Getting my feet wet!

[wvroger]

I have been following this project for several months now and i'm ready to take the plunge.  For a starter system would the below rig be acceptable?    


# 19" 2U Chassis
# 1.8GHz Intel Celeron Processor w/ 800MHz FSB & 512K L2 Cache - Upgradeable up to Core 2 Duo
# Asus LGA775 Motherboard with 800Mhz & 1066MHz FSB and Core 2 Duo Support
# 512MB Kingston DDR2 RAM - Upgradeable
# 80GB 7200 RPM Western Digital Serial ATA HDD - Upgradeable
# Onboard Support for RAID 0, 1 & JBOD
# 10/100 Integrated LAN
# 6 USB 2.0 Ports (2 Front, 4 Rear)
# 3 x Expansion Slots Optional via Riser Card:

    * 1 x PCI Express x16 Slot
    * 2 x PCI 32-bit Slots

# Onboard 6-channel Audio
# Drive Bays:

    * Internal: 2 x 3.5" HDD Bay
    * External: 1 x 3.5", 1 x 5.25"

# Ports : VGA, USB 2.0, LPT, COM, Keyboard, Mouse
# 300 Watt Power Supply w/PFC

Case

    * Construction: Heavy-duty cold-rolled steel
    * Drive Capacity: Exposed 1 x 5.25" and 1 x 3.5" drives
    * Cooling: 1 8cm ball-bearing fan
    * Front Panel Indicators: 1 x pwr on/off, 1 x HDD
    * Front Panel Controls: 1 x pwr on/off, 1 x system reset
    * Front Panel Connectors: 2 x USB
    * Dimensions: 19" W x 19.6" L x 3.5" H
    * 300W 115/230V ATX auto switching power supply
    * Maximum Expansion Card Length: 9.5"

Motherboard & Peripherals

    * Processor Support
          o LGA775 socket for Intel® Core™2 Duo/ Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D processors
          o Support Intel EM64T/EIST/Hyper-Threading Technology
    * Chipset: VIA P4M900 / VIA VT8237S
    * Front Side Bus: 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz
    * Memory:
          o 2 x 240-pin DIMM sockets
          o Support max. 4GB, DDR2 667/533/400 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
    * Expansion Slots:
          o 1 x PCIe x16
          o 1 x PCIe x1
          o 2 x PCI 2.2
    * VGA:
          o Integrated Graphics, up to 256MB shared memory
          o Support max. resolution to 1920 x 1440 (@75Hz)
    * Storage:
          o VIA VT8237S South Bridge
          o 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33
          o 2 x Serial ATA 3Gb/s supporting RAID 0, 1, JBOD
    * LAN: VIA VT8237S built-in 10/100 MAC with external PHY
    * Audio: Realtek ALC662, 6-CH High-Definition Audio CODEC
    * USB: Max. 8 USB2.0 ports
    * Special Features:
          o CrashFree BIOS 2
          o ASUS EZ Flash
          o ASUS Q-Fan
          o MyLogo
    * Back Panel I/O Ports:
          o 1 x Parallel
          o 1 x VGA Port
          o 1 x COM Port
          o 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
          o 1 x PS/2 Mouse
          o 1 xLAN (RJ-45) port
          o 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
          o 6-Channel Audio ports
    * Internal I/O Connectors:
          o 2 x USB 2.0 connectors support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports
          o 1 x CPU / Chassis fan connector
          o 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
          o 1 x IDE connector for two devices
          o 1 x S/PDIF out connector
          o Front panel Audio connector
          o CD audio-in connector
          o Chassis intrusion connector
          o 24-pin ATX Power connector
          o 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
          o System Panel connector
    * BIOS: 4 Mb Flash ROM,AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, ACPI2.0a, SM BIOS 2.3
    * Manageability: WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE

[williammanda]

You can go look at the example setups on the wiki that have worked for others but to comment on your proposal:

# 1.8GHz Intel Celeron Processor w/ 800MHz FSB & 512K L2 Cache - Upgradeable up to Core 2 Duo - at least a core 2 duo

# 512MB Kingston DDR2 RAM - Upgradeable - 1 Gb or higher

# 10/100 Integrated LAN - 1Gb for a core

  * VGA:
          o Integrated Graphics, up to 256MB shared memory
          o Support max. resolution to 1920 x 1440 (@75Hz) - Nvidia 6200 or higher

Hope this helps.

[Techstyle]

I use the integrated 10/100 LAN from my mboard for the External LAN eth0 (thinking it is going to be a long time before my internet access speed is as high as 100 Mbit/sec) and then a PCI 1Gbit LAN card for the internal LAN eth1

[ogir]

Problem is the PCI Bus: it runs at 66MHz, so maximum throughput will be 66MB/s;
maximum throughput of GBit = 125MB/s;

Again the big Gigabit Lie...

Oh, and those are only theoretical numbers...

[colinjones]

The peak bandwidth of a PCI bus is 133MB/s or 266MB/s for 64 bit, both of which are ample for a Gbit interface, assuming you aren't flooding the PCI with massive amounts of other traffic at the same time.

[Techstyle]

The point I was trying to make was that for the internal LAN where you might want to stream multiple audio/video streams to multiple MD's will be better off with the 125 MB/s Gbit LAN rather than the 12.5MB/s 100bit LAN but the 100 bit LAN is adequate for most peoples internet gateway

[totallymaxed]

The point I was trying to make was that for the internal LAN where you might want to stream multiple audio/video streams to multiple MD's will be better off with the 125 MB/s Gbit LAN rather than the 12.5MB/s 100bit LAN but the 100 bit LAN is adequate for most peoples internet gateway

Yep... 100% agree. thats our approach too.

Andrew

[skeptic]

OP - What you haven't mentioned..  Is this for the Core, a MD, or a Core/MD hybrid?  If a Core or MD, are you planning to run just SD quality or are you building it to handle any HD res at all?  I'm just assuming this includes media center stuff, not just the home automation parts.

In addition to suggestions of 1G+ memory, core duo 2 cpu, a second 1G nic if it's a core and you plan to have MDs, and nvidia 6200 video card you are going to need far more than 80G of storage if you plan to use this as your media center repository or no drive at all if it's just a MD.  I didn't see any method of video capture, but with limited support for digital cable cards, analog cable going away by Feb. and not knowing what you have for TV it's hard to make a good recommendation.  No DVD drive is fine if you plan to rip everything on some other computer, but it may be a bit difficult to install in the first place. 

[Lorilie10]

I also use the integrated 10/100 LAN from my mboard for the External LAN eth0 (thinking it is going to be a long time before my internet access speed is as high as 100 Mbit/sec) and then a PCI 1Gbit LAN card for the internal LAN eth1.




_________________
offshore staffing solutions

[totallymaxed]

I also use the integrated 10/100 LAN from my mboard for the External LAN eth0 (thinking it is going to be a long time before my internet access speed is as high as 100 Mbit/sec) and then a PCI 1Gbit LAN card for the internal LAN eth1.
_________________
offshore staffing solutions

We do the same on our systems too where the onboard is 10/100 - good point. We also avoid using any NIC that uses the forcedeth driver for the internally facing NIC (ie the LAN side of the Core) as we have had numerous problems when the using the forcedeth driver & nVidia onboard NIC's. in these situations we us the onboard as the WAN side and we have no problems at all.

All the best

Andrew