Intel C2D 8400 (2x3GHz) 65w
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition (4x2.5GHz) 125w
Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition (2x2.4GHz) 95w
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4 (Intel)
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 (AMD)
ASUS M4A785-M (AMD)
The quick rundown:
They all get 8GB RAM. Sadly, 2GB modules is the largest stuff i got laying around.
The Intel has faster RAM. (The AMD boards doesn't support it, refuses to boot for some reason)
Only the ASUS isn't equipped with dual Realtek NIC's.
(2x 8111C chips for the EP45, 2x 8111B for the MA790FX-DQ6, and a single 8112L for the M4A785)
The MA790FX-DQ6 Owns the PCI-E category, and wins hands down. But then again, i'm unlikely to ever run more then possibly one IBM M1015.
The M4A785-M is however the only motherboard to have integrated video. (ATI Radeon HD4200, shared memory, minimum 32MB)
Each motherboard has 6x sATA, 3Gb/s, and they all have at least a PCI port for the crappy SiI3114 "RAID" card i got laying around somewhere to use for starters.
I'm coming from, and will most likely continue to use, a NetGEAR ReadyNAS NV+ with 4 2TB "RAIDX" (RAID 5, with some "grow as you go" feature allowing for upgrades. To bad they forgot to mention that 2TB+ drives wont ever be supported.) The NV+ has a bunch of media features, and torrenting i'm very pleased with, (Even if it's slow as a bugger) not to mention that i don't really have any where to empty the data on it, to decommission it, and reuse the drives for this project. Yeah, i know, backups. I guess i should just admit it. The current NAS isn't backed up, and neither will the next one be. There is nothing on it that i couldn't live without, and anything i really want to save has at least a couple of backups on other harddrives. In the long run, when everything is set up "just so" i can see the NV+ becoming the backup for this new thingy, but i'm more then likely to scrap that concept once the array gets filled up, and move stuff with infrequent access, and low bandwidth needs to the NV+
It's just going to be me using it. It's going to be used as a media server providing stuff for the TV, (DLNA) and, if i can figure out how, it will have a Transmission plugin installed for my torrenting needs. The NV+ has me FTP'ing and using Samba to access it from the PC, mainly since FTP allows for faster access. It's just a poor IT3107 SPARC in there. 260-280 some odd MHz, and a single GB of RAM.
Anyway, enough about me, and my stuff. Which of the above bits should i base my system around? Is there a favoritism AMD VS Intel, more cores vs higher speed single threads, is it worth running a dual NIC setup to my DELL Powerconnect 2724. (It doesn't support LACP, only static LAG trunks. Should work with Load Balance / Round Robin as it IS IEEE802.3ad compliant (LACP isn't mandatory, and hence not included in my sweet toy. Rats.) I think.) I'm slightly favoring the Intel build my self, mainly for the reason that it's a tad more energy conservative. But the more 'equipped' motherboard, and the faster memory is likely to eat up the difference up to the X3 on the ASUS motherboard, and if it doesn't, i still need to find, and stick a GFX in there.
I'm also fairly noobish when it comes to configuring a thing like this, so it's going to be a learning experience. I've managed to survive administering, upgrading, and maintaining my Smoothwall, but thats fairly much "point n' click" the web interface. This thing will more then likely teach me a thing or two. It will be my first encounter with (Free)BSD. It's not like having hardware experience will help much there.
Now it's your turn. Please advice what hardware you think i should put my effort in to, and don't be ashamed. If you feel i should rather go get a second ReadyNAS, just say so. I probably wont, but at least i'll be more prepared for a high entry level, and a mean uphill learning curve.
B!
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition (4x2.5GHz) 125w
Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition (2x2.4GHz) 95w
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4 (Intel)
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 (AMD)
ASUS M4A785-M (AMD)
The quick rundown:
They all get 8GB RAM. Sadly, 2GB modules is the largest stuff i got laying around.
The Intel has faster RAM. (The AMD boards doesn't support it, refuses to boot for some reason)
Only the ASUS isn't equipped with dual Realtek NIC's.
(2x 8111C chips for the EP45, 2x 8111B for the MA790FX-DQ6, and a single 8112L for the M4A785)
The MA790FX-DQ6 Owns the PCI-E category, and wins hands down. But then again, i'm unlikely to ever run more then possibly one IBM M1015.
The M4A785-M is however the only motherboard to have integrated video. (ATI Radeon HD4200, shared memory, minimum 32MB)
Each motherboard has 6x sATA, 3Gb/s, and they all have at least a PCI port for the crappy SiI3114 "RAID" card i got laying around somewhere to use for starters.
I'm coming from, and will most likely continue to use, a NetGEAR ReadyNAS NV+ with 4 2TB "RAIDX" (RAID 5, with some "grow as you go" feature allowing for upgrades. To bad they forgot to mention that 2TB+ drives wont ever be supported.) The NV+ has a bunch of media features, and torrenting i'm very pleased with, (Even if it's slow as a bugger) not to mention that i don't really have any where to empty the data on it, to decommission it, and reuse the drives for this project. Yeah, i know, backups. I guess i should just admit it. The current NAS isn't backed up, and neither will the next one be. There is nothing on it that i couldn't live without, and anything i really want to save has at least a couple of backups on other harddrives. In the long run, when everything is set up "just so" i can see the NV+ becoming the backup for this new thingy, but i'm more then likely to scrap that concept once the array gets filled up, and move stuff with infrequent access, and low bandwidth needs to the NV+
It's just going to be me using it. It's going to be used as a media server providing stuff for the TV, (DLNA) and, if i can figure out how, it will have a Transmission plugin installed for my torrenting needs. The NV+ has me FTP'ing and using Samba to access it from the PC, mainly since FTP allows for faster access. It's just a poor IT3107 SPARC in there. 260-280 some odd MHz, and a single GB of RAM.
Anyway, enough about me, and my stuff. Which of the above bits should i base my system around? Is there a favoritism AMD VS Intel, more cores vs higher speed single threads, is it worth running a dual NIC setup to my DELL Powerconnect 2724. (It doesn't support LACP, only static LAG trunks. Should work with Load Balance / Round Robin as it IS IEEE802.3ad compliant (LACP isn't mandatory, and hence not included in my sweet toy. Rats.) I think.) I'm slightly favoring the Intel build my self, mainly for the reason that it's a tad more energy conservative. But the more 'equipped' motherboard, and the faster memory is likely to eat up the difference up to the X3 on the ASUS motherboard, and if it doesn't, i still need to find, and stick a GFX in there.
I'm also fairly noobish when it comes to configuring a thing like this, so it's going to be a learning experience. I've managed to survive administering, upgrading, and maintaining my Smoothwall, but thats fairly much "point n' click" the web interface. This thing will more then likely teach me a thing or two. It will be my first encounter with (Free)BSD. It's not like having hardware experience will help much there.
Now it's your turn. Please advice what hardware you think i should put my effort in to, and don't be ashamed. If you feel i should rather go get a second ReadyNAS, just say so. I probably wont, but at least i'll be more prepared for a high entry level, and a mean uphill learning curve.
B!