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Quick file server question about video card

D

darknite

Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2004
Messages
750
Hope this is the right forum.
My lil file server is used mainly for streaming video/files thru the network to pc's, ps3, xbox, etc. Will taking out the video card make any difference in performance with streaming /transcoding? The main video is .avi and .mkv. The cpu sits at 100% when watching some files. Its not connected to a monitor anymore, i connect remotely. Also will it make a difference with WHS? (same scenario) going to install soon.

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500 @ 2.21GHz
3.0 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 2600 Pro
Windows 7 (for now)
gigabit network
 
I use a RIVA TNT in my fileserver and it streams/transcodes 1080p video with no problem. So im sure yours wont make a differene either ^_^
 
darknite said:
Hope this is the right forum.
My lil file server is used mainly for streaming video/files thru the network to pc's, ps3, xbox, etc. Will taking out the video card make any difference in performance with streaming /transcoding? The main video is .avi and .mkv. The cpu sits at 100% when watching some files. Its not connected to a monitor anymore, i connect remotely. Also will it make a difference with WHS? (same scenario) going to install soon.

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500 @ 2.21GHz
3.0 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 2600 Pro
Windows 7 (for now)
gigabit network
Click to expand...

Dark, what app are you using for streaming/ transcoding to the other machines? Plex, Transcode360 or something else. Some apps support hardware acceleration, but that is generally for display on the end-user screen. If you do have a specific app that will take advantage of ha on the head end, then you might see some change, but generally that only happens in cards that support Nvidia CUDA or AMD Stream (Your card has SOME support). A slower card (or no card, depending on your BIOS support for headless operation) will save you some watts and some heat. I don't know if you have the budget for an upgrade, but one of the new Intel Ivy Bridge i3's will do wonders for transcoding efficiency.
 
koolaidkitten said:
I use a RIVA TNT in my fileserver and it streams/transcodes 1080p video with no problem. So im sure yours wont make a differene either ^_^
Click to expand...

Wow!!! I had one of those!

Seriously though, @OP you want the lowest power GPU you can get (onboard is best) and a faster CPU will help the most.
 
I don't of any transcoding apps that will use GPU acceleration so any GPU you add will just be another useless power drain.Upgrade your CPU to something more beefier or get a device that can playback the media in its native format(xbmc,boxee,wdlive..etc).
 
darknite said:
Hope this is the right forum.
My lil file server is used mainly for streaming video/files thru the network to pc's, ps3, xbox, etc. Will taking out the video card make any difference in performance with streaming /transcoding? The main video is .avi and .mkv. The cpu sits at 100% when watching some files. Its not connected to a monitor anymore, i connect remotely. Also will it make a difference with WHS? (same scenario) going to install soon.

Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500 @ 2.21GHz
3.0 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 2600 Pro
Windows 7 (for now)
gigabit network
Click to expand...

The reason your CPU is sitting at 100% during transcoding is because it is around 7 years old and was a mid-range CPU at the time.

Transcoding is entirely CPU-based, and an old single-core will not cut it if you are looking for decent performance, not to mention it still has to stream the data out, taxing it even further, resulting in lower performance on the transcoding end.

No, removing the graphics card will not improve your situation at all, nor will upgrading it help.

Simply, if you want more performance, OC your CPU as high as it will go, and disable any unnecessary services in the background which do not need to be running.

I would suggest not upgrading the CPU however, as X2's from the 939/AM2 era are more costly than they are worth, and any other single-core 64 from that era is not going to be powerful enough, not even an FX-57 will cut it.

Use that additional money to upgrade to newer CPU/mobo/RAM components, it will be more cost effective and efficient overall.
 
Yall basically just answered my question perfectly.
I wont be upgrading it until i retire my gamer. (Q6600) It does what i need for now. Not worried bout the 100% usage really.
So i will pull out the video card, cuz it's basically just taking up space/power, etc.
Apps are mainly ps3 media server and/ or tversity
Thanks guys
 
Just a thought to add onto Red Falcon's post...

You can probably get a huge upgrade with a low end Pentium Dual Core + H61 motherboard and 4GB of DDR3. I would be willing to bet that you would also see much lower power consumption.

The Q6600 was a great chip in its day (I had like 3 of them) but nowadays, they cost a lot to operate compared to how much a new, similar performance 2C/4T CPU does (especially if you can use on-die video). I would not use one at this point in a 24x7 server.

It is kinda like when I was looking at my Sun Ultra 10 and SGI O2... very cool machines, but at some point I realized that my x86 machines were faster, used less power, and were easier to maintain.
 
Red Falcon said:
The reason your CPU is sitting at 100% during transcoding is because it is around 7 years old and was a mid-range CPU at the time.
Click to expand...

Regarding this CPU, you are 100% right. That said, depending on the app even a current CPU could get sucked down to 100% at least for a time. Plex Media Server, which I currently have running on a 2.3GHz i5 (which turbos almost a gig faster) hits 100% when transcoding because the server tries to "get ahead" of realtime so it already has the transcoded data should you skip ahead. So while you may not see the CPU at 100% for the entire time of the video, you may see it at 100% for as long as it needs to be.
 
Can't the PS3 read the files natively ? I thought it had a very powerful CPU.

As for upgrading to an X2, you can probably find an used one for a few dozen bucks.
 
Aesma said:
Can't the PS3 read the files natively ? I thought it had a very powerful CPU.

As for upgrading to an X2, you can probably find an used one for a few dozen bucks.
Click to expand...

Depends on the codec, it has nothing to do with the CPU.

Also, upgrading to an X2 on such an old system for anything more that $5 is not worth it.
Also, a few dozen bucks is so not worth an X2 that's 6 years old.
 
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