D945GCLF - complete with Intel Atom

It really depends on how the video has been encoded. For instance i have some 1080p encodes i did myself and they typically use between 50-85% of my E6600 whilst playing back, so i really dont think the atom is going to like them.
Definetely not... lol

However if you are encoding the videos yourself then you could drop some of the more complex encoding options (CABAC etc) and perhaps reduce the bitrate to get it to fit insides the Atoms CPU capacity, in doing so you would be able to almost guarantee every encode you do works on the system.
Well, it's not really "FullHD ready" if you need to re-encode stuff to make it fit the processing capabilities of something else... The CPU should be able to handle it as the worst case scenario on HD-DVD and/or BR disks...

The real benefit will be when Intel includes the Atom with a DXVA GPU, that way you can simply do all the decoding on the GPU, regardless of how powerfull the cpu is.
Exactly. Though truth be told that even with the UVD decoder of the Radeon HD cards, you still need to be able to feed the card with enough data, and handle the resulting data stream. Low speed Semprons aren't able to deal with this setup (I think it was over at SPCR that I saw something about this), so there is a minimum CPU power required to handle HD content, even with a decoder chip.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Though truth be told that even with the UVD decoder of the Radeon HD cards, you still need to be able to feed the card with enough data, and handle the resulting data stream. Low speed Semprons aren't able to deal with this setup (I think it was over at SPCR that I saw something about this), so there is a minimum CPU power required to handle HD content, even with a decoder chip.

For Bluray/HDDVD there is the AACS decryption overhead, which would obviously play a part, but shouldnt be to high. But DXVA decoding should eat up almost nothing cpu/bandwidth wise.

A 1080p clip i just played back on my E6600 uses between 0-2% of my cpu whilst playing back using DXVA. So im sure an atom could easily handle that and as the DXVA is using bitstream mode, its simply sending the data directly to the GPU, so not much in terms of bandwidth either (Maybe 10Mbits per second, without any overhead).

It would be nice if somebody could test, but i would be surprised if the atom coupled with a capable DXVA card couldnt handle bluray/hddvd and there should be absolutely no reason why it couldnt handle 1080p encodes using DXVA.

Well, it's not really "FullHD ready" if you need to re-encode stuff to make it fit the processing capabilities of something else... The CPU should be able to handle it as the worst case scenario on HD-DVD and/or BR disks...

Yeah it isnt the greatest solution, as it would mean you would have a 'poorer' encode, but overall quality shouldnt suffer that much, i.e. it could be very hard to spot the difference between a DXVA profile encode and a 'Atom' profile encode.
 
@Toytown: I'm getting WAAAAAAY over my league here, so I'm assuming you're right :p

HD video is not one of my strong points (I'm a hardware and network guy), so I can't even understand everything you're talking about... :eek:

The only thing really missing to get Atom to be an HD player are very simple, very low-power PCIe (or PCI, since most Atom boards only have PCI slots available) GPUs, according to what you say. Like an NVIDIA FX5200 (I know, lousy example... lol) with an HD decoder, or even simpler. But even then you probably can't handle encrypted content (nor could you, since there is no hardware key on the Atom boards...). It's a start, I think... Now for the hardware, please!

Cheers.

Miguel



P.S.: Oh, btw, the new consumer-oriented Intel SoC just released seems absolutely PERFECT for HTPC duties... The CPU part of the chip is only an 800MHz Pentium M, but it has a GMA500 on board, and a truckload of other nice features (like SATA support, missing with Pulsbo...). TDP of the whole package: under 10W :eek:
 
Oh, btw, are you using Windows? Can you check if you have S3 (Suspend) support? Just to check if my board is OK, since I don't have it with W2K3 and W2K8.

Both S1 and S3 worked perfectly on the D945GCLF2 - I'm afraid my D945GCLF is in production so it's not easy to test with.
 
Both S1 and S3 worked perfectly on the D945GCLF2 - I'm afraid my D945GCLF is in production so it's not easy to test with.
Thank you for the reply.

Just a question, though. Which OS did you test the D945GCLF2 in? XP? I find it weird the Suspend option doesn't appear at least on W2K3... Or maybe I'm just being silly...

Unfortunately, these past two weeks have been difficult for me. I didn't have time to play with the board again, so right now I don't even know if I saw it correctly...:eek:

I'll check it out ASAP. Thanks again.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Will it be able to play 1080p video using CoreAVC smoothly is the question.
 
Will it be able to play 1080p video using CoreAVC smoothly is the question.
Read the thread, please, that question was already answered.

In short, anything above 720p WILL cause severe hickups and lag. There is only so much you can do with an in-order 1.6GHz CPU. E8xxx series Intel CPUs need at least a 30% load to decode 1080p, not counting with the eventual decryption duties, and you need a Sempron CPU (not the lowest one, though) to handle a 1080p stream with hardware decode. The Atom is slower than both those configurations, so there is no way you'll be able to get 1080p smoothly with it. Probably Pulsbo can change that, but somehow I doubt it... Maybe if paired with the Atom 330.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
sorry i'm late to the party but i presume these can boot from a usb stick?
 
I have a D945GCLF2 on order hopefully it enough to be a good low power htpc. I had to get a pci dvi card ati 2400 hd for it. Too bad it didn't come with dvi already. Right now I'm using my main system to watch video or browse the net which eats up 350+ watts 0.350+ kw/h.

I have the acer aspire one n270 intel atom single hypertrending core. I have vista ultimate installed on and it got it to play 720p h.264 pretty smooth. Just have to keep the cpu load under 100%. It takes some tweaking to get it to play with 0-1% shutter. Also it can play 1080p mpeg2 fine. In windows xp 720p h.264 probably don't need as much tweaking.
 
sorry i'm late to the party but i presume these can boot from a usb stick?
Yes. There is a specific BIOS option to handle that.

I have a D945GCLF2 on order hopefully it enough to be a good low power htpc. I had to get a pci dvi card ati 2400 hd for it.
Except for the fact the HD2400 series doesn't have enough power to post-process the video streams as the older brothers do (if I remember correctly from a review I read over at Tom's Hardware about a year ago), that seems a good candidate to be able to handle non-encrypted 1080p streams. The Atom 330 can handle 1080p on its own, it seems (review here), so that's a great system!

Also it can play 1080p mpeg2 fine. In windows xp 720p h.264 probably don't need as much tweaking.
AFAIK, the GMA950 has full MPEG2 decode onboard, so it should be able to handle just about anything you can throw at it on that department, provided it doesn't hog the CPU and/or memory with the sheer amount of data being moved around (though that shouldn't happen too easily).

Cheers.

Miguel
 
The only thing really missing to get Atom to be an HD player are very simple, very low-power PCIe (or PCI, since most Atom boards only have PCI slots available)

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Is there any Atom board yet that has a PCIe slot which could be used for a half-decent video card? (Something like an ATI HD3450, just something to help with HD content.)
So far I only found boards with PCI-slots, which isn't very helpful.
Or is there any decent PCI card available for decoding HD content?
 
Is there any Atom board yet that has a PCIe slot which could be used for a half-decent video card? (Something like an ATI HD3450, just something to help with HD content.)
So far I only found boards with PCI-slots, which isn't very helpful.
Or is there any decent PCI card available for decoding HD content?
I have seen reports of an ATX Atom board, with a full PCIe 16x slot, along with at least a couple more 1x PCIe slots (the rest of them being PCI). That's from ECS, or something like that.

As for low power HD decoding GPUs, PCI seems to have stopped with the HD2400 series; I have seen reports of PCIe 1,1 GPUs (from PowerColor, if memory serves me right). I believe there is no CUDA-enabled GPU (the only ones with HD decode on-board, except for the 8800GTX) available eithar on the PCI or PCIe 1x formats. I can be wrong, though. The american market is much richer in niche products than the european one...

Also, do check my reply previous to this one, the user I was responding to has a PCI HD2400 card, which are nice (1st-gen UVD decoder), but can't handle video post-processing (not enough processing power, it seems, or so it was when Anandtech/Tom's Hardware, not sure which one right now, tested them a few months after they were released as they were searching HTPC-class GPUs).

Cheers.

Miguel
 
I done some test with d945gclf2 intel atom 330 with vista 64 ultimate.

D945GCLF2 + 2GB DDR2 + 640GB SATA2 + ATI 2400 HD PCI.

I get 4.3 cpu, 4.4 mem, 2.0 aero, 2.5 3d games, 5.7 disk.
With the ati 2400 hd pci I get 4.3 cpu, 4.4 mem, 3.3 aero, 3.8 3d games, 5.7 disk.

My Acer aspire one gets 3 cpu, 4.5 mem, 4.1 aero, 2.8 3d games, 5.2 disk.

My D945GCLF2 can't play mkv h.264 as good as my aspire one with a n270 and its mobile 945gse chipset. Even after I tried hardware dxva, and software ones.

It shutters 1080p mkv with 40-50% cpu load across the 4 ht cpus, but something is bottlenecking it. Feels a bit slow. Playing 720p mkv is also a issue can't play as good as my aspire one.

It does however play mpeg2 and normal avi fine.

I don't recommand it as a HTpc.

My last htpc amd single core sempron le-1100 overclock to 2.1 ghz + biostar ta690g + 2gb ddr2 + 500gb hdd + vista 64. It gets 4.2 cpu, 5.9 mem, 2.8 aero, 3.3 3d games, 5.9 disk. It can play back mkv h.264 720p with out any hardware or software accelerators pretty fast.

It reminds me why I stop buying intel stuff so limiting.

*update after install win xp sp3 and testing agian it seem to be playing 1080p mkv now on the faster built in 82945g express chipset's pci-e connection. The ati 2400 hd pci connection is not good for playing h.264/mkv at hd resolutions. Must need pci-e and higher connection. I wish it just came with dvi outputs or had pci-e 16x slot.
 
The Atom 330 can handle 1080p on its own, it seems (review here), so that's a great system!


Be careful with that review, as it mentions "For the 1080p HD video test...... With video encoded at 1276 kbp/s". Typically 1080p rips will be encoded at 10000kbps and higher and will spike well over 20000kbps

Same goes for the 720p content, they mention "Using a custom 720p HD recording at 2017 kbp/s". Most 720p rips will be encoded at 5000+ kbps and spike over 10000 at certain points.

So yes if you are going to encode your own content and doing so make the bitrate really low, then yes you can have HD content. But if your going to want it to look good then your going to have to get a GPU or much stronger CPU.
 
Also, and not to rain on anyone's parade, do keep this in mind:

- Here in Portugal, the D945GLCF2 costs around €80 (probably a couple € less, if you search for a while);

- The same €80 get you a €40 E1200 and a €40 GeForce 7xx0-based motherboard (the lack of dual channel is a moot point, the Atom platform also doesn't have it);

- €5 more get you a GA-G31M-S2L instead (for the Gigabit LAN port, though it lacks HD decode capabilities... The NVIDIA part has partial HD decode).


Granted, the power draw will be higher, and the system size will be bigger. However, you CAN squeeze full HD decode capabilities of that combo (and you can also add decoding hardware).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Atom-based platforms (unless Pulsbo is in the equation, but that remains to be seen in the wild) are NOT meant to be HTPCs, there is simply not enough processing power for that.

Atom is a great little basic desktop/notebook/micro-server platform. Period.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
D945GCLF related, however off-topic in terms of video conversation.

I recently picked up one of these boards for a media server jukebox. Today, I put the system together and tried installing the drivers for the on-board audio but received an error. The audio is detected by XP Pro however the drivers don't seem to be installing correctly. I downloaded the newest drivers from Intel's website with still no luck

In the bios, Audio is Enabled but I can't figure out what the problem is... Any ideas ?
 
Just to let you know, this is a stupid platform to use for an HTPC. The PCI 2400 doesn't support hardware acceleration like this PCIe version.... also, the 2000 series was just god awful for hardware acceleration due to be severly underpowered. The 2400 in particular, it chokes on 1080p material like an asthmatic in a smoking convention.
I have a D945GCLF2 on order hopefully it enough to be a good low power htpc. I had to get a pci dvi card ati 2400 hd for it. Too bad it didn't come with dvi already. Right now I'm using my main system to watch video or browse the net which eats up 350+ watts 0.350+ kw/h.
I have the acer aspire one n270 intel atom single hypertrending core. I have vista ultimate installed on and it got it to play 720p h.264 pretty smooth. Just have to keep the cpu load under 100%. It takes some tweaking to get it to play with 0-1% shutter. Also it can play 1080p mpeg2 fine. In windows xp 720p h.264 probably don't need as much tweaking.
I find it hard to believe that it plays 1080p MPEG2 material since I know for sure that a 2400 chokes on it and I know the 945G is so much more pathetic then it. If it's DLed material like HD trailers and similar then sure it's going to play those back since they're encoded at a much lower bitrate.

I just wished that Intel wouldn't hamper the Atom by shackling it with a hog of a crappy/outdated IGP; damn it! Throw a G45 on it and I'll buy several of them for HTPC client boxes. Sheeshs
 
Just to let you know, this is a stupid platform to use for an HTPC. The PCI 2400 doesn't support hardware acceleration like this PCIe version.... also, the 2000 series was just god awful for hardware acceleration due to be severly underpowered. The 2400 in particular, it chokes on 1080p material like an asthmatic in a smoking convention.


I find it hard to believe that it plays 1080p MPEG2 material since I know for sure that a 2400 chokes on it and I know the 945G is so much more pathetic then it. If it's DLed material like HD trailers and similar then sure it's going to play those back since they're encoded at a much lower bitrate.

I just wished that Intel wouldn't hamper the Atom by shackling it with a hog of a crappy/outdated IGP; damn it! Throw a G45 on it and I'll buy several of them for HTPC client boxes. Sheeshs

Word, completely true. the HD3200 (780G) is based on the 2400 and it can only somewhat handle [downloaded] 1080p content with occasional hiccup after a massive overclock (500mhz to 900mhz). GMA950 can't handle anything at all, absolutely nothing. These atom boards aren't really made for HTPCing, more for just general computing.
 
In the bios, Audio is Enabled but I can't figure out what the problem is... Any ideas ?
Just one: what version of Windows XP are you using?

You better upgrade directly to SP3, there is a MS patch (post-SP2, unfortunately) which needs to be installed before HD Audio codecs can be used, though the system clearly acknowledges there is something there.

Since HD Audio support lacks a proper patch, drivers refuse to install, even though they claim to install it... I've had that problem countless times with Realtek codecs (which claim they will install the HD Audio patch...:rolleyes:), just to realize I'd need to update my computer first before I could use the audio functions.

If that doesn't work, also keep in mind that the codec used in the D945GCLF requires HD Audio-compliant front panel ports (some older cases are only AC97-compliant, and may or may not work with newer codecs), which can potentially interfere with the HD Audio codec operation (man, I'm sounding like a tech support operator, or a manual... lol).

Lastly, the particular codec used in that board can only output audio to the back OR front ports (same for input), so only one of them can be used. Although, as per default Realtek implementation, if both are populated only the front port is used in this case...

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Word, completely true. the HD3200 (780G) is based on the 2400 and it can only somewhat handle [downloaded] 1080p content with occasional hiccup after a massive overclock (500mhz to 900mhz). GMA950 can't handle anything at all, absolutely nothing. These atom boards aren't really made for HTPCing, more for just general computing.
Actually, the 3200 (780G) was based on the 2600 but uses the UVD from the 3000 and 4000 series (UVD 2) making it vastly superior to the 2400. It should handle 1080p H264 no problem but it might choke on x264 material if coupled with a slow CPU and an idiot who doesn't know to use a DVXA profile to encode their x264 material.
 
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14261
The latest fruit borne of AMD's purchase of ATI packs a DirectX 10-compliant graphics core pulled from a Radeon HD 2400 graphics card
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=12116&page=2
AMD has literally taken an entire, discrete-based, Radeon HD 2400 GPU, shrunk the manufacturing process down to 55nm (like the 3400-series'), and placed the DX10-supporting GPU on the IGP
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_780g_overclocking/page2.asp
The Radeon HD 3200 IGP is largely based on AMD’s RV620 GPU, which was originally launched in the Radeon HD 3450/3470 back in January. If you recall, RV620 is essentially the die shrunk equivalent of RV610, which debuted in the Radeon HD 2400 family nearly a year ago.

2400 vs 2600 benchmark - big difference
http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-2600-and-2400-Performance/?page=4

122 pages of AVSforum goodness, somewhere in there are posts about choppiness and whatnot since I came across them while troubleshooting.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-2600-and-2400-Performance/?page=4

Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3430&p=5
On one end of the spectrum we have Intel's G45 which absolutely does not support proper 24p playback. The G45 still does not have official support for it in the drivers and although 24 fps playback is possible in the hardware, we seriously doubt the software group will implement it (that's a dare).

The AMD 780G/790GX results were very choppy at times; even when they seemed smooth we experienced audio sync problems.

The only platform that can properly handle 24 fps output is NVIDIA's GeForce 8200/8300. It just works.
The 780G isn't the end-all-be-all chipset you seem to be hoping for - they are still low end external cards stuffed into an IGP format. And by "encode" you mean "decode" their material, since well, you decode to watch stuff. Thx for so slyly insulting me.
 
You do realise that two out of three of your links don't agree. Either it's based on the 2400 or it's based on the RV620 (3450/3670). Either way, the 2400 was based on the 2600 anyways. lol :rolleyes:
No one is talking about gaming performance; that is utterly retarded seeing as how even a GPU based on a more powerful GPU is still going to be cut down. A 9400 IS NOT going to perform like a 9800GT even though the 9400 is based on it. Thats stupid. :rolleyes:
122 pages of AVSforum goodness, somewhere in there are posts about choppiness and whatnot since I came across them while troubleshooting.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-2600-and-2400-Performance/?page=4

The 780G isn't the end-all-be-all chipset you seem to be hoping for - they are still low end external cards stuffed into an IGP format.
No shit sherlock. The best thing about them, FOR A FUCKING HTPC, is that they can decode 1080p material no sweat. Thats why they are suggested. Not for gaming or anything else ridicules :rolleyes:.

No one considers them to be the "end all, be all" since they still have issues. I didn't say it nor have I ever called them that. You did.

Also, new Intel drivers are suppose to support 24fps IIRC.
And by "encode" you mean "decode" their material, since well, you decode to watch stuff. Thx for so slyly insulting me.

No. I mean encode as in the person who encoded the video into the MKV file that the 780G is trying to decode since, well, you encode stuff into a different format for others to watch. Also, I'm talking about people who encode and post stuff online, most know how to properly encode video while others are still using non DXVA profiles.

Thanks for not reading my post or, very possibly based on your reading comprehension, English isn't your first language since you can't read a post correctly enough to tell that I didn't call you idiot or stupid but I am now cause your wrong and post BS half of the time.
 
Take that stick outta your ass.

You were saying the 780G is based on the 2600, if it was then it would be immensely more powerful to begin with than the 2400. Get it Watson? The 2600 can run 1080p, the 2400 not so much without hiccup.

It should handle 1080p H264 no problem but it might choke on x264 material if coupled with a slow CPU and an idiot who doesn't know to use a DVXA profile to encode their x264 material.
This is where you say that 1080p basically runs just "no problem" but people who actually have this mobo have run across playback issues. Anand is 1 example, go through the entire 122 pages if you dare. What are you, an AMD fanboi/spokesman?

When you said DXVA, I was thinking decoding since in some programs you need to enable DVXA. As in an end-user problem where they don't enable it. Miscommunication there

Wow but seriously, you just had to stir shit up by going in and saying "OH noez, HD3200 is 2600 not 2400:eek::eek:" and then you come back and say "Welllll, 2600 is 2400 anyways". So whatever the hell!? Just gotta be right all the time, can't handle things not going your way it seems. Grow up, all you basically do is just insult people. OoOoo so threatening, you hurts my feelings :(.

And when you said "idiot", it seemed to point straight at me since I had said I had some playback issues with 1080p on my 780G.
 
Hey all, just read through all 6 pages of this because I was looking at this board for the last few weeks myself.... and now that the Intel D945GCLF2 is out, I'm about ready to get it...before I get it though, I thought I'd pick your guys' brains...

I am going to make a NAS myself. My plan is to use RAID 5 with 4 SATAII 1TB hard drives (The WD 3.5" Green-Drives). The low power consumption and Gigabit NIC is key here, obviously. I'll be using FreeNAS. Assuming I WILL get the LF2, I'm looking for suggestions on the following to be used with this mobo/cpu:

* Case to support 4 3.5" hard drives
* Power Supply (efficient!) to support the 4 HDs as well as the Mobo, obviously
* I'll need something to make 4 SATA ports from the 2 included on the mobo...any ideas here?
* Do I need a RAID card?? I was hoping that the Atom would be enough to handle any RAID issues without horrible speed decreases...


This last thing is something I Hope I can do (A little Off topic, I could start another thread if needed...) but am not sure. With the LF2.... Best case scenerio, I can encrypt everything on this device, so all my data is secure (no, most of it isn't that important, but it'd be awesome to do). I was trying to figure out how I could use truecrypt to do this, but I am thinking that I'd then have to have truecrypt on every computer I wanted to access the info from. Instead, I'd still like to be able to access the data from (for example) my PS3 to get any audio/video files I have on it.... so is there anyway that the PS3 can ask me for the password before accessing and making the NAS decrypt the device?

Thanks everyone, this has been an awesome thread to help me narrow my mobo search for a cheap, low power NAS.
 
I am going to make a NAS myself. My plan is to use RAID 5 with 4 SATAII 1TB hard drives (The WD 3.5" Green-Drives). The low power consumption and Gigabit NIC is key here, obviously. I'll be using FreeNAS. Assuming I WILL get the LF2, I'm looking for suggestions on the following to be used with this mobo/cpu:

* Case to support 4 3.5" hard drives
* Power Supply (efficient!) to support the 4 HDs as well as the Mobo, obviously
* I'll need something to make 4 SATA ports from the 2 included on the mobo...any ideas here?
* Do I need a RAID card?? I was hoping that the Atom would be enough to handle any RAID issues without horrible speed decreases...
Hi there.

* Case: Chenbro ESS34069 NAS case (here), mini-ITX/Mini-DTX compliant, 4x3.5''+1x2.5''+Slim ODD. Pretty steep price, but a great NAS case

* Power Supply: Inluded in the case, it's a 120W or 180W DC-DC converter, with an external brick. Since you're going the GreenPower+Atom way, I'll doubt you'll have any problems on power (not so with an E7200+Intel G45 Mini-ITX+7200RPM drives, you'll be limited to 3, it seems)

* 4 SATA ports: either you get a 2-port PCI SATA card, or a 4-port RAID card (any of which might need to be low-height and half-lenght, because of space limitations, since the ICH7 doesn't support SATA expanders/replicators.

* RAID card: YES!!!!! Software RAID 5 with an Atom should be avoided at all costs. Software RAID implementations are always weird, write speeds are always atrocious, and the Atom just cannot handle all that computational power. Do yourself a BIG favour and get a 4-port hardware RAID5 PCI card which can fit the case you want to use, or use software RAID10 instead (and a 2 or 4-port card).

This last thing is something I Hope I can do (A little Off topic, I could start another thread if needed...) but am not sure. With the LF2.... Best case scenerio, I can encrypt everything on this device, so all my data is secure (no, most of it isn't that important, but it'd be awesome to do). I was trying to figure out how I could use truecrypt to do this, but I am thinking that I'd then have to have truecrypt on every computer I wanted to access the info from. Instead, I'd still like to be able to access the data from (for example) my PS3 to get any audio/video files I have on it.... so is there anyway that the PS3 can ask me for the password before accessing and making the NAS decrypt the device?
Sorry, can't help you there.

I must warn you, though, FDE (Full Disk Encryption) can be an insane CPU hog, depending on the encryption, and with an Atom you might not have enough processing power... Depending on what you really need/want, try considering HDDs with FDE engines onboard (Samsung and Hitachi make them, but there are also other brands). Your data will be encoded on-the-fly with no CPU overhead, and decoded on every read. If someone takes the disk out of the PC where it's housed, then the data is unreadable.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Thanks Miguel...this helps a lot.

That case does look awesome, but for the price of that case + RAID card + Mobo, I'm already spending the same amount as, maybe a DLink DNS 343 or something similar, don't you think? My main reason for building my own nas is to cut cost by 100+.... do you think that's not possible?

What if I skimped on the case? I don't care about it really at all (I won't be hot swapping anything).


----------------------------EDITED BELOW---------------------
And you know as I read through the forum I began thinking about a HTPC... I wasn't even considering it before, but really...it's a great Idea probably, because I could use to to watch digital content, as well as using it as a "nas-like" device. Maybe I'll look into low-power options for this instead... I'm assume the Atom isn't reccommended then for HTPC use?
 
Thanks Miguel...this helps a lot.
No prob. Glad I could help out.

That case does look awesome, but for the price of that case + RAID card + Mobo, I'm already spending the same amount as, maybe a DLink DNS 343 or something similar, don't you think? My main reason for building my own nas is to cut cost by 100+.... do you think that's not possible?
Well, here in Portugal the 343 is like €300~€400 for the NAS box alone, and you still need to factor in the HDD drives... I guess I could get my hands on the Chembro case for €200, and the RAID card should be about the same, so yes, it would be more expensive than the 343 route. That happens in just about any 4+ port NAS.

However, keep in mind that a full x86 approach with a dedicated RAID card will probably be much faster than ANY consumer-grade NAS you can find, especially if you use RAID5, and also because you can benefit from more RAM to cache the network transfers.

In my opinion, you have three choices:

1) Go consumer-grade NAS, and be done with it. You'll probably want to skip RAID5, and opt for RAID10 because of the major performance hit. You'll probably have noise issues, though, and max transfer rates of about 30MBps over Gigabit.

2) Go for the HP Mediaserver, which is about $640 with WHS and at least a 500GB system+storage drive, and three extra drive slots (9TB max storage, internal and external combined). You can have noise issues and some limited performance, since the CPU is a low-speed, low-power, single-core Athlon CPU with 512MB/1GB of RAM (you can go for 2GB, though, and for the new units your warranty won't be voided by upgrading the RAM, as it seems). It seems power draw is below 70W for the whole system, though, which is nice.

3) Go for something based off the Intel SS4200-x series enclosures. You'll get software RAID5 (4x3.5'' drives) and a Celeron 420 (you can either use WHS or Linux) on a uATX-sized box, all of which up until recently topped out the RAID charts over at SmallNetBuilder. It's a screamer, and pretty expensive, though.

4) Go mini-ITX with super-small enclosures. This will eventually skyrocket your price tag if you want RAID5, not only because of the RAID card itself, but also because small cases (like the Chembro one I told you about) and small PSUs (like the PicoPSU) are impressively expensive.

5) Go the "Frankenbuild" way. That means using standard or semi-standard hardware as a NAS. The result is a HUGE NAS (smallest affordable case is uATX-sized, anything smaller just breaks the bank), but you can use much more powerfull (and sometimes power-efficient) motherboards. For instance, Tom's Hardware recently found out that an E7200 paired up with a VRM11.1-compliant G31 uATX board + 1x3.5'' HDD has just about the same power draw idling as an Atom board, and that's running stock (you can lower the CPU voltage and turn off some unused ports for at least a 5W decrease in power needs). That system is immensly more powerfull than an Atom combo (though more expensive, too).

It's really up to you, but those are the options right now on the hardware side.

Oh, btw, I almost forgot. RAID. Software RAID5 just doesn't cut it performance-wise. Check the SmallNetBuilder's RAID charts to see why...

Also, it seems the fastest speed you can get over Gigabit Ethernet is about 70MBps in file transfer, and that's only up to the time you run out of RAM on the target system (after that, performance drops like a stone to just over 20MBps), no matter what HDDs you're using. To make matters worse, that best file transfer speed was obtained with... Windows Home Server, which simply does not have RAID suppor, nor does it use it. Those 70MBps are achieved with a single-disk configuration, and no configuration before that could manage more... Honestly, I doubt anything short of an enterprise-grade RAID5/6 card with PLENTY of RAM (2GB+) will change that in real-world usage.

So for me, there are only two good options when going NAS: either WHS (which has a very interesting way to make sure your data is safe, usually not as disk-demanding as RAID1), or go RAID1/RAID10 (RAID1 may have a speed hit, because of the mirroring).

What if I skimped on the case? I don't care about it really at all (I won't be hot swapping anything).
You really need AHCI or RAID modes to be able to hot-swap drives, otherwise it's just a convenient way to plug a drive (which is nice by itself, mind you... SATA and power cables are a pain to manage, especially in small enclosures). That Chenbro case is only hot-swappable if the motherboard supports it, which anything Atom-based doesn't. Same thing with the HP MediaCenter, you need to shut down before you can slide a drive in. Not so with the Intel case, since it supports RAID, but AFAIK those cases are meant to be kept closed, so there is no quick removal system (or easy access to the drives for that matter...).

I'm assume the Atom isn't reccommended then for HTPC use?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the Atom is only a good HTPC option if you don't need to watch HD movies. There is just not enough CPU power for that, and the IGP only decodes simple MPEG2 streams.

For HTPC, you're better off with a low-power G31 board with an E5200/E7200 and a low-end 4xxx series ATI card, a 780G/790GX+4000 series Athlon X2 CPU combo, or probably an NVIDIA 9300/9400 board (just came out), and the E5200/E7200. Period.

Ok, sorry for the freakishly long post, some of it a complete OT. I just wanted to be thorough...:eek:

Cheers.

Miguel
 
----------------------------EDITED BELOW---------------------
And you know as I read through the forum I began thinking about a HTPC... I wasn't even considering it before, but really...it's a great Idea probably, because I could use to to watch digital content, as well as using it as a "nas-like" device. Maybe I'll look into low-power options for this instead... I'm assume the Atom isn't reccommended then for HTPC use?

Have you totally missed the last few post in the thread? The Atom is a god awful CPU for HTPC use. :rolleyes:
 
Just one: what version of Windows XP are you using?

You better upgrade directly to SP3, there is a MS patch (post-SP2, unfortunately) which needs to be installed before HD Audio codecs can be used, though the system clearly acknowledges there is something there.

Since HD Audio support lacks a proper patch, drivers refuse to install, even though they claim to install it... I've had that problem countless times with Realtek codecs (which claim they will install the HD Audio patch...:rolleyes:), just to realize I'd need to update my computer first before I could use the audio functions.

If that doesn't work, also keep in mind that the codec used in the D945GCLF requires HD Audio-compliant front panel ports (some older cases are only AC97-compliant, and may or may not work with newer codecs), which can potentially interfere with the HD Audio codec operation (man, I'm sounding like a tech support operator, or a manual... lol).

Lastly, the particular codec used in that board can only output audio to the back OR front ports (same for input), so only one of them can be used. Although, as per default Realtek implementation, if both are populated only the front port is used in this case...

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel

Thanks for the heads up, I had to uninstall the Microsoft UAA, install the drivers, then reinstall the UAA. Finally got it. Thanks again !
 
Thanks for the heads up, I had to uninstall the Microsoft UAA, install the drivers, then reinstall the UAA. Finally got it. Thanks again !
Weird. Up until this time, the only way for me to have HD Audio working on a system was by installing UAA, THEN the drivers, not the other way around...

Anyway, bottom line is that you got the audio subsystem working, so that's what really matters.

You're welcome. As I usually say, I'm here to help in whatever way I can, so I'm glad I could be helpfull.

Cheers.

Miguel
 
Have you totally missed the last few post in the thread? The Atom is a god awful CPU for HTPC use. :rolleyes:

I thought it was only for non-HD stuff though...


Either way, thanks all. great thread and a ton of help. although I still don't know what to do. hahaha. Thanks again.
 
I thought it was only for non-HD stuff though...


Either way, thanks all. great thread and a ton of help. although I still don't know what to do. hahaha. Thanks again.

Atom is terrible for decoding HD material mostly because of the crappy 945G IGP that it is saddled with. If it was an IGP like the G45 which actually has pretty decent image quality then things would be different. The 945G just sucks for media.
 
See my thread here:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1360485

Maybe the 8500GT will be better for HD decoding, On my N10J with Cyberlink Power Dvd 8 installed using media player classic Home cinema I can play VC1 Blu ray movies, which were previously not playable (due to high scpu utilization) Once my parts come in i'll keep you guys posted.
 
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