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Media Server - Old PC - Kill the Noise!

colonelciller

colonelciller

Senior member
Repurposing an 8 year old Dell XPS into a Linux-based home media server.

xpscpuz.png


It is a noisy computer at idle and after 8 years of listening to that constant droning noise it is time to silence the beast!


Current Plan to silence & serve:

  • remove gpu
  • remove & replace stock fans with noctuas
  • replace psu if it turns out to be a noisemaker (hard to tell with all the noise going on what the noisemakers are)
  • install 3x WD Red (3TB drives)
  • install a _____ drive for the OS (see question below)

Some questions for making this server as silent as possible:

  • tiny SSD for OS? I know it is way-overkill performance-wise but I couldn't give a damn at this point if it'll make a difference noise-wise. I have about 2 cumulative hours experience running linux, D: zero experience running a home server 😱 and no idea whatsoever if a HDD with the OS on it would be spinning constantly or periodically or not at all once the server is up and running.:\

  • spinning down media drives when not in use? Is this possible in a linux environment. 😕 I like the way windows drives spin-down when not in use and then spin-up when data is being requested. I don't mind having to wait 10-20 seconds to being able to browse the folders or have a song start playing... but it would be annoying if the drives were to spin down "too often". So, is it possible to spin down hard drives in Linux server-style environment and still have them be accessible by LAN from Windows 7 Ultimate Computers (and eventually a silent HTPC running Linux w/ VLC & a Music Player)?

  • CPU overkill? Last question is about my CPU. 😱 I haven't messed with it... no attempts to overclock it (don't know if it is even possible with this MOBO), and I don't have the first clue about overclocking. Does the CPUz tell you anything about it being Overclocked? I see the "11x multiplier" and am wondering if it is a stock overclock directly from Dell. If it is overclocked, can I reverse the OC (maybe even "underclock it"... if that's possible).
Thanks for reading and I look forward to any advice!

Cheers
 
It may be far more difficult than you thought: Dell uses proprietary shrouds, likely with an unusual fan mounting system, the computer is too old to be compatible with SATA drives today, and the age of the CPU means that it's weaker than a modern Pentium G2120. You're better off starting fresh.

You'd be looking at bit over $900 for the full build, of which just over half comes from the drives/SSDs:
Intel i3-3220 = $120
Gigabyte mITX H77 Motherboard = $105
WD Red HDD = $156 ea
Lian-Li PC-Q25B mITX case = $120
Corsair CX430M PSU = $50
It's a tiny case (about 7.75"x12"x18" in WxHxD)-- roughly the height of a disposable plastic water bottle. You can pretty safely stuff this in a closet or the garage and never hear it again.

Other HDD options which can save you money: A Toshiba 3TB drive for $140 ea; WD Caviar Green 3TB drives for $140 ea,; Seagate Barracuda 3TB drive for $120 ea.
 
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Sleepingforest said:
It may be far more difficult than you thought: Dell uses proprietary shrouds, likely with an unusual fan mounting system, the computer is too old to be compatible with SATA drives today, and the age of the CPU means that it's weaker than a modern Pentium G2120. You're better off starting fresh.
Click to expand...

SATA ports have been around since Socket 478--I have an ECS PM800-M2--, and SATA II drives were first released in 2005.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en....0.les;eappsweb..0.0...1.1.5.serp.TqJF8mGbt4g

Besides, visual evidence:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/imagebank/desktops/xps_700_interior_300.jpg

Fun fact from this CNET review:
This is not to say that Dell's new flagship PC is without a few design problems. Measuring 22 inches high, 8.75 inches wide and 24 inches deep, the aluminum-clad chassis is a true beast. It's taller than the majority of desktops currently on the market, and it weighs about 57 pounds, so you'll need to be sure you have the room for it.
Click to expand...


Also, it seems like a BTX motherboard and case because the back, the front, and the side you open the case is "backwards" in that view.
An SSD will not "rumble" every time the hard drive is accessed.
 
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Torn Mind said:
SATA ports have been around since Socket 478--I have an ECS PM800-M2--, and SATA II drives were first released in 2005.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=ubuntu&hs=2Ay&channel=fs&q=dell+xps+700&oq=dell+xps+700&gs_l=serp.3..0i20j0l6j0i20j0l2.36245.37802.0.38089.4.4.0.0.0.0.223.581.0j3j1.4.0.les%3Beappsweb..0.0...1.1.5.serp.TqJF8mGbt4g

Besides, visual evidence:
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/imagebank/desktops/xps_700_interior_300.jpg
Click to expand...

My memory is clearly slipping. My old PC from roughly the same time did not use SATA--though I fail to recall whether it was from 10 or 8 years ago.

SSDs are actually pretty popular as a cache/OS drive for NAS storage, I believe: they are silent (no moving parts!) and blazingly fast.
 
Sleepingforest said:
It may be far more difficult than you thought: Dell uses proprietary shrouds, likely with an unusual fan mounting system, the computer is too old to be compatible with SATA drives today, and the age of the CPU means that it's weaker than a modern Pentium G2120. You're better off starting fresh.

You'd be looking at bit over $1000 for the full build, of which just over half comes from the drives/SSDs:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($123.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($158.55*3 @ Amazon)
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Mini ITX Tower Case ($128.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1013.39
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-12 23:21 EDT-0400)

It's a tiny case (about 7.75"x12"x18" in WxHxD)-- roughly the height of a disposable plastic water bottle.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this list. It will be helpful for a new build and also if I get nostalgic and try to silence this old beast.

You're certainly right about the proprietary shrouds, there's one giant one funneling air to the CPU and a second boxy shroud on the floor of the case blowing air across the cards towards the back. I knew my CPU was outdated but that chart comparison made me laugh at how far this former "hot rod" has fallen.

On the hard-drive compatibility end I must have been lucky because I do have sata interfaces & drives in there, so at least theoretically it should be possible.

Down side: I stuck my head in the box and that PSU is definitely adding its own flavor of noise and would have to go.
 
I've edited that build with direct links (and no more SSD, that one was too expensive for what you were getting.)

I doubt you have SATA 6Gb/s in there though, so you'd probably have to find a PCI-to-SATA adapter.

If that board has any PCIe x1 ports, you could use this for $27 (before 20% off with code VANTECMAR20).
 
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Sleepingforest said:
I've edited that build with direct links (and no more SSD, that one was too expensive for what you were getting.)

I doubt you have SATA 6Gb/s in there though, so you'd probably have to find a PCI-to-SATA adapter.
Click to expand...
Thanks! :thumbsup: I like the look of that case.
It's definitely more reasonable for a 4-drive system than the XPS 🙂
 
Yeah, the key with an NAS (in home usage only) is to find a place cool and acoustically isolated, but easily hooked up to ethernet (the garage is generally a good choice, though the acoustics vary from house to house). Thus a small case is ideal since you can put it in more places. They also have a bonus of being easier to cool if the fan is well-placed (in the Lian-Li, the fan is right in front of the HDDs, I believe).
 
Sleepingforest said:
My memory is clearly slipping. My old PC from roughly the same time did not use SATA--though I fail to recall whether it was from 10 or 8 years ago.

SSDs are actually pretty popular as a cache/OS drive for NAS storage, I believe: they are silent (no moving parts!) and blazingly fast.
Click to expand...

I doubt most boards then had SATA then. Revision 1.0a was freshly minted in January 2003. It was the "new" thing and probably not economical to include in boards except high-end ones.

http://storusint.com/pdf/storage_protocols/sata/serialata10a.pdf

Also, I made an edit to my other post. The XPS might be a BTX case and motherboard because it's "backwards". If you look at the front of the case, you would open the case on the right with BTX and on the left with ATX.
 
Sleepingforest said:
I've edited that build with direct links (and no more SSD, that one was too expensive for what you were getting.)

I doubt you have SATA 6Gb/s in there though, so you'd probably have to find a PCI-to-SATA adapter.

If that board has any PCIe x1 ports, you could use this for $27 (before 20% off with code VANTECMAR20).
Click to expand...

A SATA III drive controller might be able to run at SATA II speeds though. After all, Dell's official site is selling a WD SATA III drive for the XPS 700.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/cat...fgpid=167745&chassisid=8241&Tab=Parts&stype=2
 
Sleepingforest said:
I doubt you have SATA 6Gb/s in there though, so you'd probably have to find a PCI-to-SATA adapter.
Click to expand...

No he wouldn't. Hard drives don't come close to SATA 3Gb/s.

Anyway OP, I'd keep Windows and use RMClock to undervolt the processor. You can even use it to limit max FID (multiplier). I used to set my X2 5200+ to a max of 2.2GHz in the summer because it was stable at 0.95V, when 2.6GHz took 1.2V. (1.35 was stock).
Or you could just turn Windows power management on. It looks like you have it in Always On or Home/Office Desk. Set it to Minimal Power Management or Portable to enable Speedstep, and it will downclock/downvolt your processor at idle.
 
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I was talking about getting a 6Gb/s adapter for an SSD. It doesn't make sense for a spinning disk, but it does for modern SSDs. I should have clarified that.
 
I'm still unclear about something - is this machine only going to be a media server, or is it going to be a general purpose machine and a media server?

If it is only a media server, then you don't need an ssd.
-Media servers are always on, so you don't care about fast boot times.
-Media servers don't play games, launch applications, or otherwise benefit from fast load times.
You may use your media server for transcoding, but the data is coming from your platters anyway. In fact, once you boot your machine and start the necessary services/applications, they will reside in memory and you may not touch your boot drive again. I actually have mine boot from an internal USB stick.

As has already been suggested, place it somewhere you can't hear it.
If you can't/don't want to, you can try to silence the XPS, but it would probably make more sense to build from scratch.
 
Fun thread 🙂

The idea of modding the case sounds like a fun project however one of my main goals is money savings and an easy "build". If it turns out that I need to go as far as modding the case then I'd just default to an entirely new build as suggested by Sleepingforest. The idea of a completely new small media server sounds nice, on the other hand I would gain some satisfaction from converting the old beast to a media server.

To answer your question LurchFrinky, the only purpose of this baby is media serving. Transcoding will be handled on my soon to be built new desktop computer, so it's just serving files around the house. My question about an SSD was purely on the basis of reducing noise since SSDs are silent. 🙂
 
DominionSeraph said:
I'd keep Windows and use RMClock to undervolt the processor. You can even use it to limit max FID (multiplier). I used to set my X2 5200+ to a max of 2.2GHz in the summer because it was stable at 0.95V, when 2.6GHz took 1.2V. (1.35 was stock).
Or you could just turn Windows power management on.
Click to expand...
these are interesting ideas

DominionSeraph said:
It looks like you have it in Always On or Home/Office Desk. Set it to Minimal Power Management or Portable to enable Speedstep, and it will downclock/downvolt your processor at idle.
Click to expand...
it never occurred to me but yes, I have the power management set to consume as much electricity as possible 😉 ...never sleeps unless I tell it to. It does sound like the power management features windows has could be put to good use here.
 
Splice open the fan lines and insert 50 ohm resistors. Cost: 30 cents. Do the same for the psu fan.

The system is going to be idling most of the time so it will not need high fan speeds. They will be quieter at low speeds.

That cpu isnt overclocked but it is probably much faster than it needs to be. If you can lower the multiplier from 11 to 8 or 9 that would be ideal. But I doubt a dell is going to let you do that.
 
colonelciller said:
that sounds really slick! What OS are you running?
Did you install the OS from an external USB port onto the internal USB stick?

more details please 🙂
Click to expand...

Mine is actually a NAS first and media server second, so I am using FreeNAS 7. It is a Linux OS.

Like most Linux distros, you can download the .iso for free and either burn it to CD/DVD or usb stick. You boot from the one usb stick and install it to another (or HDD or SSD or microSD card or whatever). I was reusing an old AM2 board, so I bought a short adapter cable (USB mobo to USB A) to plug a usb stick inside the small case. FreeNAS actually recommends installing to a USB stick so the entire hard drive is available for storage.

I also installed Linux Mint to a USB stick on another small pc. That wasn't as nice because I did reboot occasionally and it would take forever to load. FreeNAS isn't as bloated as full-featured distros, so it doesn't take long to boot anyway.

This is why I mentioned how you would use the machine. Even surfing the internet was slower when running off the USB stick because of your browser cache and history.

I don't think Windows lets you do this, though. For Windows you can just stick in a small (slow) laptop drive and call it good, or just install it on one of the main storage drives.
 
LurchFrinky said:
Mine is actually a NAS first and media server second, so I am using FreeNAS 7. It is a Linux OS.
Click to expand...

It's actually FreeBSD, but who's counting? I guess the main point is that they are both Unix-like and don't have artificial restrictions on where they can been installed like Windows does.
 
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