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Power efficient quadcore for home server use?

F

Fryguy8

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2001
Messages
1,707
So, my current server hardware is getting a little bit old, especially now that I've migrated to ZFS.

I currently have:

Athlon 3800+ s939 dualcore
1GB DDR1 (this works AWESOME with zfs [/sarcasm]
Random asus motherboard (a8n-sli deluxe I think).

Given the load, I'm actually not hurting for cpu power that much. An upgrade would be nice, especially to quadcore.

The server is an all-in-one box: router, fileserver, etc. It had a bunch of HDs in it, and idles at around 120-130 watts.

As part of the upgrade I'd like to stay under 150 watts if possible (it is a 24/7 box). I'm currently leaning towards Core i5 or Socket C32 solutions.

Any specific recommendations? I shouldn't have a problem finding a motherboard that meets my needs (room for lots of ram, 3+ pci-e slots, IPMI, 6 SATA ports and at least 1 PATA port), so I figured I'd start at the processor first to help narrow things down.

Given power limitations, multiple sockets are out of the question: I just want a power efficient quadcore.

Suggestions?
 
150W at idle right?

Here's my thoughts on your situation:
That IPMI requirement pretty much limits you to server class motherboards. Supermicro tends to be the most recommended server motherboards out there so I'll start with their selection. Now socket LGA 1156 and Core i5 is effectively ruled out here since Supermicro socket LGA 1156 motherboards do not support any of the Core i5 quad-core CPU line. They do support the Core i3 and Core i5 dual CPUs but not the Core i5 quad-core CPUs.

So that leaves with pretty much AMD for the CPU and AMD socket C32 for the motherboard. Newegg only have two Supermicro socket C32 motherboards available. For the CPU, I'm recommending the AMD Opteron 4122 CPU.

What PSU will you be using or getting?
 
Yes at idle.

I had kind of noticed the same thing about the quad i5s and missing server support.

Did the research and found the C32 proc/board already. Have been leaning supermicro for the board all along.

Power supply is currently an old Fortron 550w which I'd like to continue using if possible. This would likely get upgraded if/when I move up from 5 drives to 10, but if I can manage new gen proc/mobo and 5 drives with 550w I would like to

Let's say I remove the requirement for IPMI. What other types of options does that open up for me? The MAIN concern is power effiiciency, and I'm willing to make som sacrifices for even 10% better efficiency. Ram support in double digits would be nice too (16 GB of ram is not out of the question for this box).
 
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