Like many I have a home server that's always on. It does mythtv serving, email, mysql, usenet, dns, print server etc. But being always on, it burns watts even though it will be idle most of the time.
Watts matter because in California, at 31 cents/kwh, over the 3 year life of a system, each watt costs $8. For a 100 watt system the power costs more than the whole machine. Yikes.
So I want to build something that has decent power, but minimal wattage, at least when it's not doing some burst high-CPU activity.
It seemed like a mobile CPU like the penryn or merom might make sense, but I don't see many motherboards that have things I want and need. Like two ethernets (or a spare PCI slot for a 2nd one.) And 4 SATA or even 2 IDE for a 3-disk RAID. Or more than 2 memory slots (though I will be willing to compromise here. I need 3 PCI slots for video tuner cards, another for 2nd internet, though in a pinch I can do that via USB, or even buy USB video tuners (at a cost.)
No gaming, and the video will normally not be used, except as a spare workstation when needed, so onboard video or a cheap low power video card are good choices.
The VIA boards are low power but too underpowered. They will get swamped doing mythtv transcodes or commercial eliminations and other server tasks I do. The new Intel Atom looks interesting but all the motherboards for it are very limited -- few disk ports, sometimes just one memory stick.
So some options are the new 45nm Core 2 duos like the lower end 7200. Not super low power but lower than older systems. I can get mobos to do all I want for this.
Other options are an underpowered system, probably without RAID or enough slots for the video cards, requiring me to buy new USB based tuner cards for mythtv. If I do that, and go all USB (2nd ethernet and video) then a used laptop, or stripped laptop may make sense. Or does it make sense to buy a laptop mobo and put it in a real case to use regular drives? May also have to give up on raid-5 thoughts in this plan, as usb is too slow for disks.
Any advice or other options I have not thought of?
Watts matter because in California, at 31 cents/kwh, over the 3 year life of a system, each watt costs $8. For a 100 watt system the power costs more than the whole machine. Yikes.
So I want to build something that has decent power, but minimal wattage, at least when it's not doing some burst high-CPU activity.
It seemed like a mobile CPU like the penryn or merom might make sense, but I don't see many motherboards that have things I want and need. Like two ethernets (or a spare PCI slot for a 2nd one.) And 4 SATA or even 2 IDE for a 3-disk RAID. Or more than 2 memory slots (though I will be willing to compromise here. I need 3 PCI slots for video tuner cards, another for 2nd internet, though in a pinch I can do that via USB, or even buy USB video tuners (at a cost.)
No gaming, and the video will normally not be used, except as a spare workstation when needed, so onboard video or a cheap low power video card are good choices.
The VIA boards are low power but too underpowered. They will get swamped doing mythtv transcodes or commercial eliminations and other server tasks I do. The new Intel Atom looks interesting but all the motherboards for it are very limited -- few disk ports, sometimes just one memory stick.
So some options are the new 45nm Core 2 duos like the lower end 7200. Not super low power but lower than older systems. I can get mobos to do all I want for this.
Other options are an underpowered system, probably without RAID or enough slots for the video cards, requiring me to buy new USB based tuner cards for mythtv. If I do that, and go all USB (2nd ethernet and video) then a used laptop, or stripped laptop may make sense. Or does it make sense to buy a laptop mobo and put it in a real case to use regular drives? May also have to give up on raid-5 thoughts in this plan, as usb is too slow for disks.
Any advice or other options I have not thought of?