sreed77 Posted May 10, 2013 #1 Posted May 10, 2013 I'm looking to build a low power system can anyone suggest a motherboard that is very low power to use for this
fonix232 Posted May 10, 2013 #2 Posted May 10, 2013 I'm looking to build a low power system can anyone suggest a motherboard that is very low power to use for this Depends on what you want to build. - What is the size and socket? Do you want Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX, or something else? - What is low-power by your definition? 150W? 50W? 20W? All can be done. Also, which mode should be low-power? Idle or active use?
seanp Posted May 10, 2013 #3 Posted May 10, 2013 I'm looking to build a low power system can anyone suggest a motherboard that is very low power to use for this ...what fonix232 said. I just built a system. Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX, 8GB RAM, i3-3220T, three drives active and it measures 40W at idle from the plug.
fonix232 Posted May 10, 2013 #4 Posted May 10, 2013 I'm looking to build a low power system can anyone suggest a motherboard that is very low power to use for this ...what fonix232 said. I just built a system. Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX, 8GB RAM, i3-3220T, three drives active and it measures 40W at idle from the plug. 40W is still quite high in idle, there was a guy who made it down to around 6W with an i5 3rd gen.
seanp Posted May 10, 2013 #5 Posted May 10, 2013 I'm looking to build a low power system can anyone suggest a motherboard that is very low power to use for this ...what fonix232 said. I just built a system. Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI mini-ITX, 8GB RAM, i3-3220T, three drives active and it measures 40W at idle from the plug. 40W is still quite high in idle, there was a guy who made it down to around 6W with an i5 3rd gen. Unlikely that measurement was complete, from the wall, or with three drives attached - which use that much power alone. You could save a bit of power with SSDs - but you would lose storage. An atom-based motherboard would save a chunk of power at the cost of CPU strength - which little is needed for a pure storage medium.
fonix232 Posted May 10, 2013 #6 Posted May 10, 2013 Unlikely that measurement was complete, from the wall, or with three drives attached - which use that much power alone. You could save a bit of power with SSDs - but you would lose storage. An atom-based motherboard would save a chunk of power at the cost of CPU strength - which little is needed for a pure storage medium. Well, I prefer my "storage" full-blown - download client, web host, LDAP server, VPN server, network media player (DLNA, cataloging of the server contents, etc.). Right now it is solved on a P4 platform with 1GB RAM, an IDE drive for OS (OMV with Plex for the media part), and my 1TB SATA drive for storage. Hardly optimal, but as soon as I can get XPEnology boot on this old piece of junk, it will get better. As for the power usage, IF you are stupid enough to set the disks to fast sleep (5min idle), it can cut on the power usage. But of course it all depends on how often do you access it, how much data transfer occurs, and so on. Back on topic, best would be a Mini or NanoITX board, with the proper case, Intel 1155 socket, 2-4 gigs of RAM, and of course, the hard drives.
sreed77 Posted May 11, 2013 Author #7 Posted May 11, 2013 thank you for all the replies here is what I'm looking for. 1- very low power at idle 2- at least 4 Sata ports 3- at least 8 GB of ram 4- very small form factor 5- Hardware that works out of the box with synology
seanp Posted May 11, 2013 #8 Posted May 11, 2013 thank you for all the replies here is what I'm looking for. 1- very low power at idle 2- at least 4 Sata ports 3- at least 8 GB of ram 4- very small form factor 5- Hardware that works out of the box with synology You pretty much should get what I did, my criteria was almost identical. Few Atom motherboards take 8G RAM, have 4 SATA ports, and a 1Gbps NIC - couldn't find a single one at Newegg that had them all. The i3-3220T is about as low power as they get. Some laptop chips might use less power but there are very few motherboards for them and good luck finding one already tested to run xpenology.
XPEH Posted May 12, 2013 #9 Posted May 12, 2013 thank you for all the replies here is what I'm looking for. 1- very low power at idle 2- at least 4 Sata ports 3- at least 8 GB of ram 4- very small form factor 5- Hardware that works out of the box with synology 4 SATA drives will not fit in "very small" form factor. 8GB RAM simply not needed with only 4 drives. 1-2GB is plenty. Something like HP Microserver N40L or N54L is about perfect for this project. You have 4 Drive slots and can fit 5 if desired for the backup or as a spare. Comes with 2GB RAM which is enough. Small, cheap and reliable. Just add your drives.
sreed77 Posted May 12, 2013 Author #10 Posted May 12, 2013 I hoping to be able to do it much cheaper N40L (almost the same cost as actual ysnology) just a basic motherboard and hardrive setup. Any suggestions for itx motherboards I can buy from microcenter or fry
XPEH Posted May 12, 2013 #11 Posted May 12, 2013 I hoping to be able to do it much cheaper N40L (almost the same cost as actual ysnology) just a basic motherboard and hardrive setup. Any suggestions for itx motherboards I can buy from microcenter or fry Unless you already have most of the hardware it may not be much cheaper. MB, Case, Power Supply, memory will cost you $250-300 and for about the same price you may get HP N54L on sale at newegg.com or similar discount retailer. 4-drives synology box will be at least twice more expensive. Cheaper and low power will be 2 bay synology box. Even cheaper is 2 bay NAS from iomega, zyxel or some other brands.
sreed77 Posted May 13, 2013 Author #12 Posted May 13, 2013 You are right N54L is the way to go order it and a pair of 3 TB drives Does this hardware work out of the box?
XPEH Posted May 13, 2013 #13 Posted May 13, 2013 You are right N54L is the way to go order it and a pair of 3 TB drives Does this hardware work out of the box? Yes, out of the box it works great with image from nighthawk. If you want to use more then 4 drives its possible to flash it with updated modified BIOS to activate hidden advanced settings. With added RAM it also works great as a small ESXi server. Those modifications are optional.
sreed77 Posted May 13, 2013 Author #14 Posted May 13, 2013 where do I go to get nighthawks version for the HP mini server.
seanp Posted May 13, 2013 #15 Posted May 13, 2013 where do I go to get nighthawks version for the HP mini server. I believe the thread here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6 Based on the processor specs it should come in about 10W less than my system at the same number of drives.
XPEH Posted May 13, 2013 #16 Posted May 13, 2013 With 4GB of RAM and 4x1TB WD Black drives it use about 50W under load and 25W while drives are hibernated.
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