BUILD Help with hardware selection for Mini ITX build

[MikeRider]

I'm currently looking into the AsRock boards as well. I'll just quote the interesting part of the c't article:

Für die beiden Gigabit-Ethernet-Ports nutzt Asrock seltsamerweise nicht die im Atom C2750 bereits eingebauten Controller, sondern lötet zwei I210-Chips aufs Board. Das hat kuriose Folgen, weil ja noch der PCIe-Steckplatz und die drei Aspeed und
Marvell-Chips mit dem Prozessor kommunizieren müssen – doch der unterstützt höchstens vier PCIe-Geräte. Deshalb lötet Asrock auch noch einen PCIe-Switch von PLX auf das Board – mit Nebenwirkungen: Die Leistungsaufnahme im Leerlauf beträgt mehr als 24 Watt, selbst wenn die Marvell-Bausteine per BIOS-Setup abgeschaltet sind; sonst sind es knapp 26 Watt. Das ist deutlich mehr als bei Server-Mainboards für die wesentlich leistungsfähigeren Haswell-Xeons. Doch unter Volllast auf allen acht CPU-Kernen kann das C2750D4I effizienter sein, weil es maximal 47 Watt aufnimmt. Im Cinebench R11.5 war das Asrock C2750D4I etwas schneller als das sparsamere Supermicro A1SAM-2750F. Für Gleitkomma-Aufgaben eignet sich der Avoton nicht, der Linpack meldet weniger als 20 GFlops. Das Asrock C2750D4I eignet sich für Einsatzzwecke, die sehr viele SATA-Ports und wenige Gigabit-Ethernet-Anschlüsse verlangen. Leider ist die Leistungsaufnahme recht hoch.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm currently looking into the AsRock boards as well. I'll just quote the interesting part of the c't article:

My somewhat liberal translation:

For the two GbE ports, ASRock curiously used two i210s instead of the integrated GbE controller. This has curious consequences, because the PCI-e slot, the Marvell controllers and the Aspeed BMC also require PCI-e connectivity - however, the CPU only supports four devices at most. For that reason, ASRock added a PLX PCI-e switch, with side effects: Idle power consumption is over 24W, even with the Marvell components disabled in BIOS (otherwise, it would be over 26W). This is significantly more than on Haswell Xeon server motherboards. However, with all 8 CPU cores fully loaded, the C2750D4I can be more efficient, as it uses at most 47W. In Cinebench R11.5, the ASRock C2750D4I was a bit faster than the more frugal Supermicro A1SAM-2750F. The Avoton is not appropriate for floating-point tasks - Linpack reports fewer than 20GFlops. The ASRock C2750D4I is appropriate for workloads which require many SATA ports and few GbE connections. Unfortunately, power consumption is rather high.

 

[wintermute000]

that explains why my setup draws around 70W according to my crapola watt-meter.
a bit disappointed - but otherwise it works fine so no other complaints.

Power savings was part of the reason I went Atom instead of i3 or Xeon! But on the flip side I am using 8xSATA3 ports and I definitely didn't want to mess around (or pay) with SATA expansion cards/passthrough cards.

 

[Ericloewe]

That's funny... My server and a basic 8-port gigabit switch use 54W together, according to the UPS.

I didn't expect those PCI-e switches to be so power hungry, but I guess power consumption is a secondary concern in their main target market (multi-GPU systems).

 

[Tom_]

Yeah, I don't know much about this type of hardware but 70 W sounds like a lot at idle. I was also hoping for a low power build, I think I'll get a wattmeter next time I'm at the hardware store for a comparison against your systems.

 

[mattpitts74]

@Tom_ just wondering which motherboard you decided on?

 

[Tom_]

Just put it in my signature! Supermicro A1SAi-2750F. 2550 was out of stock at the time and 2750 wasn't that much more €€€, so...

 

[mattpitts74]

Ah yes, thanks, sadly both of those boards is rather out of my price range :(

 

[titan_rw]

I wish my nas's only drew 70w. Mine are around 150w, and there's two. Plus a dedicated machine for vmware. All told it's about ~400w. Not counting switches / router / modem, etc.

Still only about $23 a month. Split between two people. And the fact that, here at least, the actual power usage on your bill is not your entire bill. For example, even if we doubled our electricity usage, I doubt the bill would only go up by 30-40% instead of 100% like you'd assume.

 

[wvdgaast]

Hrm, this seems like mildly the right place to ask this, instead of opening a new topic. Thanks a lot for pointing out the ASRock power consumption issues, hadn't actually seen that anywhere and I was more looking at those boards than the Supermicro C2[57]50s.. I'm a sucker for low-power stuff so these seem quite nice.

These boards seem to be around for a while and at least in Europe they're quite hard to get. :-( Are they being phased out?

Also, the few places that do (still) sell them, ask about as many £ for them as they cost $ in the US, which even after adding sales tax is still quite a difference..

 

[Ericloewe]

Also, the few places that do (still) sell them, ask about as many £ for them as they cost $ in the US, which even after adding sales tax is still quite a difference..

Applies to the vast majority of consumer electronics. Also valid if you replace the £ symbol with €.

There's no reason for them to be phased out, it's still quite a while to Intel's next-gen server Atoms. Probably late this year.

 

[Tom_]

Yeah, but it could be worse—check out the prices in Australia if you want a laugh.

@wvdgaast you can get the Supermicro boards from DE and they're not much more than ASRock. Check one of the German price comparison sites e.g. Geizhals (or hardwareschotten if you're up for some casual racism)...

 

[marbus90]

Geizhals is also available in english at skinflint.co.uk, however that page could use a refresh...

 

[wintermute000]

Hrm, this seems like mildly the right place to ask this, instead of opening a new topic. :) Thanks a lot for pointing out the ASRock power consumption issues, hadn't actually seen that anywhere and I was more looking at those boards than the Supermicro C2[57]50s.. I'm a sucker for low-power stuff so these seem quite nice.

These boards seem to be around for a while and at least in Europe they're quite hard to get. :-( Are they being phased out?

Also, the few places that do (still) sell them, ask about as many £ for them as they cost $ in the US, which even after adding sales tax is still quite a difference..

I need to point out that re: the 70W total, I am running 6x rust platters and 2x SSD which accounts for at least ~45-50W - one HDD idles @ 6.9W each......

 

[Tom_]

My system (A1SAi-2750F) is currently idling at 100W! Not really sure why. 6 spinning drives.

 

[Ericloewe]

My system (A1SAi-2750F) is currently idling at 100W! Not really sure why. 6 spinning drives.

That's crazy. My Haswell system idles at 60W.

 

[Tom_]

That's crazy. My Haswell system idles at 60W.

Indeed. Did you do anything special to achieve that? Are your hard drives spinning down when not in use?

I should've mentioned that I haven't tried to optimise power usage yet, but 100 W is definitely a lot higher than I would like.

 

[Ericloewe]

Indeed. Did you do anything special to achieve that? Are your hard drives spinning down when not in use?

I should've mentioned that I haven't tried to optimise power usage yet, but 100 W is definitely a lot higher than I would like.

No thought at all given to lowering power consumption at idle.

The ASRock Avoton boards have a PCI-e switch that uses some 10W constantly and cannot be turned off, but the Supermicro ones should idle at lower power levels than Haswell systems...

Got any crazy powerful fans running?

 

[Tom_]

Well, I do have three Noctua fans in there. 2 × 92 mm and 1 × 140 mm. PWM doesn't really work on the SuperMicro board so I had to set it to "Heavy I/O Mode" in the BIOS, which means the fans are running a lot faster than they need to be, but they still shouldn't draw more than ~2 W each I think?

 

[cyberjock]

I'm wondering if there's a scrub running or something. I'm having a hard time buying that the system *idles* at 100w.