Greetings,
I need help to choose the right components to build a box with somewhat unusual requirements. I am asking this here first because I also want to be sure that everything will work 100% with Fedora, but pointers to relevant HW forums (where Linux is well known) are also welcome. On we go with the requirements:
1) Case must be Antec Aria: http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=08130 (it's the only one I know which *would* fit in the custom desk I have to build, lets me choose any motherboard up to microATX, can fit more than one HD if needed, has front usb/firewire/SD card connector, accepts full-height PCI cards)
2) the whole thing must be always _silent_ and, at least when in idle mode, it should dissipate as little power as possible (< 50 W?). Even when at 100% CPU usage, it shouldn't require a separate power plant, please.
3) No laptops thanks. I do not need mobility for this box, I don't wan't less performances for the same money, I want to be able to replace/upgrade single pieces easily, I don't want to pay stuff I'll never use (laptop screen, keyboard...)
4) The box won't be used for gaming. Sometimes for astronomy simulators like Celestia (www.shatters.net/celestia/) or Stellarium (stellarium.sourceforge.net/) but not gaming.
5) Main use, besides basic SOHO applications (OpenOffice, email, web surfing...) will be video editing from camcorder and compiling software. A TV capture card could be nice to add, but not needed.
6) Fast and reliable RAM. Lots of it.
7) Sound: see above. Adding/manipulating sound to videos is needed; *playing* surround, Hi-Fi music at 1000 watt straight from this box is not. I'll just need the minimum support to make video conferencing possible.
8) Onboard Ethernet, possibly one serial port for external fax/modem
So, what do you recommend? What is the right combination of BOTH (reliable!) HW AND Fedora [software + configuration tricks] to make all this happen? Which kind of motherboard (pentium M, 32 or 64 bits, what else?)?
Any feedback is appreciated.
TIA,
Marco F.
On 8/29/05, M. Fioretti mfioretti@mclink.it wrote:
Greetings,
I need help to choose the right components to build a box with somewhat unusual requirements. I am asking this here first because I also want to be sure that everything will work 100% with Fedora, but pointers to relevant HW forums (where Linux is well known) are also welcome. On we go with the requirements:
The Via Eden boards are tiny, and can be run with no fans off of 12V DC power. They top out at around 1Ghz, but there is a dual processor version. There is also at least one with dual gigabit ethernet. The audio chip seems to be good, but I do not know if alsa supports it. The boards are tiny, and limited to 2GB of DDR400 ram.
Am Montag, den 29.08.2005, 16:01 +0200 schrieb M. Fioretti:
- Case must be Antec Aria: http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=08130 (it's the only one I know which *would* fit in the custom desk I have to build, lets me choose any motherboard up to microATX, can fit more than one HD if needed, has front usb/firewire/SD card connector, accepts full-height PCI cards)
You might use a shuttle G85 / G95 (AMD 64) or an AOpen EY 855 (Pentium M). Both are very silent. The AOpen is better in term of silence, but the integrated Intel graphics and its integrated soundchip don't cooperate well with Linux. Both shuttles work work without any problem with Linux. A second HD can be installed instead of a floppy/card reader.
- the whole thing must be always _silent_ and, at least when in idle mode, it should dissipate as little power as possible (< 50 W?). Even when at 100% CPU usage, it shouldn't require a separate power plant, please.
Not much to do with Linux.
You may select a motherboard which supports Intels Pentium M (AOpen or MSI deliver one) or for an AMD 64 / nForce 3 chip set with rather a low processor speed. AMD 3200+ (i.e. 2.2 GHz) does not dissipate so much heat, esp. when running idle, but has some power for the video editing tasks.
Peter
On Mon, Aug 29, 2005 17:33:05 PM +0200, Peter Boy (pboy@barkhof.uni-bremen.de) wrote:
Am Montag, den 29.08.2005, 16:01 +0200 schrieb M. Fioretti:
- Case must be Antec Aria:
You might use a shuttle G85 / G95 (AMD 64) or an AOpen EY 855 (Pentium M).
They need *custom* motherboards, don't they? I mentioned that I want to avoid that, it would be just as limiting as a laptop when it's time to replace/repair/upgrade.
- the whole thing must be always _silent_ and, at least when in idle mode, it should dissipate as little power as possible (< 50 W?). Even when at 100% CPU usage, it shouldn't require a separate power plant, please.
Not much to do with Linux.
Really? I asked because some years ago this was one of the arguments in favour of Linux, that is the fact that, when nobody was using the PC, the software would not throttle the CPU as much as Windows. How do things stand now?
You may select a motherboard which supports Intels Pentium M (AOpen or MSI deliver one) or for an AMD 64 / nForce 3 chip set with rather a low processor speed.
Well, what I wanted to know is (also) exactly which micro-atx motherboards with the CPU/chipset you mention work 100% under Fedora.
TIA, Marco
Am Montag, den 29.08.2005, 19:12 +0200 schrieb M. Fioretti:
They need *custom* motherboards, don't they? I mentioned that I want to avoid that, it would be just as limiting as a laptop when it's time to replace/repair/upgrade.
They do, yes. But they are known to work now. When it is time to upgrade the hardware, the additional cost of a new case might be neglected (you will have to exchange parts of the case as the fans anyway). And compared the the laptop model: the price ranges are quite different. The shuttle case including motherboard might be less expensive as the separate items.
- the whole thing must be always _silent_ and, at least when in idle mode, it should dissipate as little power as possible (< 50 W?). Even when at 100% CPU usage, it shouldn't require a separate power plant, please.
Not much to do with Linux.
Really? I asked because some years ago this was one of the arguments in favour of Linux, that is the fact that, when nobody was using the PC, the software would not throttle the CPU as much as Windows. How do things stand now?
With Fedora an kernel 2.6 my laptop (IBM) as well as my Shuttle are running cooler (and with less noise) as with Windows. The SpeedStep module works perfectly. But you need the bios to support it. So the motherboard is a critical item.
Well, what I wanted to know is (also) exactly which micro-atx motherboards with the CPU/chipset you mention work 100% under Fedora.
For a general comparison of motherboards I found Tom's Hardware Guide (www.tomshardware.com) quite informative. Personally I can only report about my experiences. The Shuttle models as mentioned work perfectly (other models are worse), the Pentium M aOpen reasonable.
Peter
M. Fioretti wrote:
Really? I asked because some years ago this was one of the arguments in favour of Linux, that is the fact that, when nobody was using the PC, the software would not throttle the CPU as much as Windows. How do things stand now?
To the best of my knowledge, that was only true with Windows 3.1, or when running (at least some) 16 bit programs.
These days, things have changed. The peak power consumption of PCs has gone up, but there have been a lot more refinements in power saving mode. For example, Athlon 64 processors (with suitable BIOS and OS support) can run at full speed when the CPU load is high, but switch to 1 GHz or 800 MHz whn the computer is idle.
The good news is that when the BIOS support is there, Fedora seems to use it "out of the box". You can monitor /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_cur_freq to see how fast your system is running at the moment.
James.
On Tue, 2005-08-30 at 13:41 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:
You can monitor /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_cur_freq to see how fast your system is running at the moment.
Do You know which options in kernel config I have to turn on in order to allow the thing You just have recommended? When I say, $ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_cur_freq It says, cat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_cur_freq: No such file or directory.
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Billy Tallis -
James Wilkinson -
M. Fioretti -
Peter Boy -
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