Low power(ed) dedicated torrent machine

I have a Atom based computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 (core install only). Runs SABNZBd+ , μTorrent and my UPS monitoring tool (Powrchute business edition). Have it running 24/7 next to my NAS. It is also the only computer with write access to the NAS. Everything I download is renamed and moved to the appropriate folders on my NAS using scripts & Sickbeard, Couchpotato, etc.

Both together use ~50-55kWh per month according to my APC Smart UPS. In the future I'll probably run a Tomcat on it also because memory usage is a sparse 400mb and CPU usage is constantly non-existent except when parity checks are done (not often enough to justify anything more powerful).

Build was:
CFI case which included PSU cost me around ~R350
RAM is Kingston 2GB DDR2-800 which cost me R200 (Esquire)
Intel D510MO which was ~R700
And finally had a extra 2.5" 160GB hard-drive which I use as it's storage.
Put a 120mm fan on top to keep it cool since it runs in a hot environment (was one lying around).

Definitely more than powerful enough for everything it does.
 
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Gnome said:
I have a Atom based computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 (core install only). Runs SABNZBd+ , μTorrent and my UPS monitoring tool (Powrchute business edition). Have it running 24/7 next to my NAS. It is also the only computer with write access to the NAS. Everything I download is renamed and moved to the appropriate folders on my NAS using scripts & Sickbeard, Couchpotato, etc.

Both together use ~50-55kWh per month according to my APC Smart UPS. In the future I'll probably run a Tomcat on it also because memory usage is a sparse 400mb and CPU usage is constantly non-existent except when parity checks are done (not often enough to justify anything more powerful).

Build was:
CFI case which included PSU cost me around ~R350
RAM is Kingston 2GB DDR2-800 which cost me R200 (Esquire)
Intel D510MO which was ~R700
And finally had a extra 2.5" 160GB hard-drive which I use as it's storage.
Put a 120mm fan on top to keep it cool since it runs in a hot environment (was one lying around).

Definitely more than powerful enough for everything it does.
Click to expand...

That's the easy way out! :p

If this iSonic POS can pull it off, I'm keen to give it a try. Moar research needed before I dive in. R900 paperweight, sitting next to a sytem such as yours =:cry:


Ancalagon said:
Does it have any USB ports?
Click to expand...

Has 3, as per Prophecy link. That's what I'd use to attach my external HDD. Will use two for that- one power, one data. Leaves a spare if needed.
 
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In case you are interested:

http://www.prophecy.co.za/cfigroup-cfiacd2-thinclient-with-external-adapter-p-72108.html
http://www.prophecy.co.za/intel-34mount-olive34-d510mo-miniitx-ddr2800667-onboard-p-66126.html
http://www.prophecy.co.za/kingston-valueram-kvr800d2nx1g-ddr2800-cl56-desktop-p-76891.html
http://www.prophecy.co.za/seagate-momentus-st9250315as-250gb-sata-5400rpm-p-57377.html

Can almost certainly be done for cheaper (this was just quick prophecy build). Same for hard-drive (eg: http://specials.esquire.co.za/2011_04_04_HardDriveSpecial.html ). And yes you can use a normal 3.5" HD with that system. Motherboard I also got cheaper last time. But yeah, probably not possible for under ~R1.5k. Not sure if R600 is worth it the lack of flexibility and power tho...

Still Atom sits at around 20W used in most benchmarks which is pretty damned low for a dual CPU (four CPUs because of Hyper threading).
 
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My UPS, Intel Atom D510 (with 1x 3.5" 1.5TB green drive & 2GB DDR2 800MHz), Buffalo router & Telkom 5100 ADSL modem consumes ~ 41kWh in a month (or 55W avg).

I'm just pissed at myself for buying a very small CFi mini-itx case, which prevents me from installing another 1Gbps/100Mbps LAN card and a 5.25" full size DVD drive.

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 x64 on the Intel Atom D510 (1.6GHz dual core with Hyper-Threading), with RouterOS in a VirtualMachine. The PC is running Apache, MySQL, PHP, Sickbeard, Squid & Proftpd. The PC alone consumes ~35W on average. The power consumption might be this high due to the crappy 60W CFi external PSU.
I get about 40MB/s when copying from it via 1Gpbs LAN :D

Just be aware that the GMA 3150 graphics would not be able to play 1080p content in Ubuntu with the default drivers. I'm not sure if the proper Intel drivers would allow you to play that kind of videos.
 
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If it were me, I would go for a mini ITX computer or an Atom netbook, because both would be vastly more useful in the long run. And it would save you potentially loads of headaches with trying to run Linux on such hardware. Just because Ubuntu supports the CPU architecture, doesnt mean it supports the drivers for its network card. To me, it would be well worth the extra R1000 or so.
 
Pada said:
My UPS, Intel Atom D510 (with 1x 3.5" 1.5TB green drive & 2GB DDR2 800MHz), Buffalo router & Telkom 5100 ADSL modem consumes ~ 41kWh in a month (or 55W avg).
Click to expand...

Actually that is the UPSs fault. The lower the power usage on the UPS the less it's efficiency. At such low loads the UPS is around 30-40% efficient IIRC...

It's insane tho, my D510MO + NAS (Pentium Dual Core e7400 + 6 Seagate 2TB LPs) consumes very close to the same amount as your D510MO + routers :o

Just had a look again (and set a custom period, eg. a whole month). Was exactly: 58.80 kWh of pretty much 24/7 operation (shutdown twice last month for about 2-3 hours because of thunderstorms) with both NAS and D510MO...

You could always increase efficiency by running everything from a single PSU...
 
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Gnome: the D510MO alone uses about 35W, which is quite a lot IMO, and this is measured before the UPS.

I am very curious to know how much I can increase the efficiency by using a single PSU for the D510MO, Router & Modem.
Unfortunately I don't know of any high efficiency PSU's at such low wattage.

Btw: does that ~59kWh include a screen/router/modem? Mine (of ~41kWh) was excluding a screen.
I still have to get PowerChute working on my APC UPS.
 
Pada said:
Btw: does that ~59kWh include a screen/router/modem? Mine (of ~41kWh) was excluding a screen.
Click to expand...

No just 2 boxes. No screens and any unused devices are disabled (eg. I disabled Firewire, IDE, Sound card, no parallel port and no video card on NAS and on D510MO I disabled audio, some of the USB ports and serial, parallel ports). Not sure if it makes a difference power wise but guess it definitely could because the E7400 CPU alone consumer quite a bit of power, especially because all power saving settings on both computers are disabled.

Naturally the UPS is plugged into the D510MO. Simple click and install procedure (did it VIA remote desktop). Then forwarded the ports. I never really access the D510 directly, everything is done VIA web-interface... The NAS has 2 LAN ports so I even share 1 LAN cable (eg. the other LAN adapter is set to forward all traffic and the D510 plugs into the NAS).

Haven't really tried running the D510MO from the NAS PSU but in the future I probably will as the extra power adapter is taking up space :p
 
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Problem with the netbooks is no wake on lan or wake on poweroff. Thats a real bummer and why my netbook was not used for a mini server project I did at home.

Oh, ended up using a brand new celeron PC a friend gave me ... box is big but who cares, it works 100%
 
I'm very curious to see what is included with that HP ProLiant MicroServer for R1300, because the specs on that page really sux. Like they say DDR3 @ 800MHz !

I'm going to see if disabling the other interfaces like Firewire, WiFi, etc. makes any difference with the power consumption of the D510MO. Unfortunately the Atom doesn't have something like Intel SpeedStep, where it downclocks the CPU multiplier & lowers the voltage :(
 
my atom does have speedtest, it clocks to 1ghz when not being used ,where default is 1.66ghz.

i think all atoms does? maybe just your model :P
 
@xrapidx: yeah, I suppose you just have to add DDR3 1333MHz memory modules.

@hereticangel: I just had a look at http://ark.intel.com/MySearch.aspx?FamilyText=Intel® Atom™ Processor
and it looks like the D510 / D410 are amongst the few Intel Atom processors that DOESN'T have EIST (Intel Speed Step)
From that table, my D510 is the most power hungry Intel Atom too ;)

The 4 threads really helps for when I'm downloading at 40MB/s, because 1 thread gives me like a maximum of just above 20MB/s.
 
xrapidx said:
http://www.hpshop.co.za/p-7357-hp-proliant-microserver-633724-421.aspx#specs

??

Saw this on AVForums.co.za, thought it'd make a nice little download server.
Click to expand...

Very nice: http://www.serversplus.com/servers/tower_servers/hp_tower_servers/633724-421 - from there, with rebate it's 100 quid. Makes me think the R1300 price tag of your link is within reason.

Consensus seems to be, at R600, the iSonic is OK. However, if I can get something like the above, the increase in functionality and reliability is definitely worth it.

Seems like it'll be an Atom or something- the new AMD APU thing that's out looks great too...

After all this, I'm considering getting something I can run torrents on 24/7 that can handle 1080p- plugged into TV, I can have TV within a second or two. Sure the GF will buy that idea ;)

All of which brings us back to: goedkoop is duurkoop :o


EDIT:

If anyone's interested, the original netbook in question is available here for R600: Carbonite link
 
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You can purchase simple standalone bittorrent downloaders from DealExtreme for ~R200 if that's of any interest. Since they only consume about 4W (i.e. <3kWh per month) you could recover the purchase price over a few months. Just read the comments for a link to download the manual ...
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/standa...-usb-printer-sharing-network-lan-server-57591
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/standa...printer-upnp-sharing-network-lan-server-26320

Some Buffalo (WZR-HP-G300NH) and Asus routers and many of the high end media players like AC Ryan also have bittorrent clients. Esquire has a very good special today on the latest AC Ryan model which looks very impressive (USB 3, Gigabit ethernet, Youtube support etc.).
 
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