Linux Home Server/HTPC Build

[howardt]

My old Athlon 1700+ linux home server/HTPC currently experienced hard drive crash. While the machine is otherwise capable of doing its jobs, I am thinking about replacing the 6-yr-old machine with a new one.

The goals are:
G1. energy efficient/silent
G2. storage server (Samba/iSCSI)
G3. HTPC (MythTV)
G4. (optional) internet gateway (firewall/NAT router/proxy/VoIP)
G5. CPU/MB last at for the next 6 years (I've upgraded the video card & hard drives and add some interface cards (analog TV, USB2, etc.) previously. I expect to do the same for the next box.)

Goal 2 requires the machine to be on for most of the daytime and goal 4, if I choose to do it, will need 24/7 operation. I am not satisfied with the 110W idle power of my current 6-yr-old machine so I would like to see a (very) low idle power for my next box.

I am currently considering the following platforms:
A1. Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (NF570) + AMD BE-2400 (45W)
I1. Asus P5K Premium WiFi/AP (P35) + Intel E6550 (65W)
I2. Asus P5E WS Professional (X38) + Intel E6550 (65W)

And paired with the following components:
C1. Corsair 4GB (2GB x 2) 1.8v DDR800
C2. Gigabyte GeForce 7200GS (I need composite TV-out for an old TV)
C3. two or three Seagate 7200.11 750GB (in RAID 1 or 5) (I like its 5-yr warranty, make sense? )
C4. Antec earthwatts EA380 (much cheaper than Seasonic)

Current (no brand but sturdy) ATX case, DVD-RW drive, 250GB hard drive, analog TV card (PVR-250), UPS (RS-232 serial interface) will be reused.

My questions are:
Q1. Among A1, I1, I2, which one will have the lowest idle power? How much difference is there?
Q2. Is 7200GS powerful enough for 1080i output?
Q3. While EA380 may be less efficient than Seasonic, but the lower price (about US$ 40 difference) may just compensate the energy bill. Am I correct? How about the build quality between these two?
Q4. Any other component choice that will lower idle power?
Q5. Is reviving my current box with new hard drives a more environmental correct option (less power efficient but also less waste) ?

Thanks.

Howard

[seraphyn]

My questions are:
Q1. Among A1, I1, I2, which one will have the lowest idle power? How much difference is there?

You can leave out option I1. The p5k premium wifi/ap has serious issues with raid. I tried getting raid to work on it a few times, still unsuccesful. Asus forums have had quite some threads about it as well and even the latest BIOS (0404 or something) hasn't fixed the issues yet.

[awolfe63]

I just built similar machines for similar purposes. The BE-2400 machine uses about 10W less than the Core2 6750 at idle.

Those motherboards seem like overkill if you are interested in silence and low power. The G33 chipset did fine for the Core2. I settled on the AMD690 chipset for the BE-2400. The Nvidia Geforece 7050PV/630 also worked fine.

I ended up going with the BE-2400 and the Asus M2A-VM motherboard.

[howardt]

Seraphyn,

Thanks for letting me know the bad reputation of P5K Premium/Deluxe. If I am only going to use software RAID, is that still going to be a problem? Abit IP35 Pro is probably a better choice despite the PCI GbE (instead of PCI-E), lack of coaxial S/PDIF out, and on-bracket IEEE-1394 connector (instead of on-board).

Awolfe63,

Thanks for your response. Those MBs are indeed overkill for now, especially the Intel ones. However, I am planning to use it for 6 years, I would like to keep my options (meaning, expansion slots) as open as possible so I only pick ATX motherboard + discrete but low power video card.

I will at least install an existing PCI analog TV tuner card, a PATA hard drive controller for my small but still working PATA drives, and plan to buy a HDTV card (probably pcHDTV, which is also a PCI card). If I use uATX boards, 3 out of 4 slots will be occupied immediately.

Howard