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CPU to minimize cost and heat on a file server?

C

corkypa

Member
Recently I have been getting very old home movies transferred to High Definition video, yielding literally terabytes of data. I'm going to set up an archive server to hold these files, which range in size from 40 to 250GB apiece. My current plan is a simple linux server with 6 to 8 300GB disks, running Debian linux with software Raid 5 on the disks, to be hardware fault tolerant, and LVM on top of that to provide the appearance of a single huge disk. Connectivity will be gigabit ethernet or 1394b.

Normally, this machine will be doing nothing, or transferring files to or from a disk over the network. Sometimes it will have to compress a file with something like gzip.

The CPU demands here are not very great, so I suspect and inexpensive CPU that is older technology would work fine. That also means I could use an older motherboard with 4 IDE connectors, saving me the cost of an extra controller for all the disks. What CPU would you pick?

Via C3 chips are one obvious choice. They are very low power, but also very slow. So slow that I wonder if it might be a bottle neck when it comes time to transfer a file or rebuild the raid array. I have C3 (which I haven't used in this application) and it is noticably sluggish compared to other processors.

What about something like an underclocked Duron or Celeron? I don't know which chips generally have lower power dissipation.
 
Any reason why you are concerned about power usage, with an 6-8 drive array?

A Larger concern would be how much cpu utilization a RAID 5 software array will cause against a low end processor.

Also, Old home movies to HD? 😕

I know we had an older dual PII 400MHz that served files pefectly for an office of 12 people.
 
You have a few choices, AthlonXP mobiles underclocked do pretty well for power usage, but if you can afford it, I think a 90nm A64 is the best. Enable Cool and Quiet for low power when you don't need the CPU and the ability to crank it up when you do.

Celeron D underclocked and/or undervolted would probably do okay for power, but I'm unsure.

The S754 Sempron would be perfect if it had CnQ, but most have CnQ disabled, and you cannot lower the multiplier for underclocking.

The 2600+ is the cheapest Sempron, and can likely be signficantly undervolted. It should be adequate for your needs, is cheap as far as new processors go, and will probably close to twice as fast as the C3. Power usage would be quite low if you undervolt it. I suspect at 1.6GHz a 90nm chip can be run at pretty low voltages (~1.0v or below?). Reports are that the 90nm A64s can run 1.8-2.0 GHz in the 1.0-1.1v range, so I'm assuming 1.6 GHz @ 1.0v is possible, you're getting into <25W territory with that. At that point the motherboard is probably using more power than the processor.

There is the obvious Pentium-M option for the ultimate in power consumption, but you would definitely pay a price for that.
 
Heat concerns: I've got enough heat and fan noise from my existing boxes, so I'd like to keep it down whenever possible, particularly for a machine that has low average utilitization.

I wonder about the CPU utilization too. I'm not sure, and haven't found anything solid on it.

Old movies to HD: some of the films are 70 years old and their base is irreversibly deteriorating (vinegar syndrome). They are not long for this world, so I have only one chance to do a transfer.
 
Originally posted by: corkypa
Heat concerns: I've got enough heat and fan noise from my existing boxes, so I'd like to keep it down whenever possible, particularly for a machine that has low average utilitization.

I wonder about the CPU utilization too. I'm not sure, and haven't found anything solid on it.

Old movies to HD: some of the films are 70 years old and their base is irreversibly deteriorating (vinegar syndrome). They are not long for this world, so I have only one chance to do a transfer.
Click to expand...


Actually you would probably be best served by purchasing some 500GB hard drives. By removing harddrives you are automatically lowering the noise and heat. You could get 5-500GBs and have more storage than 8-300GBs. With RAID 5 you would lose a little more storage, but the heat and noise would be down. If the budget permits.

I know it may be oversimplifying it but, can't you just use an A64 processor with Cool & Quiet? The processor should drop down to lower megahertz and pick back up when you are using it. Then you won't have to worry about juggling low powered cpus and power consumption/heat problems.

Also on old videos again, again old to HD. If you are capturing better than the source, or significantly better than the source it's a total waste or storage space. I bet you could record the sources, I'm not familiar with processes to capture 70 year old video(35mm?) to a digital format. You could capture that into DVD level quality and upscale to HD later. Having it HD probably isn't giving you anything unless your resolution and original film quality demands it, for reproduction later. I just putting this out there, due to the fact your captures are using a ton of storage and reducing file size may be an avenue to lowering the disk storage requirements.

 
A64 with Cool and Quiet sounds good to me. I'll try that route. Frys has a pretty decent deal on a MB/CPU combo right now.

500GB drives are a good suggestion, but currently it would roughly double the storage costs compared to 300GB drives. Of course, if it takes an extra machine to hold extra drives, that's not free, and there's space and heat considerations.

As for old -> HD being overkill, I think it is not for 16mm films, which are the oldest and most in need of rescue. However, for 8mm or Super 8, I suspect that HD does nothing but raise the cost, as you point out, so I will probably not go that route.
 
I would go with an Athlon-64, have a 3400+, socket 754 in my home server running 3x250GB in Hardware Raid 5. CPU runs at idle most of the time at around 43c with Cool-n-Quiet enabled. With the SilentBoost HSF unit, the machine is not that audible. I have been able to undervolt the CPU down to .875 @ 800mhz at idle, with temps at 40c. I love this CPU! 😀

 
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