I recently built my unraid server with a P4 550 (socket 775), ive been reading around and everyone seems to be suggesting a celeron D (Socket 775). The p4 550 runs at 3.4 ghz, but ive underclocked/undervolted it to 2.8ghz for now since I am not running any applications. The cpu still runs pretty hot (as most of this generation of p4 did), is it worth switching this part out for a Celeron D if i can find one (compatible ones for my motherboard: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P5AD2-E.html) or should i just stick to this p4? will the heat output of the celeron be noticeably lower?  both viewpoints would be helpful. Ive tried looking at reviews around the web and most are from people with a Celeron wanting a P4 because of gaming/applications etc (since theyre all from 2004/05 lol)

 

Its mostly the noise of the cpu fan that bothers me, the case doesnt run hot at all, i was just wondering if i switch out the P4 for a Celeron that I could just underclock it for now anyways until i use applications and put a really low powered fan on my heatsink. Or should I just put a low powered fan on my current heatsink and see what happens? Im not really sure what difference the Celeron would make vs the P4 for the applications I want to use (below)

 

I plan on just running SABnzb and sickbeard in the near future after I've got all my media across.

 

Also unrelated, my motherboard has 4 SATA ports, and 4 Raid sata slots. In my bios I set the Silicon Image Controller to SATA mode - which should let me use the ports as data drives but when I connect a blank disk it pauses at the Sil3114r Controller screen on boot - I cant even make it to the bios. If it makes any difference the drives were out of the box new - If i formatted them in windows would that let me boot? I just want to know If i can use 8 drives on the MB without using the expansion slot yet?

 

Thanks for the help, Im really excited about using my old computer for Unraid as i just discovered it looking for a good media server for my XBMC

Not sure what you'll find in the way of a compatible processor, but most of the Celeron D's listed on the Wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors have a TDP of 84 watts, whereas the P4 550 has a TDP of 115 watts.  With it undervolted you're probably about at 84 watts anyhow so I doubt the heat generated will be much different if you switch.

 

Upgrading the heatsink and fan might be sufficient.  I wouldn't just mess around with the fan, since the stock heatsink probaly is pretty ineffecient.  Here's something that might do the trick:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835114073

 

Not much to say about the mobo issue other than to wonder if updating BIOS might help. 

I linked to a list of compatible ones for my MB in my first post, pretty much all the Prescott Celeron D's up to the 355 (84 TDP)

 

I have a pretty good heatsink already, its a swiftech one and I run a 80mm fan on a controller that can spin up to 4800rpm and push 72 CFM which is pretty crazy.....except that it sounds like a jet engine, even when running at ~3000rpm. If i have the fan at 3500-4000rpm my cpu (underclocked to 2.8ghz from 3.4) still idles at over 65!! I reapplied Arctic 5 and cleaned out everywhere. But there is only so much you can do with a Prescott P4 i think.

 

So i was wondering if i have undervolted/clocked the P4 to 2.8 (im not exactly what the tdp would be) but would a celeron D (84 TDP) make a difference? And would having that CPU (e.g 3.33 ghz Celeron D 355) slow my my system say if I'm running SABnzb and it's unzipping or whatever uses a lot of CPU.

 

I just want to be able to put a quiet fan that pushes little air. My case ambient temp is very cool, I have 3 80mm fans in + 3 80mm fans out + one internal blowing on the CPU

 

About the sata issue Im on the latest BIOS but no go. Is it possible to upgrade a sata controller thats on the mainboard?

Ya, looks like 84W is the standard LGA775 thermal design.  Undervolting and underclocking a Celeron D may get you there.  There is a wiki that discusses power dissipation at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_power_dissipation.  Assuming these CPUs comply with the formula, underclocking reduces your power proportionally to the frequency.  So underclocking the P4 reduced your power to 2.8/3.4 or 82%.  Undervolting reduces power by the square of the voltage.  So if you reduce core voltage from 1.3 V to 1.2 V for example, you reduce power to (1.2 *1.2) / (1.3 * 1.3) or 85%.  With the number of Celeron Ds available on ebay, it looks like you can find one to try out.  Just make sure you get the right socket package, looks like some of the vendors don't really know what they're selling.

 

You can add a SATA expansion card, there's plenty of posts on the forums here about various ones.  You're stuck with the on-board as long as you keep that motherboard.  Seems a damn shame to have 4 ports that aren't useable for you.  Rather than buy an expansion card though, I'd consider a new mobo and processor.

 

When it comes to power, remember that you (or someone anyhow) is paying for that electricity.  Something running 24/7 will cost at least $1 per watt.  There's 8766 hours in a year, which equates to 8.8 kilowatt-hours.  If you pay $0.13 per kwh like I do, that 1 watt of power costs you $1.14 in a year.  So a Celeron D running at perhaps 65W is going to cost one third less to run than a P4 running at ~95W, saving you about $30 per year.

Thanks this is some great info. I think I will look for a Celeron D. Will there be any noticeable performance loss either with setting up the parity drive. Or applications like SABnzb?

Update:

 

Im just updating on the issue of not being able to use the 4 onboard sil 3114 raid ports. Ive been searching everywhere and given up multiple times on trying to get them to work. My final understanding before I solved this was that the onboard card was in RAID mode and even when I changed it in the BIOS to SATA mode it still froze on the RAID Bios screen when detecting the hard drives.

 

I went to the Silicon Image website and noticed there was upgrades to the card but i wasnt able to flash them in either windows or DOS (im assuming because they are for add-in cards and mine is built in the motherboard). They had 2 BIOS updates for my card, the latest and one just before that one (which are both newer than the version I had on my card). The one that was just one version newer came with an onboard driver for OEMs which I tried to flash via DOS and it still wouldnt work (it said not for end-users...but i wont let that stop me).

 

I used a tool called MMTool and downloaded the latest ROM for my motherboard and then replaced the existing 3114 bios with the one i downloaded. I very nervously flashed my motherboard with my custom ROM. I attached 2 drives to the raid ports and set the bios to sata mode...... and it booted past the raid screen (showed quickly it detected the drives) and they showed up in Unraid and everything!!

Im so happy, I just have one minor issue, when i use UnMenu (i only have the basic unraid, will upgrade now that I can use all my ports) each hard drive is showing up in the not in the array section but has two entries. One shows the temp/hd size and the next line shows the hard drive information (no size/temp). Is this normal for raid cards?

 

Im pretty happy now, Ive ordered 2 pciex1 2port add in cards for my 2 pciex1 slots. I still have a spare PCI and one PCIx16 slot. Im excited i dont need to update my motherboard now as the total drives i can have on this motherboard just went up to 21!

4 - [sata ports]

4 - [sata raid ports] (built in - running in sata mode)

2 - PCIe add in card [PCIe x1 slot]

2 - PCIe add in card [PCIe x1 slot]

8 - PCIe add in card [PCIe x16 slot]

1 - PCI add in card [old PCI slot]

Total = 21 drives

**ive read people running quite a few drives off an older PCI slot but that can be quite the bottleneck, what would the recommended amount of drives to run off a PCI slot be? 1/2?

 

NOTE: I tried using the latest BIOS (for an add in card) in my custom motherboard rom, and it booted into Unraid and detected the drives and everything, but I noticed that It skipped the motherboard bios screen where it shows that it detected the cards - going back to the motherboard specific BIOS fixed that and everything is still working as it should.

Congrats on finding a solution!  Nice way to start the new year.