Intel G1610 for Home Media Server Build?

[slidetrombone]

I need a new motherboard/processor for my media server. I was thinking about going with an Intel G1610 and whatever ATX motherboard and RAM I can get for cheap. I was wondering if any of you had advice on whether this is a good processor to go with or if there were better options out there.

My needs for the server are the following:
1. Server is on 24/7 so low power consumption is preferable, but not essential.

2. I will need to accommodate up to 15 drives , and foresee myself doing this with SATA expansion cards, which would mean accomodating 2-3 of these cards. I would prefer to have an ATX form factor board.

3. Low price preferable <$100 for processor+motherboard+RAM

4. I will not be doing any remuxing, ripping, or encoding on the server, just working with files.

What are your thoughts?

:Background:
I had been using a ~8 year old motherboard (Asus A8n SLI) with AMD 64-FX processor without issue, however this board crashes when trying to recognize more than 6 hard drives (apparently a known issue with the board), so I now need another motherboard. I'm running ubuntu 12.04 desktop on this server with samba for sharing across the network and flexraid for drive pooling/parity.

 

[Jimzz]

I would lean toward AMD if you need a lot of drives. The 900 series chipsets support 6 6gb SATA ports by default. Let alone Raid 0/1/5/10

Or the new FM2+ also supports 6 6gb SATA ports and Raid 0/1/5/JBOD

Can get a used or low end chip and some ram to supply after that.

Most cheap H61 Intel boards I think only support 4 total Sata ports.

 

[Torn Mind]

Hmm, my experience with the Celeron G550(G1610's predecessor) on Linux Mint (Ubuntu derivative)was that HD video would play with "squiggly distortions" in the picture when playing them with a video player.

An A85X board has 8 native SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports. Something like Gigabyte board and an A4-4000 might avoid that, although I'm not sure how well AMD's graphics mesh with Ubuntu.

 

[Shivansps]

Hmm, my experience with the Celeron G550(G1610's predecessor) on Linux Mint (Ubuntu derivative)was that HD video would play with "squiggly distortions" in the picture when playing them with a video player.

An A85X board has 8 native SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports. Something like Gigabyte board and an A4-4000 might avoid that, although I'm not sure how well AMD's graphics mesh with Ubuntu.

+1

 

[SViscusi]

That $100 price limit makes it impossible to get all three components. The closest I can get is:

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 340 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113330
MB - ASUS A55M-A - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132049
or
MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130708

That should be $100 plus shipping. Adding a stick of memory will push it up over your desired limit.

The real problem you have is getting sata ports for 15 drives. Both motherboards have 6 but only 2 pcie expansion slots. That would mean you'd have to add a sas card like the IBM m1015 which can be found on ebay for ~100 shipped. Add sas to sata cables and that puts you up at ~$130 for 14 total supported drives.

 

[SPBHM]

That $100 price limit makes it impossible to get all three components. The closest I can get is:

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 340 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113330
MB - ASUS A55M-A - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132049
or
MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130708

That should be $100 plus shipping. Adding a stick of memory will push it up over your desired limit.

The real problem you have is getting sata ports for 15 drives. Both motherboards have 6 but only 2 pcie expansion slots. That would mean you'd have to add a sas card like the IBM m1015 which can be found on ebay for ~100 shipped. Add sas to sata cables and that puts you up at ~$130 for 14 total supported drives.

no graphics card? this CPU have no IGP.

this MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157356

plus the Celeron is better, 8 Sata ports

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I would lean toward AMD if you need a lot of drives. The 900 series chipsets support 6 6gb SATA ports by default. Let alone Raid 0/1/5/10

SATA III is irrelevant for platter drives. The fastest are still slower than SATA II and most won't even saturate SATA I.

And then the SATA controllers will probably bottleneck the drives that are attached to them. Depending on the controller.

Two of these on an SLI-capable motherboard would be pretty nice though. And then it wouldn't matter what kind of on-board SATA ports OP has.

The G1610 is completely adequate for a file server / NAS build. I don't think you're going to find a motherboard, CPU, and RAM for under $100 though, unless you drop expectations a lot. (Used hardware, maybe one of those integrated ULV Celeron boards instead of the full size ATX rig, etc.)

Just throwing this out there: The little ECS Celeron 847 motherboard I have has an x16 (x8 electrical) PCI-E slot. One of those controller cards would work fine, and with the onboard ports I could have 12 drives in a storage pool. (With a $60 motherboard/CPU combo.)

 

[seitur]

If you plan to do Linux box then AVOID AMD. Their GPU Linux drivers are horrbile. Seriously I like AMD myself, but they need to step up cause their GPU drivers for Linux are trash.
If you plan Windows box - then by all means DO get or at least consider AMD.

Hmm, my experience with the Celeron G550(G1610's predecessor) on Linux Mint (Ubuntu derivative)was that HD video would play with "squiggly distortions" in the picture when playing them with a video player.

I have G1610 on Ubuntu box and it's playing Full HD and even higher res videos smoothly without artifacts.
Haven't tried with Blu-rays though as this box has not access to BR drive.