Atom/Pentium M/Pentium 4 for DIY NAS?

Hi all,

I'm a recently user of Serviio, running the Windows version to stream content to a Samsung C650 TV. I'm planning to build a PC to switch off my main PC when not necessary. What I'm wondering is what CPU is enough to transcode content: will an Atom CPU be enough? I can grab some old Pentium M and Pentium 4 notebooks, but I'm not sure if they consume too much energy without having any CPU advantage in using Servvio.

Regards,
Litbea

[moltra]

What you might want to do is setup a virtual PC using different processors configurations and memory configurations and try some of the movies that you want to watch and see how the various Virtual machines respond. I know we have had users do that with new smaller NAS's and routers/media servers.

[Cerberus]

personaly im about to buy one of these ( the top spec ) and install either linux or WHS on it to run as media server.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

The link has no inoformation. What hardware were you looking at?

personaly im about to buy one of these ( the top spec ) and install either linux or WHS on it to run as media server.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

[Cerberus]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fractal-Desig ... 1c1ae6890e

ah sry corrected link they moved it on me.

well, I think that one plays in another league

I'm trying to keep costs down, both in equipment and electricity bill.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fractal-Design-4TB-Network-Storage-NAS-Media-Server-PC-/120710400270?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item1c1ae6890e

ah sry corrected link they moved it on me.

I'm already testing a Acer Travelmate 380 series notebook (Pentium M 725) and it runs Serviio very well (at least 720p movies) in Windows. I'll try Linux on it and maybe an Atom later. If I have time, I'll post my conclusions. I need to find the watt-meter...

[Cerberus]

well, I think that one plays in another league

I'm trying to keep costs down, both in equipment and electricity bill.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fractal-Design-4TB-Network-Storage-NAS-Media-Server-PC-/120710400270?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item1c1ae6890e

ah sry corrected link they moved it on me.

oh yer not cheap but because it runs on a solid state drive mean electric usage is alot less, spec im getting is about £1500 (10tb) but u can get the basic version for £524 (2tb) and expand it as u require

[NX3]

I've got a Intel Atom self built NAS ;

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... 510mo.html

It has a Intel® Atom™ Processor D510 (1M Cache, 1.66 GHz), dual core but supports hyper threading so seen as 4 cores. I use serviio on ubuntu, to several devices, some transcoding and all works very well.

I link you the first chapter of my analysis (it's my first hardware article, please don't be very severe...):

http://trueca.blogspot.com/2011/08/buil ... lna-i.html

Stay tuned!

[moltra]

It looks like it is going to be a great review. I had no problems understanding it. There was a couple of small editorial errors but nothing major. Keep us informed when you update it again.

chapter two:
http://trueca.blogspot.com/2011/08/buil ... specs.html

Finally I didn't test the Pentium 4, I think there's no point in it. That leave us with Atom and Pentium M. Which one do you think is better?

[moltra]

Can't wait to see the results. I have an aspire one 150 that I am trying to revive from bios failure. I am hoping that it will have enough power to run serviio.

Chapter III: http://trueca.blogspot.com/2011/08/buil ... a-iii.html

Did you expect it?

[moltra]

Looks good, I need to get my Aspire One 150 working and run the same benchmarks on it. Thanks for the reference videos and the reference programs.

Great moltra, that way we can compare our results!

[Illico]

Thanks for your reporting.
I think tonight, I'll install Networkx tool for Speed Meter option...thks.

Chapter IV: http://trueca.blogspot.com/2011/08/buil ... v-cpu.html

Sorry guys, but I have had to change the graphics as they weren't been shown correctly. Plain images now. And I forgot to include the watts graph on part IV.

Now, part V: http://trueca.blogspot.com/2011/08/buil ... lna-v.html

[moltra]

very surprising. I will have to think again about using the Aspire one 150.