Cheapest CPU/Memory for P5B-VM DO

[nightfly]

Hey guys I'm closing in on making an actual decision to go with unRAID and I'm trying to put together a pricing estimate. I'm thinking I don't want to mess with more PCI cards than I absolutely must, so I'm leaning towards the 'Lime-Tech recommended' P5B-VM DO board (despite the fact that Newegg doesn't carry it - it's still around, starting at $100ish). I'm a Mac user so I don't have spare PCI cards or even old CPUs or Memory lying around (liquidated all my DIY PC gadgetry a couple years ago), so I'll be buying everything from scratch.

 

There's a Celeron 440 (socket 775) that's 35watts (low power is important for me, I run 6 hours a day on battery backups vs main power) for like $35 - 1.6ghz single core. Should be plenty? $20 more to go up to 2.0ghz. Any thoughts? Any links for 'cheap but good' memory? I think 512x2 is the way to go.

 

Backing up slightly, if anyone else can recommend a cheaper board with LAN/Video (hate to spend even $20 on a PCI graphics card I use for 20 minutes) and lots of Sata (and some IDE, 2 is ok, 3-4 better). Basically I like this board and that I can get to 10 drives (probably my max before I start swapping out my 120GBs for larger ones) without any cards,  but it's over $100. I'd love a $60-70 that had everything built in.

 

Thanks - I hope this is the right sub-forum for this...

[limetech]

Couple things to keep in mind:

- You probably want to have a 533MHz FSB, and

- Use 2 sticks of 512MB of RAM, which gives you 1GB total, running in dual channel mode (1066MHz effective).

 

The actual clock rate of the CPU is less important - probably 1.6GHz is fine.  Don't go less though.

 

Nice to have on-board video and GigE (on internal PCI-express ideally).

[nightfly]

That's interesting and maybe bad for me

 

The chip in question (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116040) has a 800mhz FSB. Won't work with this mobo? The cheapest 533mhz chip I could find was $48 (cheap enough, but not $35) but 84w, vs 35w of the 800mhz Celeron 420.

 

Thanks, Tom.

[nightfly]

I double checked the P5B-VM DO and it does support 800mhz, so I guess this chip is ok to match it - but then I'm confused why you recommended 533mhz FSB?

 

Thanks.

[RobJ]

You are fine, what he was indicating was '533MHz or better'.

 

Edit: come to think of it, I think he was trying to optimize your memory timings.  I suspect the difference would not be very apparent, and you are more interested in power conservation, so your choice should be fine, and cheaper now and in operation.

 

[limetech]

You are fine, what he was indicating was '533MHz or better'.

 

Edit: come to think of it, I think he was trying to optimize your memory timings.  I suspect the difference would not be very apparent, and you are more interested in power conservation, so your choice should be fine, and cheaper now and in operation.

 

 

What he said.

[nightfly]

Thanks guys. Any suggestions for powersupplies? Looking for around 10 drives, but who knows what the future might hold. 2 of my current drives are 120gb so I can see replacing them without too much heart ache once I get up near 10 drives to stay ahead. Of course efficiency and value are the two chief factors in this choice, but I've never shopped for PSs before so your guidance is appreciated.

[limetech]

Make sure the supply has a single +12V rail.

 

You can use what we use: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610.

 

You can also use the power supply found by cool_runner... refer to this thread:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1134.0

 

[nightfly]

There's a lot of talk in the low-power thread about the Antec - $60 (less rebate) for a 430w 'earthwatts'. Cutting it a little close for startups, but the only cases available here max out at 10 drives, anyway. eSATA takes separate power, right?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

 

[fatal]

Make sure the supply has a single +12V rail.

 

You can use what we use: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610.

 

You can also use the power supply found by cool_runner... refer to this thread:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1134.0

 

 

whats the benefit of a single +12V rail?

 

i'm using this seasonic PSU currently, which has 4 +12V rails at 18A each.

[limetech]

For most hard drives, the highest current draw is on +12V, especially at start up.  When the +12V capacity is split among multiple rails, it's possible that you could exceed the current draw on one rail which happens to be connected to multiple hard drives.

 

Take a look at Power Supply Myths posted on PC Power & Cooling website.  Here's the relevant text:

 

8. ARE MULTIPLE 12-VOLT RAILS BETTER THAN A SINGLE 12-VOLT RAIL?

 

With all the hype about multiple 12-volt rails (ads claim that two rails is better than one, five is better than four, etc.), you'd think it was a better design. Unfortunately, it's not!

 

Here are the facts: A large, single 12-volt rail (without a 240VA limit) can transfer 100% of the 12-volt output from the PSU to the computer, while a multi-rail 12-volt design has distribution losses of up to 30% of the power supply's rating. Those losses occur because power literally gets “trapped" on under-utilized rails. For example, if the 12-volt rail that powers the CPU is rated for 17 amps and the CPU only uses 7A, the remaining 10A is unusable, since it is isolated from the rest of the system.

 

Since the maximum current from any one 12-volt rail of a multiple-rail PSU is limited to 20 amps (240VA / 12 volts = 20 amps), PCs with high-performance components that draw over 20 amps from the same rail are subject to over-current shutdowns. With power requirements for multiple processors and graphics cards continuing to grow, the multiple-rail design, with its 240VA limit per rail, is basically obsolete.

 

PC Power and Cooling is once again leading the industry. All of our power supplies now feature a large, single 12-volt rail. The design is favored by major processor and graphics companies, complies with EPS12V specs (the 240VA limit is not a requirement) and is approved by all major safety agencies such as UL and TUV.3

[rickfritz]

I recently setup this MB with a 420 Celeron and 1 1gig stick of ram.  I have 8 hdd's 400 and 500 gigs.  I wanted to tell you that the server draws 125 watts with all drives spun up and 75 watts spun down.

[nightfly]

I recently setup this MB with a 420 Celeron and 1 1gig stick of ram.  I have 8 hdd's 400 and 500 gigs.  I wanted to tell you that the server draws 125 watts with all drives spun up and 75 watts spun down.

 

Thanks Rick - are you pleased with the performance? I'm assuming you went with a single stick because either you had it lying around or you wanted to save on power, yeah?

[rickfritz]

Had the memory. 

[nightfly]

Rick can you tell me anything about performance? I guess, unless this isn't your first unRAID, you don't have much frame of reference, but I'd love to know if you feel the 1.6ghz is at all under-powered.

 

 

 

[rickfritz]

Performance is much better than my Buffalo 2tb Terastation Pro.  I cannot imagine that the CPU plays that critical of a role in performance.  I would think that HDD speed would be more important.  What does the CPU have to do add up 1's and zeros and set the parity based on that.  I would say that a slow 120 gig PATA drive mixed in with some SATA 300's would slow things down much more.  Plus the number of hdd's has to play a factor.  I think that 4 1tb drives would be faster than 8 500gig.  Then again I am new to this.  Would anybody in the know like to chime in?  Put the following items in order of speed performace gains.  CPU, HDD speed, more memory, network speed 100 vs 1000, number of hdd's in the system. 

[Billped]

Performance is much better than my Buffalo 2tb Terastation Pro.  I cannot imagine that the CPU plays that critical of a role in performance.  I would think that HDD speed would be more important.  What does the CPU have to do add up 1's and zeros and set the parity based on that.  I would say that a slow 120 gig PATA drive mixed in with some SATA 300's would slow things down much more.  Plus the number of hdd's has to play a factor.  I think that 4 1tb drives would be faster than 8 500gig.  Then again I am new to this.  Would anybody in the know like to chime in?  Put the following items in order of speed performace gains.  CPU, HDD speed, more memory, network speed 100 vs 1000, number of hdd's in the system. 

 

Based on what I know and what I've seen from others here:

 

1. Network speed

2. Hard drive (PATA vs. SATA, RPM, and how old it is)

3. Mobo (PCI-E vs. PCI)

4. Number of hard drives (at least when calc'ing parity, for reads it doesn't matter)

5. CPU and memory (as long as you have enough, more doesn't help - 2GHz and 1GB is probably "enough" though many have used less and had zero problems so perhaps 1GHz and 512MB is the floor)

 

 

Bill