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CPU?


phenixdragon

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Looking at building my first unRAID and am seeing if there is abetter low power option then the Core 2 Duo E6300 I have. It is only a 65W CPU but I would like to see about something if it can provide less power but not take a performance hit either. I do plan to build on my unRAID to 15 or so drives at some point and I am mostly just going to be streaming movies and back up various files. Is there lower power solution out there or is 65Ws about the lowest?

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Actually after doing some thinking I think I will just use this Core 2 Duo since I want to add a lot more hard drives in the future and to find a motherboard that takes a smaller wattage CPU with the ability to have multiple PCIe 4x just really isn't out there.

 

No matter how many hard drives you add unRAID will only need a very small percentage of your cpu.  Like 3% probably.  I've briefly tested with a Celeron D 430 1.8GHz.  It booted about the same, maybe a tad slower but no diff after that.  

Now with some addons you might need slightly more power, but very slight will do fine.  An e3300 is overkill.  Watch ebay for a cheap Pentium Dual Core e2160 or something like that. 

 

Lots of us are using an AMD Sempron 140 2.7GHz and it's a single proc. 

 

Get two gigs of ram tops.

 

 

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Good to know. I was thinking idle more power would be used but I guess I was thinking incorrectly.

 

Yes, I think you should check into what uses the least power.  I went for the Celeron D hoping for passive cooling and I think it might have worked.  It ran very cool.  But I don't know the power profiles for the Pentium and Core 2's so I can't help you with that.

 

 

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Not bad. Since I have this Core 2 Duo I would like to get it to work on my current Gigabyte motherboard but I just learned, I think by  you, that it has HPA. I'm just not sure if I can disable it. I will check with I get home in about 7 hours but until there I am looking all over for a mobo to use that can attach 15 HDDs to. Any combo of onboard SATA or using PCIe cards. I maybe have to go with a system that is also using DDR3 but I am trying to go with DDR2 as I already have DDR2. ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo looks like a good board. Can be found for about $100 new.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131377R

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Not bad. Since I have this Core 2 Duo I would like to get it to work on my current Gigabyte motherboard but I just learned, I think by  you, that it has HPA. I'm just not sure if I can disable it. I will check with I get home in about 7 hours but until there I am looking all over for a mobo to use that can attach 15 HDDs to. Any combo of onboard SATA or using PCIe cards. I maybe have to go with a system that is also using DDR3 but I am trying to go with DDR2 as I already have DDR2. ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo looks like a good board. Can be found for about $100 new.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131377R

 

That Asus looks good except there's no onboard video.  Effectively 8 sata ports and I suspect at least one of the PCIex16 slots will support an 8 port sata card.  Placing 2 port cards in the 3 PCIex1 slots gets it up to 22 which is the current limit of unRAID.  

As RAM goes, speed isn't important.  You won't see a difference between 667 and 1300.   Only a minimal GPU is needed.

 

 

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Ya the no onboard video is a downer but my current WHS box has this Gigabyte in there with a video card in it. I would image the cheap card I have in there doesn't draw much power. I actually never see a difference in the power bill regardless if I have that box on 24x7 of off for several weeks throughout the month. But I do like it has 2 PCIe 16x slots but like you said, one I would use a video card and the other I could do an 8 port SATA card.

 

The RAM I have isn't so much about speed, just trying not to spend too much. Got a wife to answer to and she hates how I always buy all these gadgets and stuff for my car/bike (motorcycle).    :)

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I didn't look closely to see what sata chipset is being used to supply the ports 7 and 8.  It needs to use a supported chipset for those as well or they won't work.

 

Looks like it is a Sil5723. Not sure if it will work but maybe I should look at this Foxconn board. http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/motherboards/detail_overview.aspx?id=en-us0000394

 

$90 on NewEgg and looks to be compatibility according to the HCL.

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Got a wife to answer to and she hates how I always buy all these gadgets and stuff for my car/bike (motorcycle).    :)

 

I found that changing the wife is quite effective!

I'm still married to my first/only wife (36 yrs) so I don't have direct experience, but from observations of those I know around us,

changing your motherboard is probably WAY less expensive than changing the wife.  ;)

 

Joe L.

She does get annoyed if I introduce her as my "first wife" though...  Ouch... 

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I am in the process of building another unRaid server. Planning to bring it to at least 12 HDD. So far I have collected the following:

-Intel Pentium Dual Core E6500 $48

-Gigabyte GA-EP45T-USB3P $99 with 8 SATA ports and 2 PCIe x16 + 3 PCIe x1. Manual says, Bios HPA is disabled by default.

-2x1GB Crucial $47

-Antec 900 Case $80

-Corsair 650WTX PSU $50

 

I will be busy this weekend  ;D

Hopefully the Gigabyte MoBo will be merciful after all the issues with the HPA posted here.

 

 

 

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changing your motherboard is probably WAY less expensive than changing the wife.  ;)

 

Perhaps ... but there can be soooo many other benefits.  After 30 years I separated from my first wife, then found my second wife and moved from cold, damp, UK to the Philippines.  First wife hated my 32" TV, saying that it was too big.  Second wife wanted the 55" model!

 

She does get annoyed if I introduce her as my "first wife" though...   Ouch... 

 

Try doing what one of the well known radio presenters in UK does - refers to his wife as "the present Mrs. X"!

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If you do end up with the Asus P5Q it would nice if you would do the level 1 certification for this board to get it listed on the hardware compatibility page.  

 

So what do you need to do that?

 

Well, on the hardware page there is a section "An explanation of what the "Tested Level" column means"  that says:

 

The first level should require at least 3 drives (limit of free license), should have successfully computed parity, and should have successfully checked parity. A syslog should be posted to make sure there are no nasties that might point to compatibility issues. (The syslog will also document parity check performance).

 

I only vaguely remember exactly what I did but I think I rebooted, ran a parity build and then checked parity.  After that I telneted into the machine and copied the /var/log/syslog to one of my public shares /mnt/user/... so I'd be able to get to it.  Then posted a new thread lin the forum ike "(mymotherboard name) passes level 1 test" and posted the syslog to that page.  Then someone verifies and adds that motherboard to the recommended list.

 

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since this is a CPU thread...I thought I'd just throw an idea out there - I've been running 4 drives with an AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.90GHz (65W), I've underclocked it, and I'm drawing about 55W when idle and up to 85 with all drives active. Since unRAID is so frugal when it comes to processing power, I was thinking of actually downgrading to the AMD Sempron 140 that many here are using, which is a 45W processor I think. I doubt I'll take a performance hit, but is that still the case with, say, 15 drives? Also, will I see a noticeably decrease in power draw? I like to run things lean and cool, and low power requirement is kinda sexy  ;) (I can use the  stronger Athon II in another box I'm building for a different purpose, so a downgrade wouldn't cost me anything)

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