I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself.
A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use.
Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-)
So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption.
Chris,
I'm not sure you should dismiss the miniitx boards on cost. AMD BE processor+ motherboard comes to nearly £100. An via epia board costs about £70 (Low end ones) More significantly they use in order of 25W vs the 40W used by just the AMD processor. However you may have performance considerations that may make epia boards unviable.
hope this is useful, Venura
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Chris G cl@isbd.net wrote:
I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself.
A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use.
Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-)
So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption.
-- Chris Green
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On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 04:55:39PM +0100, Venura Mendis wrote:
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Chris G cl@isbd.net wrote:
I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself.
A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use.
Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-)
So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption.
I'm not sure you should dismiss the miniitx boards on cost. AMD BE processor+ motherboard comes to nearly £100. An via epia board costs about £70 (Low end ones) More significantly they use in order of 25W vs the 40W used by just the AMD processor. However you may have performance considerations that may make epia boards unviable.
Yes, OK, the motherboard and processor are only £75 or so but the case and power supply are relatively expensive, like I can't find anything less than £65 or so.
I must admit it's quite a close run thing though.
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 04:19:11PM +0100, Chris G wrote:
I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself.
A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use.
Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-)
So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption.
The AMD690 boards are supposed to be reasonably low power; I have an Asus M2A-VM HDMI coupled with a BE-2400 and it's a nice box. Unfortunately I don't have a power meter to measure what the usage is.
An ITX system is going to give you much lower consumption at the expense of performance.
J.
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 05:29:13PM +0100, Jonathan McDowell wrote:
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 04:19:11PM +0100, Chris G wrote:
I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself.
A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use.
Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-)
So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption.
The AMD690 boards are supposed to be reasonably low power; I have an Asus M2A-VM HDMI coupled with a BE-2400 and it's a nice box. Unfortunately I don't have a power meter to measure what the usage is.
An ITX system is going to give you much lower consumption at the expense of performance.
Thanks, at least that's some sort of pointer.
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Chris G -
Jonathan McDowell -
Venura Mendis