talkto_menow Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Couple weeks ago I did a rebuild of my unRaid system. I've been running Intel Atom D510 based motherboard for last 5 years and I wanted to upgrade it to something more powerful. My objective was to keep my server quiet and cool. I was not interested in getting i3 or i5 board. I have Fractal Design R2 mini chassis, so motherboard has to be mini-ITX. Also I wanted it to be Supermicro brand as they are specialize in this type of hardware. Some time ago I checked what was available on the market and moved forward, but this time this little gem popped up http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182855 I did some research regarding this chip. There is very little information available. It's in the Atom family, but calling this Atom should be illegal! Just like Avaton, Rangeley (C2758) has 8 cores and very low TDP (20) which allows for passive cooling. Heat inside the case actually dropped by 1-2 degrees. CPU runs at 2.4 GHz Here is a list of intel’s Atom processors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Atom_microprocessors The difference between this chip and Avaton is that it has some additional set of instructions (security) and Avaton eventually will be discontinued. Performance: This chip is powerful. I'm running unRaid 6.0-beta12 + 12 dockers, including mysql and plex servers. System is fast and responsive. Loading media through XBMC takes only couple seconds (spin up). No problem watching movies on TV, PC and tablet at the same time over LAN. No buffering issues at all. The same applies to Plex. Server is capable to encode video file at 2x speed. That means that 60 minutes video will be encoded in 30 minutes. I tested it with WTV files recorded by Ceton tuners and other HD mkv files. Plex Sync converted them to mp4 format. To give an idea, atom D510 takes 10 minutes to convert 60 minutes of wma audio file to mp3. I did a test to see how it performs when other tasks are run? During unpacking and running PAR files (nzb) plex encoding was jumping between 1x and 2x. But when system is not performing any other activities, encoding remains constant 2x. Streaming outside of LAN over local Starbucks wi-fi was not an issue. My upload speed is 5 Mbps. It took about 3-5 seconds for a video to start to play. Fast forward is responsive and movie plays within 1-2 seconds. I noticed that adjusting Plex streaming quality (inside app) to a movie resolution gives the best results. I tested playback for both 720p and 1080p mkv’s DTS audio tracks and I did not encountered any playback issues. CPU utilization during video encoding and unpacking + repairing downloaded files jumps between 50%-70% Please let me know if you have any question. Link to comment
garycase Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 The Rangeley core Atoms [Yes, they're Atoms -- just MUCH nicer ones ] are indeed VERY nice processors. They provide an amazing amount of performance for the power they draw -- enabling VERY low power systems with plenty of "horsepower" to run most apps that UnRAID users want to run. They're not as powerful as Hawell i3's or above (or Xeons) ... but they're plenty powerful for many, and certainly can't be beat for their low power consumption -- low enough that the heat generation is easily handled by passive heatsinks (as you noted) ... thus allowing some of the quietest systems you can make (especially in a Fractal case like you're using). Link to comment
talkto_menow Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 I forgot to mention that this CPU does not support vt-d. I think this motherboard would be great for HTPC, assuming that you can get video card. On board video is not suitable for such a build. TV tuner would have to be external. With such a low TDP computer could run 24/7. In fact this motherboard is designed to be used in appliances. My current HPTC has quad-core AMD CPU with 45TDP. Cooling is passive and there is 1 chassis fan running at lower speed. This way HTPC is completely silent and in last 3 years I did not encounter any issues related to overheating. One more thing. This motherboard has 24-pin power connection. PSU that came with Fractal Design chassis is smaller and connector is either 16 or 18 pin (I'm not sure). So, I was little bit afraid that I will have to replace PSU, but with trial end error I was able power up motherboard by connecting power cord to the left side of connector leaving some pins empty. To my surprise everything works. Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Seems like a great lil motherboard. If I hadn't purchased the HP micro server gen 8, I would be all of this for a build. I'm looking forward to all the news you provide in the new build. Link to comment
pcwiz13 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I have been running the same setup for about 3 months now. Great motherboard/processor. I put 16gb of ram on it, and currently run 5 or so dockers, including plex, serving a household of 5, with no problems at all. My Kill-a-watt shows it idles around 35 watts (with SSD Cache spun up), and with all drives spun up (6 total) runs about 70 watts. Great performance on such a low power setup. Now to find a use for the 4 network ports... (PfSense VM??) I am considering picking up a low power quad core celeron board to replace it with in my unraid server and using the 8 core as an EXSI host to do some learning on. I almost feel bad that the Rangeley doesn't get pushed hard very often! Link to comment
gswarriorfan Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 I am thinking of getting one of these for my next build. Thanks for sharing your experience. For those of you with low power builds, do you utilize S3 sleep? I am trying to build the lowest power consumption build due to my insane electricity bill every month. TIA Link to comment
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