[Gloucs] Home desktop-server CPU

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 02:17:20PM +0100, Andrew Oakley wrote:
> What are folks' opinions on a good Intel LGA775 CPU for 24x7 server and light desktop use? The main consideration is reliability, low heat and near-silent fan noise.
>  
> I have an aging AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2GHz single core) plus aging motherboard, RAM and AGP graphics card, which ran Red Hat and now runs Ubuntu LTS very nicely, very reliable. But recently I've come to the opinion that it is too slow, and the RAM and CPU are maxed out on that architecture. So, new motherboard, CPU and RAM, and hopefully I can get away with onboard graphics.
>  
> I use this as both my primary desktop machine, mostly for browsing websites and email, and as a home server. It runs 24x7x365 and I connect to it on an ADSL static IP when out and about. It also acts as a Samba fileserver for the house (2xRAID1 pairs) and as a NAT bandwidth-throttling firewall router for my public WiFi hotspot.
>  
> Recently I have noticed that complex web pages such as Facebook or Youtube run slow on this machine. Also I occasionally want to transcode video files, which kills performance.
>  
> I have a budget of £150 and need:
>  

Just a thought: if you can forego the heavyweight transcoding - a 
virtually silent, low power Intel desktop board with integral CPU

Intel D945GCLF2 - dual core Atom 64 bit capable at 1.6GHz. That plus 2G 
of RAM comes in at around £60. It's what I have here under the desk and am 
typing on now.

Intel graphics, Gbit LAN, Hi-Def audio, S-Video, 8 x USB, VGA, parallel, 
serial, PS2 keyboard/mouse ports. 
Downsides - only 2 SATA and the usual IDE, no PCI express slot and the 
2G is max RAM.

It'll drop in to any case and chug along at 30W max.

The _only_ downside: it doesn't have hardware virtualisation capability 
- but at that price, what's not to like ?

Or a Maplins all in one deal with an AMD 6000 with 1GB of RAM / good 
Nvidia chipset - £130. Add more RAM and you're done? [That _does_ do 
hardware virtualisation and is driving 4TB of disk here.]

64 bit - I've heard of it :) All bar my daughter's machine are running 
Debian Lenny 64 bit. 

Hope this helps,

Andy