, etc. Could pose a problem for you if you want to use those 2 hdds.

then for RAM, you could grab something from this page

So for total, you are looking at about $350, sorry, i gotta run...work is done. I might add more to this later...but lemme know what you find, and i will help however i can.

Reply to EllisD420
MattB   03-29-2006 at 07:14:25 PM
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I just noticed my initial calculations were off. When I saw the P4 deal (instead of the Celeron D), I thought the price listed ($166) was for the whole bundle, but it was actually just the CPU when bundled with the $102 barebones system. Even though it would be faster, I don't want to spend an additional $100 on CPU cycles I'm not likely to use.

So I pulled the trigger this morning, and I'm getting the first option I listed in my initial post, which is the ASUS Vintage-PE1, 1 GB Rosewill DDR ram, and the Celeron D 331 CPU. It's not the fastest system (not my goal) but the entire thing is $252 shipped. I'll just use the ATA drives from the old system, slap an old 40 GB in that and unload it on eBay (similar systems are going for about $175ish).

I decided not to worry about the heat and power. A more efficent system would probably take longer than I'd be likely to have it to recoup the power savings vs. the low price of this system. Reviews said that Celeron runs relativley cool if you don't OC it and I don't plan to.

Thanks for the info. I'll let you know how it works out.

Matt

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