the_beast

You still have to add a HDD to your build too, or it isn't gonna be serving anything

You also haven't factored in the cost of a psu for the Atom board, which will add another $50 for anything decent enough to trust running a server on reliably. I also wouldn't recommend running a server without a case either - are you gonna leave it out on a table? Surely the point of a server is you can throw it under the desk or in a cupboard out of the way? And when you get a bunch of disks to hold files a case is a must.

(edit: I see you did add this, but it brings the costs in line with the barebones..)

I also don't think the power consumption would be that different between the 2 systems. They both use chipsets that will consume similar power, both use similar memory etc. The only real difference is the cpu, and although the atom wins there, the gap at idle won't be more than 20W or so (2W for Atom, 20W max for the E2200. But the Atom won't allow you to do anything with your server other than fileserving, so if you want a game host or summat in the future you will need to spend more on components.

Atom is nice, but I don't think it is low power enough (because of the chipset) or cheap enough (compared with barebones systems) to make it worthwhile.

e_dogg

I don't think that barebone would consume 200w of power.

For example, it's estimated that my AMD-based WHS box consumes about 60w. See the specs here.

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MetalheadGautham

^^ Interesting if it indeed does consume 60W.

Now if only I could say the same about my sig rig. The CPU alone does 65W. Don't know how it will fare if I underclock it with P4-clockmod though. IF I find a way to get this (Hynix DDR 1GB 400Mhz RAM, Intel Pentium 4 506 (Without Hyper Threading support) 2.66GHz 90nm 65W CPU, 80GB Seagate Baracuda PATA HDD) to use less power....

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I am 26% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?

the_beast

Underclocking will help, but only a little. Your rig is built up of parts made when nobody gave a crap about power consumption.

To reduce your power consumption further you really need a new cpu (core2's use much less power than P4s, especially the new 45nm models). You also need a new mobo to support it, and change to DDR2 ram to save more power. A new green HDD will also help save a few watts. Chances are your PSU is also horribly inefficient - a new 80+ model will work wonders.

MetalheadGautham

Quite obvious conclusion there. But I have still not given up finding a good use for my rig once I buy one of them Athlon II X4 45W Quad Core CPU based rigs

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I am 26% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?

the_beast

How low you can go with your rig depends on what you want to still be able to do with it. If you can lose the HDD & boot from a flash card or pen drive you will drop 10W or so for a disk of that age. Also deactivate anything you do not use in the bios - everything you can turn off will save a little power (although possibly not even enough to measure - but every little helps...). If you have 2 RAM sticks but will only need a little memory then remove one stick for a further saving of ~5W with DDR. Remove all extra expansion cards and any usb devices not in use. Even removing the monitor, keyboard & mouse will help if you can run the machine headless. Take out any unneeded fans, especially as you will now be generating much less heat.

The biggest saving will likely come from undervolting your cpu if you can, although many bioses don't have great undervolting options. Your best bet would be to underclock to 400fsb, then keep undervolting until you find the lowest voltage it is stable at - in exactly the same way as you would for an overclock. Software underclocking won't do you any good - the power you save from underclocking is minimal if you can't undervolt at the same time, and your cpu will crash if you undervolt but rely on a software underclock to keep it stable at reduced voltage.

All of the above will reduce the power consumption by a reasonable amount, but will also drop the utility of the system also. It really depends what you want to do with it. If you just want to serve media files & aren't too bothered about speed, the cheapest option will likely be to just get a crappy NAS enclosure & add a modern HDD. If you want to do more your rig is capable enough (& prob still faster than the atom would be, even underclocked & with only 1 core), but you might need to have a good think about exactly what you need it to do & adjust the hardware appropriately to keep power as low as possible.

SgtSpike

The CPU MIGHT do 65w AT FULL LOAD. This is where people get mistaken - the power requirements listed for various PC components are what they will draw given maximum load and worst-possible scenario.

Anyway, a P4 will definitely be a power hog compared to a newer C2D, but seriously, since your server will likely be idle most of the time, it's not gonna be more than 50w or so idling.

I hooked up a battery backup on a CAD workstation at my workplace the other day, and watched the live power draw from the computer. While I was sitting there working on the machine, it never went above 40w. It hopped down to 35w while idle. It had an Athlon X2 processor, Raptor HDD, two sticks of memory, and an 8600GT video card (or Quadro, can't remember). Anyway, my point is, unless you're going to have your server under 100% load all the time, it's not going to consume near the amount of power you think it will.

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The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Thread
101% OC on E6300!

The_Rocker

That would fail so hard with anything that may attract heavey traffic.

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Planned Upgrades (Coming Soon):
Intel Core i7 950 D0 (Deal in progress)
6GB Kingston 2000Mhz HyperX (Deal in progress)
ASUS Rampage II Extreme X58 (Ordered)
Thermalright LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit (Ordered)

Different GFX set up (Possibly 5870's)

MetalheadGautham

My motherboard is an Intel Original Motherboard so I can neither overclock nor underclock my CPU.

However, I use linux and found a hack to underclock/overclock my PC (will post tutorial later). Although I am not sure if it underclocks with or without undervolting, in automatic mode it reduced my clock speed to 667MHz once so I was satisfied that its undervolting (at stock volts where stock clock is 2.66GHz, no way can the CPU go to 667MHz and remain stable).

And yeah, I am removing the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc from the PC. But My current keyboard and mouse have some issues with them, and are not really comfortable enough to use while gaming (hard keys). So I am thinking of leaving my Keyboard/Mouse with the PC. Since I use a 17" CRT monitor which consumes over 100W power, I turn it off when I am leaving my PC. Should I also remove the VGA cable connection ?

As far as RAM is concerned, I had a 256mb stick which I replaced with a 1GB stick. I still have an extra memory slot, but I am leaving it empty since 256MB extra won't make a diference unless I use windows or game, none of which I do.

In BIOS, I am not sure what options to turn on/off. But I am looking into it.

The problem is that almost every part in my PC, with the exception of the DVD-RAM drive (while I still have the older DVD-ROM drive lying around) needs to be replaced when I make an upgrade. So I am more inclined towards trying to find a permanent use for this PC.

The only one I can think of is that my parents still use the PC only for internet and email. Once I graduate from collage and move out after getting a job, the replacement quad core athlon II X4 rig I plan to buy won't serve much purpose.

And that's the reason I am more inclined towards buying a laptop and letting this PC live on as it is after erazing linux, games and all other "junk" (in my parents' eyes) from the PC. If I do that my 80GB HDD will be more than enough for storing the data they might possibly need to store.

But for the next 4 years, I still need to stay WITH my PC so I need to find a good use for it.

Hope you understand the not-so-straightforward nature of the situation.

Nice. BTW, do you think a Sempron Sparta 2.1GHz will perform better than my pentium 4 2.66GHz ? I might be able to find someone with a Sempron LE 1150 (or whatever the model number was) who is n00bish enough to swap motherboards if I say that I have a 2.66GHz CPU

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I am 26% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?

e_dogg

I think it will perform about the same but with a lower energy usage. I'm running my Windows Home Server machine on a Sempron LE-1250 and it does everything I need it to.

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