Low power(ed) dedicated torrent machine

Budza

Budza

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Need to check if uTorrent will run on the following:

http://www.prophecy.co.za/isonic-netbook-8505128mb-ddrii2gb-nand-flashcardreader-p-85159.html

ISONIC 7" LCD NETBOOK, VIA 8505/128MB DDRII/ 2GB NAND FLASH/CARD-READER/LAN/802.11b/g, BLACK/SILVER

Has a couple of USB ports and wireless- will put it out od site with an external USB2.0 2.5" drive for storage.

Would set cache etc to use RAM and NAND before writing to external- can get to those details later if this is a suitable torrent box.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

To add: The CPU is ~300MHz :eek:

What LAN network throughput am I looking at with such a slow CPU? Anywhere near 100Mb? Speeds limited there rather than USB2.0, but 8-9megs/s I can live with, 2-3meg/s is going to be painfull...

To add:

Found this regarding MHz and throughput, but for a router- I'd guess this netbook would be even slower, due to other overheads and system competition for the meagre 300MHz on offer:

Your routing speed (WAN to LAN, LAN to WAN) is limited by the CPU of the router. Many popular wireless-N routers these days have a 533 MHz CPU and are thus capable of ~80mbps (or 8-10 MB/s total up and down). The CPU in your Linksys is less than 300 MHz and your 4 MB/s is expected.
Click to expand...

4MB/s :(
 
If you are running a lot of torrents, I think maybe not. File system overheads become a real nightmare. I am also looking for an answer, since I am seeding and downloading torrents 24/7, and my 2.4ghz pentium 4 laptop with 1gb ram is also not enough (currently using a c2d 1.8ghz which is also my mediapc). I have been looking at NAS devices with torrent capability, but I'm not sure it will work well either...
 
P924 said:
If you are running a lot of torrents, I think maybe not. File system overheads become a real nightmare. I am also looking for an answer, since I am seeding and downloading torrents 24/7, and my 2.4ghz pentium 4 laptop with 1gb ram is also not enough (currently using a c2d 1.8ghz which is also my mediapc). I have been looking at NAS devices with torrent capability, but I'm not sure it will work well either...
Click to expand...

I currently use an ancient Celeron 1.2GHz, 128MB RAM with 80GB HDD. Headless. Seems to cope well enough with a 384k line. CPU usage is minimal, RAM about 45-60%

Runs XP and uTorrent- not a thing else. Almost everything else has been removed. Not more than 8 torrents at same time I think- certainly not more than 12.

This thing is just too old- the PSU & HDD make too much noise. Ugly too. A laptop I can chuck in a cupboard and plug into LAN when torrents are done/ready for upload.

Why does your machine struggle??
 
Wow thats cheap. Remember thats also a WinCE laptop. You might struggle to find compatible software for it.

If you want a cheap torrent box, get an Atom netbook. It will have more than enough grunt. I wonder if its possible build a cheap mini ITX PC for less though? No screen obvious. Will investigate.
 
I have an Atom netbook (Aspire one) and it runs numerous torrents with no problem at all, and it only cost me R1,999 brand new.
 
From quick investigation:
Case: R500 (ITX with built in PSU)
Motherboard: R500 (AMD AM3 board)
CPU: R400 (AMD Sempron, single core)
Memory: R200 (2GB DDR3)
Hard drive: R350 (320GB)

Total: about R2000. Put Linux on it.
 
What's wrong with going with an Atom-based solution? I have one that comes with dual-gigabit LAN as well, which is quite nifty. I tend to be able to pull 40+MB/s from it without issues.
 
I've never seen a netbook as cheap as R2000, but if you can find one then great. More portable too.
 
Ancalagon said:
Wow thats cheap. Remember thats also a WinCE laptop. You might struggle to find compatible software for it.

If you want a cheap torrent box, get an Atom netbook. It will have more than enough grunt. I wonder if its possible build a cheap mini ITX PC for less though? No screen obvious. Will investigate.
Click to expand...

:D Cheap = win for me. All it's need to do is run uTorrent and connect to wireless and LAN.
Ancalagon said:
From quick investigation:
Case: R500 (ITX with built in PSU)
Motherboard: R500 (AMD AM3 board)
CPU: R400 (AMD Sempron, single core)
Memory: R200 (2GB DDR3)
Hard drive: R350 (320GB)

Total: about R2000. Put Linux on it.
Click to expand...

Looked at some of those- as you say, for R2k they're great. Much better deal over all than this iSonic thing. But, for R900, and with noise&power savings...

The ITX cases with built in PSU- some are SFX, others are something else. I can't find any that specifically say they use a laptop powerbrick/converter. I want a quiet machine, no PSU fans etc. Also, I reckon the adaptors are more efficient than a conventional PSU?

Messugga said:
What's wrong with going with an Atom-based solution? I have one that comes with dual-gigabit LAN as well, which is quite nifty. I tend to be able to pull 40+MB/s from it without issues.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong at all. Was my first choice, when I started looking around. Then I found this at less than half the price- with a HDD I have lying around, it'd do just fine. Just checking if anyone has managed to get anything similar to work.

Could I replace WinCE5.0 with Ubuntu?
 
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Budza said:
The ITX cases with built in PSU- some are SFX, others are something else. I can't find any that specifically say they use a laptop powerbrick/converter. I want a quiet machine, no PSU fans etc.
Click to expand...

Look for one that says external PSU.

Also, I reckon the adaptors are more efficient than a conventional PSU?
Click to expand...

Not likely to be much of a difference to be honest. Only expensive PSUs are quite efficient, cheap PSUs, including any of these, are not really very efficient. You get what you pay for.

Nothing wrong at all. Was my first choice, when I started looking around. Then I found this at less than half the price- with a HDD I have lying around, it'd do just fine. Just checking if anyone has managed to get anything similar to work.
Click to expand...

The only advantage that I can think of for an ITX desktop is that it can double as an HTPC. And you can upgrade the hard drive easily, to something bigger, or have multiple hard drives.

Could I replace WinCE5.0 with Ubuntu?
Click to expand...

I'd investigate ubuntu's CPU support before buying. Its likely not an x86 CPU. There might exist another Linux flavour for it though. Google that particular chipset and see what you find.
 
Budza said:
Could I replace WinCE5.0 with Ubuntu?
Click to expand...

Yes. Ubuntu runs on ARM platform. Debian, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Arch, Fedora should also work.

How about something like a SheevaPlug or GuruPlug?
 
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ponder said:
Yes. Ubuntu runs on ARM platform.

How about something like a SheevaPlug or GuruPlug?
Click to expand...

Looked at those too, when I heard about them: ~$100 or so? If easily available locally, I'd consider them. Decent specs, considering...

My Linux skills are minimal- less than 6months usage. Enough to know what a mission it'll be to get everything working- wifi, USB, trackpad etc. Still, if it's an option, it could be a challenge :)

Found a little more on WinCE5.0:

Automatic report of bugs to the manufacturer.[15]
Direct3D Mobile, a COM-based version of Windows XP's DirectX multimedia API.[15]
DirectDraw for 2D graphics and DirectShow for camera and video digitisation support.[15]
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) support.[16]

RDP is essential- didn't realise this edition only just has it. Will manage things from my work laptop remotely.

uTorrent site says OS support is 'Windows' - nothing about versions. Not sure if CE counts, as
Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows.[5] It is not to be confused with Windows XP Embedded which is NT-based.
Click to expand...

uTorrent is my 1st choice, as it's lightweight. Any recommended alternatives out there?
 
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Unless uTorrent claims specific support for it, it wont work. Remember, its a different CPU architecture.
 
What are µTorrent's system requirements?

Very low! µTorrent is designed to consume as few resources as possible to avoid impacting your computer use. µTorrent will work on Windows XP and up, including Windows 7.
Click to expand...
:(

Seems that's out the question. I'll poke around to see if there are browser based clients or something else to use. Google keeps directing me to crapware sites :mad:
 
A GuruPlug/PogoPlug/Plug Computer would be a good choice, if you can find one locally. Up to 512MB RAM, and some have eSATA ports.

The netbook uses a ARM926E CPU, which should be Linux compatible. So you could run rtorrent if you like. It's pretty lightweight, and can watch a shared directory for torrent files to start downloading.

Personally, I am running Linux on my NAS (ARM926EJS, only 64MB RAM) and it does OK.
 
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