Help with headless uTorrent box

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GJSNeptune

[H]F Junkie
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Mar 31, 2004
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I'm always downloading taped live shows, like Dave Matthews Band. They support taping, and I certainly can't attend tons of shows. I only download shows in FLAC or other lossless formats, which seem somewhat unpopular in the torrent world; I seem to average one or two seeds/peers per torrent, so downloading takes forever. I'd like to let files download overnight, but my main rig uses about 130W if I turn off all monitors. I know it isn't much, but since it's winter, heating our apartment is killing our electric bill. I'm looking to build a low-power torrent box.

I've discovered that it's possible to run uTorrent as a service under WHS, but I don't need WHS unless someone can point out other useful features beyond file sharing and backups. I have three trials of WHS at my disposal. I have no experience with Linux, so it's tempting to go with WHS. I don't have the funds to drop on multiple large-capacity HDDs. Can WHS be useful with only one HDD? I may get a WD10EADS for this torrent box. I'm not sure yet.

I have two cases in my closet right now:
1) Antec Three Hundred, no PSU
2) Antec NSK2480 (HTPC), Earthwatts 380W

Naturally I'm leaning towards the NSK2480 since it already has a PSU. I'll have to use mATX, and there are two HDD mounts plus two 5.25" bays that I could adapt if needed. Cooling seems pretty good. Definitely sufficient for a low-power system.

Possibly hardware:
AMD 4850e (retail)
GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2
G.Skill 2x1GB DDR2-800
WD10EADS (or another 6400AAKS or 6401AALS)

If I ever wanted to turn the rig into an HTPC, I could pop in a cheap HDMI video card. On the other hand, NVIDIA's Ion seems promising.

My main rig's onboard NIC is presumably dead. I have a few more things to test, but I'll probably have to get a NIC. Some people say NICs are faster than onboard NICs, and others say they'll never use onboard NICs again. Would a discrete NIC be good for a torrent box as well? Would my main rig have better speeds?

I need some guidance. I'm a very indecisive person.
 
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I've honestly never had a problem with onboard networking, and I'm typically one to not trust integrated solutions. Sound/video cards are a must, but standard gigabit onboard should be way more than sufficient. Torrenting through a cable or DSL connection cannot come anywhere close to the speed limits of even the crappiest onboard NIC in any case, and the tiny ping improvement a PCI based system MIGHT give you would be pointless with a torrent.
 
Well it turns out my onboard NIC was fine. I loaded default settings in BIOS, which removed my overclock, and Windows re-detected my network adapter. No need for a NIC now. I wonder what else my OC was messing up. It seemed stable for the past two months. Maybe I ought to tweak the voltage a little.
 
Your above setup is fine for your needs -- you don't really need anything more powerful. On that note, stick with the NSK2480 (though, if you really wanted to, you could reuse the EA380 within the Three Hundred case).

saedrin said everything that I would say about onboard versus standalone NICs. However, go head and get the Intel NIC for your main rig.
 
But I won't be transferring enormous files, and definitely not constantly. Live shows are generally 800MB-1GB.

You'd need a discrete NIC in both computers to take advantage of the transfer speeds though, right?
 
I use Remote Desktop and run my downloading crap that way on a old slow power miser PC just like you are doing except that mine is a Duron 750 and 768MB of PC-133. Windows XP Pro has the remote desktop host built in, Vista needs to be Business or Ultimate before it has RD Host.

It just sits on the floor doing its thing and I connect with Remote Desktop and run the programs when needed. No special ways of installing things needed.. just run the same apps that you would normally run on your main rig.

You mention saving power though, it's not going to be much, in fact you will probably spend more on the hardware then you could ever save on energy. But the convenience is where it's at and will make a difference.

Onboard NIC vs PCI one. It's not going to make any difference if you go from a onboard Realtek NIC to a Realtek based one sitting on a PCI card. If you do go an purchase add on NIC, make sure its a good one. I like the Intel ones myself. The old 3Com Parrallel Tasking NIC's were pretty awesome too. I have heard that cheap cheap NIC's can't hand the concurrent connections that you might see with torrenting, but if you are running a crap router like a WRT, that will be your limiting factor long before a NIC will be.
 
Well I do have WHS and I just made uTorrent as a service and use the webui so I never have to remote to it. I also forwarded the ports through my router so I can start downloads from anywhere. Besides backups WHS is a Windows Media Connect device so it works very nicely with my PS3 and Windows Media Player. I love my WHS as I do the auto backups and whatnot.

Here is the article I used to set up uTorrent: http://www.deciphered.net/blog/2007/04/25/howto_install_utorrent_service_windows_home_server_whs_ctp
 
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