Advice needed for selecting a fanless CPU & Mobo combo.

ajon · Post by **ajon** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 1:58 am

I'm looking to build a quiet file server, using a P180 chassi hosting a FastTrak SX8300 and eight Seagate 7200.7 400GB drives in a raid5 config. Now my main problem is selecting a fanless CPU and motherboard combination which works with this setup.

Since I will be having 8 disks generating heat, I'll naturally need at least a slowed-down 120mm fan in the chassi, but I'd like the mobo+CPU to be as energy efficient as possible.

I've considered using an epia board, but am not sure if such a board can be mounted in the P180. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

PS. No, I can't put a noisy file server in a space where no people will suffer, that's why I have to resort to a quiet one.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:58 am

Asus A8N-SLI Premium with Scythe Ninja in P180 seems to be a popular choice at this site. Will that work?
You'll probibly need all 3 fans installed in P180 but you can change them to Nexus fans if they are to loud.

Not sure how cache or X2 works on a file-server. If it doesn't mather just go with a AMD64 +3200, 512Kb cache and only 67W of heat

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:22 pm

An Asus A8N-SLI Premium with an AMD64 3200+ and a Scythe Ninja is ofcourse complete overkill for a fileserver and a waste of money to boot (approx. €172+€174+€50=€396 plus you'd need to get a video card).

I'm pretty sure a VIA EPIA board would fit into the P180. The four mounting holes of mini-ITX boards are the same as four of the holes in a normal ATX board. So they fit in any ATX case. What I am less sure of, is that the FastTrak SX8300 will work with the EPIA boards. If somebody could tell you my fears are ungrounded, then this would be the cheapest solution (approx. €80 or €110).

My pick would be an MSI RS482M-IL (integrated video, no fan on northbridge) plus a Sempron 2600+ and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro (approx. €75+€66+€25=€166). I know you said fanless, but with the idle noise of 8 harddrives you won't be hearing the fan on the CPU cooler once it is slowed down. I can't hear the fan on my Freezer 64 (non-Pro!) at 30% or 40% PWM over the idle noise of only one Seagate 7200.7 placed on foam.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:48 pm

For a quiet econo,I like a Semp 3000,2800 or 2600. The 3000 having Cool +Quiet is a plus. Ninja or Scythe NCU 2005,passive. Case fans-Aerocool 140 mm Streamliner, probably one inside near the HDDs. These are 1000 rpm at 12v. Can be run around 600.

Mobo-ECS K8M800-M2. Now is version (2.0) which is 9.6 x 7>6,instead of 9>6 square,so it is small. Onboard Vid. The 1.0 version caught my eye because it seemed from reviews at newegg most 754 mobos had either regular bugs or flaws or a few samples thatwere bad. This one had 40+ happy users and there were few gripes. 754 mobos generally do not like doublesided RAM,and many needed bios flash to recognize a Sempron. The 1.0 at least booted what it saw as an unknown Athlon. The now stocked 2.0 has a Sempron ready bios.

Check out I-Star Nitro or Storm cases for a big tower with quiet potential.

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:25 pm

most micro atx boards are fanless, combine that with a Sempron 2500+ and Ninja for the best result. There is a new case coming out by antec called NSK 3300, I would wait for that.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:38 pm

I would go centrino 1.2 ghz about and just go fanless throughout. shrug.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:57 pm

My vote goes to a Sempron 3000+ and the GeForce 6100/ATI Xpress 200 mobo of your choice.

ajon · Post by **ajon** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:45 pm

Thanks for all the comments and hints!
The SX8300 uses PCI-X, but as far as I know, PCIX is backwards compatible with PCI, so that should work with an Epia board (and if it doesn't, I'll just buy an ordinary ATX board, since the Epias are so ridiculously cheap anyway

)

As for the suggestions of going with Semperon.. Does this Athlon jr. have the cool-n-quiet technology from the 64-bit product line? What I hinted from ronrem's comment was that the 3000+ seemed to have it, so that might be an option should the epia plan fail.

The reasons I like the Epia boards are that they are cheap, energy efficient and available in fanless configurations. The downside is of course that they lack any resemblance of performance, but as controller for a dedicated gadget they've been pretty OK so far. I'm already using a PD6000E as my firewall (inaudible at 30cm distance) and an old M10000 as my PVR (a Hush-box).

So, I'll make an initial attempt basing the file server on an VIA EPIA MII (just to get the gigabit ethernet controller) with an Eden processor (fanless alternative). If that doesn't work, then I'll revert to the suggestion of using a Semperon 3000 with a Scythe Ninje cooler on a K8M800-M2 mobo coupled with a separate Gigabit ethernet controller (since the MSI-card doesn't have one integrated and I refuse to ever use an nForce board ever again).

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:01 pm

ajon wrote:Thanks for all the comments and hints!
The SX8300 uses PCI-X, but as far as I know, PCIX is backwards compatible with PCI, so that should work with an Epia board (and if it doesn't, I'll just buy an ordinary ATX board, since the Epias are so ridiculously cheap anyway )

As for the suggestions of going with Semperon.. Does this Athlon jr. have the cool-n-quiet technology from the 64-bit product line? What I hinted from ronrem's comment was that the 3000+ seemed to have it, so that might be an option should the epia plan fail.

Yes 3000+, 3100+, 3300+ and 3400+ semprons have c'n'q.

The reasons I like the Epia boards are that they are cheap, energy efficient and available in fanless configurations. The downside is of course that they lack any resemblance of performance, but as controller for a dedicated gadget they've been pretty OK so far. I'm already using a PD6000E as my firewall (inaudible at 30cm distance) and an old M10000 as my PVR (a Hush-box).

So, I'll make an initial attempt basing the file server on an VIA EPIA MII (just to get the gigabit ethernet controller) with an Eden processor (fanless alternative). If that doesn't work, then I'll revert to the suggestion of using a Semperon 3000 with a Scythe Ninje cooler on a K8M800-M2 mobo coupled with a separate Gigabit ethernet controller (since the MSI-card doesn't have one integrated and I refuse to ever use an nForce board ever again).

I have nothing to say about the VIAs EPIA solution. But it I doubt there are any s754 motherboards with VGA and gigabit lan. For s939 there are, for example the motherboard I have has both. Still it would be cheaper to get the sempron and cheap s754 motherboard with VGA and just buy a discreat LAN card. However in your case I would forget A64s and Semprons anyway.

Here's the part I don't get. You are ready to dish out 300-350$ on a pci-x raid controller, but then you aren't ready to dish out the bucks for a decent motherboard supporting pci-x, it has the double the bandwith of regular pci-slot, take advantage of it! While you are at it, go all the way.
Let me introduce you to another option: DFI 855GME-MGF This pentium M motherboard has Gigabit LAN, 1x PCI-X slot, integrated VGA, etc... I know you can read them yourself

Here in europe, you can get the board for 150e, so I'd think it's pretty much the same price in US dollars. Hit it with the cheapest 90e/$ Celeron M cpu and you are good to go. You get a cool running, relatively cheap solution with 1gb lan, vga and PCI-X slot.

I wonder, if P180 is the best case for this kind of server. Personally for this kind of server, I'd go for a case designed for server use or something like CM Stacker. Stacker has good cooling, plenty of space to work with and the option for dual PSU.
What kind of power supply are you thinking of getting, those hard drives are gonna draw a big chunk of power at start ups.

Btw: did seagate really have 7200.7 400gb HDs?

I hope my suggestions gave you something to think about.

Edit: I just remembered that SPCR has done a test of that DFI motherboard.

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:28 pm

Enermax Liberty would seem like a good candidate for PSU. At least it is modular and has plenty of SATA power connections for the HDs (8 for 500W model).

ajon · Post by **ajon** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:33 am

Erssa wrote:Here's the part I don't get. You are ready to dish out 300-350$ on a pci-x raid controller, but then you aren't ready to dish out the bucks for a decent motherboard supporting pci-x, it has the double the bandwith of regular pci-slot, take advantage of it! While you are at it, go all the way.

Well, it's not really about money. My reference to the epias being cheap was just that making a potential mistake of buying such a mobo would not be much of a financial problem

As for the need of PCI express, I think it all hinges on whether the ethernet controller is included on the mobo or an external one has to be used. With the SX8300 running 8 drives, the throughput is practically limited to 1GBit/s since all access is over the ethernet adapter. Having an integrated ethernet controller should hopefully halve the required bandwidth on the bus, leading to an ordinary PCI-bus being enough. Having a separate controller though would probably require PCI express for a file server (2 GBit load on the bus instead of one, 1GBit for disk transfer and 1 GBit for shuffling to and from the network adapter, for which an ordinary PCI-bus is clearly not enough with their paltry 1GBit capacity).

Regarding the P180 as a case. IIRC, the case has room for 10 drives (6 x 3.5" and 4 x 5.25") coupled by it having a solid reputation for good air flow.

did seagate really have 7200.7 400gb HDs?

Sorry, it was a typo. I meant the 7200.8 naturally. Seagate is currently in a downward spiral making each generation of drives noisier, but as far as I know, they still produce the most quiet drives in that size.

Finally, as to the power drain. My current file server is built on a standard Antec Sonata loaded with 6 drives and using the stock PSU without any problem, so I guess most any 400W PSU would do fine. I guess SS S12-430 / 500 or 600 will be considered natural choices.