Atom 330 for dedicated download PC?

[Gillbot]

My concern would be reliability. Old consumer motherboards have a tendency to die. Personally I would absolutely replace it with something that draws less power, performs better, creates less heat and noise and is smaller.

Meh, some of us are cheap though. I'd rather browse the freebies thread and pick up another one if mine died. Nothing wrong with an old consumer based nas/torrent box IMHO. Especially if it's priced right.

 

[aigomorla]

i recomend u reading though this thread.

Look at what a sammy is, i think it might fit your catigory better then an atom.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=200843

These are enterprise machines, meaning they were designed ground up to be on 24/7 under load in harsh conditions.

You can get the units for a VERY GOOD price, the board only costs like 40 dollars shipped.
The cpu's you will have to look around, but ive seen the chips sell for as little as 40 dollars each.

40 x 2 + 40 dollar board + 100 dollars in ram + 20 dollar sinks = this:

You just need to find the parts.

But a sammy is fun, and if ur gonna use a box like that, i think its almost mandatory.
:X

In my entire farm, its the only machine that doesnt get upgraded besides Hard drives.

 

[Fox5]

You ever consider just getting a router with a usb port to use as a dedicated download box?
In fact, I think Asus sells some device specifically made for handling downloads (including torrents) and dumping them onto a usb drive.

Or just get this ion system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ire%20revo
It should only use around 20W. Which is still kind of high actually, my old thinkpad only uses 20W max and that's with a screen, it uses around 15W while idling. Those pentium M's were such awesome cpus, at 1.5Ghz and 90nm, my pentium m has a rated tdp of 7.5W, yet would probably run rings around the atom.

 

[BD231]

PIII is about as low as you're going to get on power consumption. I'm running a dell PIII 733 with no fan since 2001 and it dosen't cost a thing to keep on. 125watt psu, can't beat it

PIII is about 8 watts idle

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Funny you started this thread OP. I have a crappy ISP that comes prepaid with the rent and wanted to use that connection for torrents. Bought a SFF Dell GX270 from the university surplus warehouse for cheap ($30) - P4 2.8C, 1GB DDR400, shoved in a couple of extra Delta 50mm fans and an old 200GB IDE HDD = presto

 

[BushLin]

Here's the socket-479 board I'll be using in a HTPC / server, uses the 915GM chipset (7w+3w ICH) and with a 2Ghz Pentium M (7.5-10w idle) I found on ebay for just under £65 for the pair.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mothe...-915GM-Speedster-FA4-Pentium-M-Motherboard/p1

With an underclocked, passive 9400GT I'm hoping for around 30w idle with a 2TB Green Power but will still be happy if it's slightly higher. It's not new technology buy should trump any Atom based system.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182205

A bit costly at $140, but gives you an Atom 330, dual gigabit ethernet, PCI slot, PCIe x4 slot, PCIe x8 slot, four SATA 3.0Gb/s ports. You can have your Atom as well as your expandability. :awe:

Just as an aside, why do Atom 945GC mobos have fans on the chipset heatsink, but normal 945GC mobos you buy for a C2D chip dont?

 

[aigomorla]

Just as an aside, why do Atom 945GC mobos have fans on the chipset heatsink, but normal 945GC mobos you buy for a C2D chip dont?

they assume larger case for the c2d while tight spot on the atom.

 

[Zargon]

they have a decent supermicro 1u kit right now for ~350 shipped.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.303661


how well does the 330 benchmark?

I have an athlon64 s754 rig thats aging.

2 sata ports, its got a 480w antec tru power, a x1650 pro

mostly I rip wii games(using the drive I bought just for that so I have backups and can usb load them, its way faster), run IIS, utorrent, and rflow and syslog watchers.

occasionally I run WMP on it, but I have another machine I can do that on.

I wouldnt mind saving a little power and maybe speeding it up.

LMK if this is too much of a hijack on the 330 performance, and I will edit out everyhting but the link to the newegg deal and make my own thread

 

[Zap]

they assume larger case for the c2d while tight spot on the atom.

Another thing is that the Atom CPU doesn't need a fan while a C2D does. The fan on the C2D will cool the chipset heatsink right next to it.

I've had to put better cooling on motherboards when using my Scythe Ninja heatsink passively due to overheating (P965 and up chipsets).

 

[BushLin]

how well does the 330 benchmark?

http://anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

 

[Zargon]

thanks

wow thats LOW.

 

[her209]

http://anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2

Would it make a difference if it were running Windows XP?

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Notice the Sempron (45w) is over double the performance? That's the old lower clocked Semprons. There's the new AM3 45w 2.7Ghz Sempron now. Combine with the 780+ chipset for a 35~55 watt system including components (including about 4 drives). I have one of those setups and it works great. Quiet & Cool is very nice with these chips too. Way more powerful than an ATOM. And the boards have more expansion capability. Hence all my posting prior.

Very best,

 

[zsdersw]

I recommend the Celeron E3300 plus a mobo with the GF9300 or 9400 chipset.

 

[BushLin]

Would it make a difference if it were running Windows XP?

I doubt it would make much difference, I presume all systems had the same amount of memory, ran on the same disks and used the same build but that is a presumption.

 

[nonameo]

Just get a router that supports DD-WRT, has a usb port, and has plenty of RAM/ROM