[mythtv-users] distribution of resources (PCs, storage)

Allan Stirling Dibblahmythml0015 at pendor.org
Thu Sep 14 21:42:09 UTC 2006


Chris McCuller wrote:
> any thoughts or suggestions based on what some of you have done with 
> multiple machines?
> 

Turn them off and consolidate.

Seriously. Running a 2 year or so old PC 24/7 costs a
minimum of £0.50 / day.

More PCs = More power = more cost.

Older processors tend to be sometimes better than others -
but it goes in generations.

The first processors out the door from the factory in a
generation are _hogs_ when it comes to power consumption.
This is what you'll be tending to get when you 'inherit' a
system. If you buy at the end of a processor series, you'll
tend to get more performance / watt.

Specifically, all of the processors in your list are
"top-of-range at launch" types. This generally means hot,
noisy, not undervoltable, etc.

I would seriously consider selling all of them locally and
getting something modern and cheap for the backend -
Something like one of the AMD Geodes, etc, and use your
hardware encoder card. This processor will fit in the Athlon
XP motherboard, but uses ~55w for the whole system
(excluding drives).

Frontend, there's no real contender but the EPIA type
boards. Low wattage and support S3 with relatively little
work. That nvidia card is again the start of a generation,
if I'm not mistaken.

I know this isn't what you want to hear - But "rescued"
hardware costs money in the end.

For my own setup, I currently use an AMD Geode, Nvidia 5200
on the frontend.

The backend I'm desperately trying to replace. It's
currently a dual-xeon 2.8. Each processor draws ~50w. At
idle. The motherboard is ~70w. Total draw from the mains
socket is on the order of 300w.

Other hints: Set up S3 (suspend to RAM) on the frontend!
It only takes a matter of seconds to resume, and saves you
3/4 of your power consumption. Another reason to go modern -
Older BIOSes, etc don't support power saving well at all.

Anyway, good luck whatever you decide to do :)

Cheers,

Allan.


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