Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:06:34 -0300 From: "Olivier Gautherot" <olivier@gautherot.net> To: "Mark Powell" <M.S.Powell@salford.ac.uk> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Need motherboard for home fileserver Message-ID: <dcfb161c0710240706i56aa0d59xa22f388abfad0732@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20071024131634.M64075@rust.salford.ac.uk> References: <20071002164246.GA986@hades.panopticon> <20071003003329.GA78359@hades.panopticon> <20071023214838.P57575@rust.salford.ac.uk> <471F1D1B.4090007@gyrec.cz> <20071024131634.M64075@rust.salford.ac.uk>
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Hi Mark! On 10/24/07, Mark Powell <M.S.Powell@salford.ac.uk> wrote: > On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Karel Rous wrote: > > > I think overclocking shoudn't be understood as a feature you pay for. > > Yeah. It's a bonus right? > Some of these budget end cpus are clearly underclocked by the > manufacturer so that they simply have products which satisify ever price > bracket they consider there is a market for. In fact they are often the > same silicon. They re-label, lower their price, cutting into the profit, > but hope to sell more of them [....] It is indeed the same silicon. They test it with the lower-grade first and increase the speed gradually to fill the pending orders. If a part is specified for 1.8GHz for instance, it will never run faster before leaving the factory. That's why you're very likely to be fine at higher speeds but can't complain if the processor smokes :-) > > It's mainly a matter of luck. > > Everything is a matter of luck. You can reduce how much you depend on luck > by doing some research. Isn't that what is performed when any hardware > selection is made? Not in an industrial context. The point is not only **IF** a processor works at higher speed but ***FOR HOW LONG***. If it runs faster, it runs hotter and, therefore, will age faster (we're still missing the right glue to stick the ions in the substrate :-) ). Your server may be fine for 2 years instead of 5 - you won't know in advance. Make sure you have a good air-flow in the chassis and keep the machine in the cellar (or the coolest place in your home). Running slower, in the same conditions, will definitely increase the lifespan. > NB I suggested this only in the context of a home server, where the > financing is coming solely from one individual's pocket. I would not > recommend any of this for a production server e.g. I wouldn't have > recommended that motherboard in the production case, etc. If cost is an issue, you may consider electricity bill too in the balance: you may find that the power consumed by the processor alone would cost you the price of a brand new CPU every year! For a home server, do you really need a fast, dual-core machine? What is the speed of your network? How big is your repository? How many clients do you have? How many hours do you actually use it per day? What apps do you plan to run? My home-based web server and file server runs off a 400MHz, 4W PPC-based motherboard (with Linux, shame on me :-) ). As was mentioned before, VIA has great boards with low power consumption (below 20W), which could probably fulfill your needs. They are relatively cheap too. I've been using one happily for the last couple of years, doing some occasional, heavy stuff (like "make buidlworld installworld" ... although I would not do it every day :-) ) Building OpenOffice, for instance, takes 2 days (my other Athlon does it in less than 8 hours...) On the other hand, I can have the VIA board running day and night for a week without sensitive increase of the electricity bill. If I run the Athlon for 3 days in a row, my wife starts complaining about the cost... My cent worth :-) Have a nice day -- Olivier Gautherot olivier@gautherot.net www.gautherot.net
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