Low power Mobo/CPU recommendations?

[mindhorn]

Hi,

I'd like to build a low power home server, to fulfill a number of roles and am looking for suggestions on the motherboard and CPU choice.
I've been researching for a while and am finding it difficult to identify what I need.
Hopefully, I can get some advice here.

This server is intended for backup, storage, and streaming of photos, videos and music.
I will likely run iTunes server, Plex Server, and possibly Media Portal.

The features I'd like are as follows:

support for Windows and Linux
at least 1 free PCI Express slot (for a TV tuner card)
preferably mini-itx
lowest possible idle power draw - it would mostly be used in evenings and weekends

Nice to have:
ability to do at least 1 1080p transcode for Plex
Virtual machines capability

Questions:
Since I want to ensure safe storage of all my photos and data, should I consider ECC RAM?
Is the AM1 platform still a viable choice or has this been superseded (I'm not sure that there will be any AM1 motherboards that take ECC RAM)?

My choice of hard drive is Western Digital Red.

The other thing is that I don't want to spend a ton of money - hence the appeal of the AM1 platform.

Thanks!

 

[Evan]

I can't comment on the AM1 but if you want remote management etc and ECC memory then it more or less with minimum power in mind have to be E3 v5/v6 or Xeon-D

However from your needs it sounds like any consumer platform will do (i.e. Regular PC) and they save more power

 

[mindhorn]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm mainly concerned about data corruption, hence ECC memory, but do you think that's very unlikely?

I should add that I also need a motherboard with integrated graphics (minimal, no gaming on this machine...), or the ability to run headless.

 

[Evan]

Honestly I think ECC for most use is over kill.
On the other hand the you can get some really nice already assembled small servers from supermicro, HP, Lenovo, Dell etc that really are low end servers but quiet, efficient.

Depending on which location you are and your skill set sometimes the best ones to choose are the dell, Lenovo, HP as they often already have some memory and all you need to add is disks.
Maybe somebody else can chime in with the best models here as I don't know them well being focused on higher requirements.

If you like can run VMware ESX but if you want to do double duty as a workstation windows 10 includes hyper-v functions (or use VMware player or paid for product) and any Linux system can support various different virtualization technology.

 

[kapone]

Trying to reduce power consumption to the absolute minimum is way overrated. The returns are just not worth it.

You can buy Ivy Bridge/Haswell motherboards for dead cheap on fleabay. We're talking $10ish per motherboard. You can buy used i3/Pentium G CPUs for next to nothing as well.

To give you an idea, I just replaced a few aging systems in my home, and I got Dell 7010 motherboard (these are 3rd gen Ivy bridge compatible) and i3 3220 CPUs for $35 per combo. That's a motherboard and 3.3GHz dual core (hyperthreaded) CPU for $35. With two sticks of RAM and an SSD it idles ~12-15w. Is that low enough?

When you say "safe storage" and ECC RAM, I'm confused. What does storage have to do with RAM?? If you want safe "storage" you make sure you have multiple copies of the data, RAM has nothing to do with it.

 

[Evan]

@kapone your so right, anything less than 30w idle is ok, within reason 10-15w to 20-25w is almost no difference in the end actually. When I thin Low power I think anything that idles below 30w

 

[T_Minus]

@kapone maybe when they mention ECC they're referring to file systems that utilize ECC... ?

 

[kapone]

@kapone maybe when they mention ECC they're referring to file systems that utilize ECC... ?

That is certainly a possibility, but I didn't see it mentioned.

 

[mindhorn]

Thanks for all the updates and suggestions.

I'll take a look on Ebay then for used CPUs and mini-itx boards and will see what I find.

Idle below 30 watts would be perfect.

As for pre-built servers, I believe the Lenovo TS140 was supposed to be great, but I think it's been discontinued and the ones that are left, have gone up in price.

I'll see how I get on with Ebay...