Hey fellas. First time post here... trying to scout the yard for as many options as possible. I'm looking to replace my nettop as my server. Not entirely because it's a nettop... the Intel Atom works great... but I want to have a more internal setup instead of having hard drives hanging off via USB in external enclosures. I feel as though I've done a good deal of research but I'm still somewhat meh on where to go.
The server is going to be running Linux of some sort... likely a GUI-less variant, such as Ubuntu Server 12.04. It'll be running 24/7. I have video surveillance cameras that are going to record feeds to the system via Samba. I'll also have it available for backups of all of the systems in the house, Subsonic music streaming, ownCloud personal cloud storage, and maybe a few more oddball things such as Irssi, etc. As I said, the Atom has worked great so far, but I really want something that is a singular box without external HDDs all over the place.
I've been largely comparing some motherboard/cpu/gpu combo setups on NewEgg lately. The AMD E350 is continually coming up on the radar, but I'm semi hesitant to go with AMD. Perhaps it's due to their lack of Linux support vs Intel or Nvidia, or the fact I saw an article from last month showing AMD's consistent downward slope of 2012, who knows. I'd just like to stick with Intel if possible, but I'm starting to feel like it's becoming less likely.
Required:
- Low power consumption
- At least 4 SATA ports (SATA III would be an absolutely incredible bonus)
- Gigabit ethernet
Nice, but not needed:
- Mini ITX, but I'll settle for Micro ATX
- An expansion slot for a nicer GPU. This would be nice in case I ever want to re-purpose this system as an HTPC.
There's an ASRock AMD E350 board on NewEgg I can grab for 100 bucks. It supports more than 4GB of RAM (ala Atom board) and have four SATA III ports. The CPU is easily powerful enough for what I need and it's pretty dang green. It's Mini ITX, which is a bonus. It also has a PCIE slot, but it's downclocked to x4 instead of x16. I have no idea how much this effects actual 1080 HD playback, but it's a bit of a "meh" feeling.
The competition is few and far between from what I'm seeing. I can do an Intel Atom board, but they come with SATA II ports (and normally 2 ports) and a regular PCI slot. I'm unsure of the actual speeds of PCI vs PCIE, but I'd be willing to bet PCIE x4 would rock PCI. That said, Intel Atoms for the most part have nothing going for them vs the AMD E350 when comparing spec to spec. There are other Intel options though, such as getting a 1155 board. But then I have a 90 dollar board with a 75 dollar processor... ramping the price up a bit. That said, even these 1155 boards typically (at best) have two SATA III ports... but there again, the E350 is still sporting 4 of them. Not to say that SATA III is absolutely required, but it's a heckuva nice bonus. Plus if I can get 4 of them @ 100 (E350) versus 2 of them @ 90+75 (1155)... eh...
I'm also open to other ideas, even entirely GUI-less ideas if I go the ARM route (not sure how the R-Pi does it, but I understand GPU ARM support in Linux to be non-existent). I have a Raspberry Pi which works wonderfully with Raspbian, however the only thing is with the Pi having both USB ports and the NIC bound under the same USB bus, it makes transferring a massive amount of data over the LAN to the external HDDs borderline impossible. That being said, I'd love to have an ARM powered board, and then I'd easily ignore the bonus with the E350 of having a PCIE x4 slot... the curve ball to that is all of the ARM boards I've found weren't a standard size, such as Mini ITX, Micro ATX, etc.
All in all, I'm curious if there's something I'm missing... some sort of Intel option that I didn't come across yet, or perhaps some sort of Mini ITX sized ARM board that's perfectly priced and SATA equipped. Or... if the E350 is the screaming winner here. What do you guys think?
The server is going to be running Linux of some sort... likely a GUI-less variant, such as Ubuntu Server 12.04. It'll be running 24/7. I have video surveillance cameras that are going to record feeds to the system via Samba. I'll also have it available for backups of all of the systems in the house, Subsonic music streaming, ownCloud personal cloud storage, and maybe a few more oddball things such as Irssi, etc. As I said, the Atom has worked great so far, but I really want something that is a singular box without external HDDs all over the place.
I've been largely comparing some motherboard/cpu/gpu combo setups on NewEgg lately. The AMD E350 is continually coming up on the radar, but I'm semi hesitant to go with AMD. Perhaps it's due to their lack of Linux support vs Intel or Nvidia, or the fact I saw an article from last month showing AMD's consistent downward slope of 2012, who knows. I'd just like to stick with Intel if possible, but I'm starting to feel like it's becoming less likely.
Required:
- Low power consumption
- At least 4 SATA ports (SATA III would be an absolutely incredible bonus)
- Gigabit ethernet
Nice, but not needed:
- Mini ITX, but I'll settle for Micro ATX
- An expansion slot for a nicer GPU. This would be nice in case I ever want to re-purpose this system as an HTPC.
There's an ASRock AMD E350 board on NewEgg I can grab for 100 bucks. It supports more than 4GB of RAM (ala Atom board) and have four SATA III ports. The CPU is easily powerful enough for what I need and it's pretty dang green. It's Mini ITX, which is a bonus. It also has a PCIE slot, but it's downclocked to x4 instead of x16. I have no idea how much this effects actual 1080 HD playback, but it's a bit of a "meh" feeling.
The competition is few and far between from what I'm seeing. I can do an Intel Atom board, but they come with SATA II ports (and normally 2 ports) and a regular PCI slot. I'm unsure of the actual speeds of PCI vs PCIE, but I'd be willing to bet PCIE x4 would rock PCI. That said, Intel Atoms for the most part have nothing going for them vs the AMD E350 when comparing spec to spec. There are other Intel options though, such as getting a 1155 board. But then I have a 90 dollar board with a 75 dollar processor... ramping the price up a bit. That said, even these 1155 boards typically (at best) have two SATA III ports... but there again, the E350 is still sporting 4 of them. Not to say that SATA III is absolutely required, but it's a heckuva nice bonus. Plus if I can get 4 of them @ 100 (E350) versus 2 of them @ 90+75 (1155)... eh...
I'm also open to other ideas, even entirely GUI-less ideas if I go the ARM route (not sure how the R-Pi does it, but I understand GPU ARM support in Linux to be non-existent). I have a Raspberry Pi which works wonderfully with Raspbian, however the only thing is with the Pi having both USB ports and the NIC bound under the same USB bus, it makes transferring a massive amount of data over the LAN to the external HDDs borderline impossible. That being said, I'd love to have an ARM powered board, and then I'd easily ignore the bonus with the E350 of having a PCIE x4 slot... the curve ball to that is all of the ARM boards I've found weren't a standard size, such as Mini ITX, Micro ATX, etc.
All in all, I'm curious if there's something I'm missing... some sort of Intel option that I didn't come across yet, or perhaps some sort of Mini ITX sized ARM board that's perfectly priced and SATA equipped. Or... if the E350 is the screaming winner here. What do you guys think?