120w PSU and 4 sata drives

[figr0701]

I am looking at creating a new HTPC/Home server using a SFF case that has an integrated 120w PSU. The case also has 4 bays for 3.5" sata drives.

I was wondering if the 120w PSU would be able to run all 4 drives.
(On further examination - I guess I wouldn't be using all 4 drives at the same time, but in theory would it still be able to run all four if need be?)

Thanks for the help

Grant

 

[Rifter]

I believe most drives are at about 8w idle and twice that at load.

 

[Zap]

What are the other parts? I was testing an underclocked/undervolted E5200 with Intel integrated video and two hard drives. The power meter was in the low 60W range.

 

[figr0701]

I haven't built the system yet, but these are the general specs I was going for:

Mobo: Albatron KI690-AM2 (If I can find a vendor that sells it)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 - 65w
RAM: 2 2GB DDR2 800 SO-DIMMs
HDD: 4 sata drives
PCI: Haupagge TV tuner

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: figr0701
Mobo: Albatron KI690-AM2 (If I can find a vendor that sells it)

Good luck on that, as Albatron no longer has a USA presence. You would have to rely on random places who might import a batch, and RMAs can be a hassle. A friend of mine got a J&W mini ITX board that he couldn't RMA to the manufacturer.

The Albatron board has component out which is rare with integrated video, but otherwise isn't that unique. What is it about this motherboard that makes you want it? Since the Albatron was announced, there has been a lot of other mini ITX boards released and readily available that supports desktop processors and has integrated video suitable for HTPC.

For the processor, if going with AMD perhaps choose one of their 45W chips for lower power draw/heat output. The Athlon X2 1234e chips (note the "e," other numbers aren't real) are 45W dual cores. Examples are the Athlon X2 4050e, 4850e, 5050e. If you end up with an Intel based board, go with the E5X00 or E7X00, such as E5200, E5300, E7200, E7300, etc. Those are your best bets for low power draw.

BTW, welcome to Anandtech Forums.

 

[theAnimal]

HDDs can use ~30W at spin-up, that may be a problem.

 

[figr0701]

lol - I know the Albatron is scarce.

miniITX mobos without integrated CPUs in general are pretty scarce.

I was looking at one other potential mobo:
Intel BOXDG45FC
But I have seen mixed reviews - especially ones pointing out overheating issues.


The reason I am asking this is because I really love this case:
Chenbro ES34069
I really cannot find a SFF case with 4 hotswap drives, that will look good in my living room.
_________________________________________________________________________

I agree that a 45w CPU would work better - but at this point everything is just theoretical.

I am just trying to see if running an HTPC/Media server is viable from this box.

One other question - O/S and software wise, is it possible to run both an HTPC and Media server (or NAS)?
Windows does a good job of decoding and displaying high-def format, but could I still get media center functionality out of this?

On the other hand, a Linux distro (Ubuntu) would be able to handle both of these tasks, but I have heard problems concerning high-def material.



Thanks for all your help

 

[Rifter]

I run a media server from Linux Mint 6 and it works fine, when transcoding it really puts the quad core in my sig to work though really CPU hungry when converting to 720p depending on the original format. I also have vista dual booted on this box and prefer linux for media serving although i have vista set up for it as well. Should also note this computer acts as a router for my network and a file server for 2 other computers, plus my GF games on it(only old games lucky for me so they work in linux), its really doing alot most of the time and linux handles it better than vista, my .02 cents. In vista it will eat the 4GB of ram after a few hours of uptime linux can usualy keep memory usage around 2-3GB.