server/htpc, this any good?

[tongue_of_colicab]

I'm planning on buying a new pc that I can use as a server so I can play around with windows server and I want use it as a htpc from time to time.

A few requirements are: It must be fairly energy friendly because it will be on 24/7. It must be cheap. It must have enough sata connections as I will put all the hdd's around here in it (exept those needed for the OS ofcourse).

I now have this:

Asus P5B. Has 6 sata ports so that is fine, but does the intel speedstep to clock down the cpu when not used on this one? I got a asus deluxe thing in my main pc but speedstep is borked on that one because asus doenst know how to build a proper bios.

Intel e2180. Cheap, but how is the energy consumption? and would this be fast enough for HD playback?

2gb ram: Cheapest I could find, 30 euros. Will do fine I suppose.

Cheapest pci-e card: Not planning on spending to much on this one yet. I want one that supports hardware acceleration for HD content (both from the net and from disc) but I'm not entirely sure which models offer what and how much they cost. It will be something for later as I havnt found a place around the living room yet to put the machine so it will be upstairs for the time being. Unless the cards come at a reasonable price.

Will this be any good? or would there be better choices? I like to stick with intel and the 775 socket so I can change parts with my pc if needed incase of something breaking down.

Any reccomandations?

 

[Davros]

speedstep works works fine on my asus board
run cpu-z and look at the multiplyer

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Doesnt matter as the option is just gone in the bios because asus broke it and didnt bother fixing it. Do you happen to know if it works on the P5B?

 

[Davros]

sorry i dont
would going back to an earlier bios version fix it ?

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Maybe, but than it wont recognize my q6600 anymore

 

[Blazkowicz]

integrated video would be best, on the AMD side I'd build with 780G and an X2 4400+.

 

[Davros]

there have been a few bios updates for my board p5wh deluxe since the bios that recognised the q6600

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

integrated video would be best, on the AMD side I'd build with 780G and an X2 4400+.

Only downside is that mainboards with integrated video and 6 sata ports and atx are so expensive that you are better of buying a seperate gpu. Atleast, on the intel boards havnt looked at amd yet. Also boards with a hdmi output are atleast 100 euro's.

What are the recomanded specs for HD playback? a 2,2ghz c2d would do? and what would be that on the amd side? I really havnt been keeping track on the differences for the past time.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Oke i've did some more research on the AMD side and this really looks like alot better deal than the intel stuff. As the mainboard I now got the GigaByte GA-MA69GM-S2H which seems to be like perfection. At 55 euro's its dirtcheap, according to reviews performance is on par with full sized ATX boards but the best thing of all is it has HDMI onboard and its accelerated by the onboard chip. Now I dont have a clue if this also goes for the coded versions for downloaded HD content but that shouldnt matter to much. Only downside is it only has 4 sata ports but I can live with that as it has 2 pci slots so you can easily put in another 4 sata slots by a expension card.

As the cpu I chose a 5000+. It has a TDP of 65watt so it should stay fairly cool and not use to much energy which is nice for something that is going to be on most of the time. Only question is if this will be fast enough for all the HD content available at 1080p. Does anybody know this?

31021 GigaByte GA-MA69GM-S2H,Retail € 55,19 € 55,19
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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31531 AMD Athlon 64 X2, 5000+ (65W), Socket AM2, Boxed € 87,76 € 87,76
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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10180 Kingston KVR800D2N5K2/2G, 2048 MB, DDR2, PC6400, 800 MHz, 2 x € 35,31 € 35,31
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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35872 Samsung SpinPoint F1,7200RPM, SATA II, 32MB, 750GB € 92,95 € 92,95
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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41034 Chieftec GPS-500AB-A,500Watt € 49,25 € 49,25
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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68236 Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken € 26,67 € 26,67
2-3 dagen, op voorraad bij leverancier


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Totaal € 347,13

Not sure about the psu and cpu fan yet. Because of the mATX board I plan on keeping my htpc case as the server case because I should be able to put in a few extra hdd's with the extra space (gets out the lego box) but its low so I dont know if the cpu fan is going to fit and besides that I heard the boxed amd coolers run almost as silent as after market onces so I could keep that. PSU could be better, but I just picked that one because that is around the price I want to pay.

Does this seem like something that will function as a HTPC and a windows 2003 server? I believe you can also get dx9 working under server2003 so than I can use media portal instead of WMCE.

 

[Blazkowicz]

DX9 and pretty much everything works, you have to move the hardware acceleration slider. it's a great OS, a light XP with a newer kernel and crippled IE. with some settings to change in gpedit.msc, system properties etc.
only trouble is for some installers requiring XP, especially drivers. (most win 2k/XP stuff works by far). you then have to try compatibility option or install by hand

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Dont mind that. All I want to install is media portal and some codecs so that wont be to much trouble if needed.

On the hardware side I made some changes. The mainboard looked awsome, But I heard the IGP isnt capable of full hardware 1080p which means a faster cpu. Now I asked around but nobody seems to know if a 5000+ will do the job. Because of that I decided to go for a 780g chipset board. Will cost me 15 euro's more but I do get 2 sata ports more and that one is 100% capable of 1080p. Only downside is it wont include s-video (as I dont have HDtv yet) so I need to spend another 30 euro's on a radeon HD 3450 which has a HDMI and s-video port if im correct which kinda makes the whole onboard HDMI useless... So im paying 45 euro's more for 2 extra sata ports but as the card and the onboard gpu support hybrid crossfire I atleast can be sure 1080p wont be a problem at all so I decided to drop the cpu and go for a cheaper model, I preffer a 45watt one but all shops seem to have atleast a 2week delivery for that so I might still go for a 4800+ or something like that which will do fine because of the hardware acceleration and server2003 should work fine on that too. Ends up more expensive than I wanted but you cant have it all I suppose.

On a little side note, does anybody knows if the boxed amd cooler runs at variable fanspeed? Because at idle with cool n quite on the cpu shouldnt run hot at all (and it will be like this 99% of the time) so it would be great if the fan would go slower and remove almost all noise.

As the psu I chose a earthwatt 350watt. Does anybody know if they are any good? heard they are quite silent and it should be powerfull enough for a whole bunch of hdd's (6 or so) and the rest of the machine I think.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Crossfire is only for gaming as far as I know. if you'll be using a SDTV, using an old PCI card isn't out of question . or VGA to SCART, a bit tricky, I will probably try it out
http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

Playback should be ok on the CPU, perhaps needing the CoreAVC codec for 1080p H264.
yes the default fan is variable speed, the one on my sempron LE-1100 always spins at a ridiculous low speed (and I'm not using CnQ yet). I undervolted a bit which you might do as well.

I don't know about the PSU but the wattage is sensible. I keep buying Fortron as they are cheap and rather great, don't know well the other brands (but I do know how unbranded and half brands are )

 

[Davros]

ive used tv-out to scart it worked well
that link you provided looks a bit scary

ps: if your in france wouldnt your tv be secam ?

 

[Blazkowicz]

PAL and SECAM are identical when it comes from a RGB signal, and for composite or S-video only PAL is ever used (so old TV before some date in the late eighties only support SECAM RF antenna and RGB Scart, then pretty much every TV supports both PAL and SECAM).

 

[nutball]

On the hardware side I made some changes. The mainboard looked awsome, But I heard the IGP isnt capable of full hardware 1080p which means a faster cpu. Now I asked around but nobody seems to know if a 5000+ will do the job. Because of that I decided to go for a 780g chipset board. Will cost me 15 euro's more but I do get 2 sata ports more and that one is 100% capable of 1080p.

I just recently rebuilt my HTPC around the Gigabyte 780G-based board. It's awesome. I've tried playing back 720p H.264 and 1080p VC-1 and the CPU load sits around 25% even while it's clocked down to 1GHz by C'n'Q (or RMClock which is what I actually use). CPU is an X2 3600+ by the way. The board has a decent sound chip too, which will encode Dolby DTS in real-time. The only thing I miss on the board is the ability to underclock further!

On a little side note, does anybody knows if the boxed amd cooler runs at variable fanspeed?

Yes it does, at least it does on the board I'm describing.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Crossfire is only for gaming as far as I know. if you'll be using a SDTV, using an old PCI card isn't out of question . or VGA to SCART, a bit tricky, I will probably try it out
http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

I believe the hybrid crossfire enables the 2 cards to work together, dont know if its only in games but you'd think if it works for games it would work for video too?

I looked into the cable, but I'm a absolute idiot when it comes down to connecting wires. I once spend 3 hours trying to make a cat5 cable and I still didnt get the wires right.

PCI card would be a option, though its impossible to buy a new one cheap. The cheapest I found is 45 euro's, than I might as well buy the hd3450 for 30 euro.

I don't know about the PSU but the wattage is sensible. I keep buying Fortron as they are cheap and rather great, don't know well the other brands (but I do know how unbranded and half brands are )

I'll change the chieftec for a seasonic 380watt. Heard they are very good and very silent so that will be worth it I think.

I just recently rebuilt my HTPC around the Gigabyte 780G-based board. It's awesome. I've tried playing back 720p H.264 and 1080p VC-1 and the CPU load sits around 25% even while it's clocked down to 1GHz by C'n'Q (or RMClock which is what I actually use). CPU is an X2 3600+ by the way. The board has a decent sound chip too, which will encode Dolby DTS in real-time. The only thing I miss on the board is the ability to underclock further!

Yes it does, at least it does on the board I'm describing.

Sounds great. So the cpu I want will be fine for sure which is nice, fan speed is nice too. Doesnt amd actually limit their cpu's to not go below 1ghz because of stability issues? I remember reading something like that.

I think the best choice would be to just pay the extra money and get the gigabyte board and the hd3450. I'll see if I can get a pci card somewhere for a couple of euro's but I doubt that.

 

[nutball]

Doesnt amd actually limit their cpu's to not go below 1ghz because of stability issues? I remember reading something like that.

Possibly, I hadn't heard anything about that. I've got the LE-1640 in my secondary HTPC clocked down to 750MHz at idle and that doesn't seem to have caused any problems.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I got my pci card! I remember a friend had one and we made a deal to trade his passive pci fx5200 for my.... passive agp fx5200

Does anybody know the system req for x264? I'm really not into the HD thing and I dont even mind so much as I wont have HDtv anytime soon anyway but he said the gpu's wont accelerate the x264 codec. Will a amd 4450 (2x2,3Ghz) be enough for that? I did some quick reading but could only find old forum posts from people with 3.xGHz p4's that almost managed 1080p x264 smooth but I want to be sure.

Also I read somewhere your gpu also has influance on the performance but I doubt that if it cant accelerate the codec by hardware?

 

[nutball]

Does anybody know the system req for x264? I'm really not into the HD thing and I dont even mind so much as I wont have HDtv anytime soon anyway but he said the gpu's wont accelerate the x264 codec.

From my brief searching around forums I think that there's a lot of FUD and crap floating about regarding x264 and acceleration.

My understanding of this is that the x264 codec outputs H.264 streams, and H.264 streams are basically standardised. So if you can find a codec/driver/movie player which can play H.264 streams making use of the UVD engine you will get accelerated playback of the output of the x264 codec.

If you look at MPC-HC you'll find that that will play back H.264 whilst using the hardware support. At least it does on my 780G board -- that's what I was using to play the streams when I reported my CPU usages above. If I play the same streams with eg. WMP or anything using ffdshow or similar I see ~50%+ CPU usage and the performance-on-demand clocks the CPU up to its maximum, rather than ~25% with it clocked to its minimum. By my reading that's saying that MPC-HC is using UVD rather than the CPU to playback the H.264 stream.

That said I've only tried a couple of H.264 streams in the above tests, there may be some that UVD can't cope with.

Complicated, innit?!

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

It is So h264 software should also be able to accelerate x264? strange as my mate said it didnt work for his ati card that has hardware acceleration. Anyway, I'll just get that 4450 which is 2x2,3Ghz, I'm sure that will be fast enough even if the cpu has to take care of everything.