Thanks Mark, I've been thinking actually about the ammount of wasted "grunt" I'd have in my server, but the cost savings from recycling existing parts make it worth it.
That said, I was thinking about ways to better use the extra computing power and heres a reply I gave in the DIY forum to a similar question I posed about the Hardware of my server (rather than the OS for Squeezecentre) ...from another thread: I've been thinking of other uses for my server to make it more "value for money", thinking it was hard to justify a core 2 Duo/2gb ram for just streaming FLAC over the network. No, I've hit upon the idea of taking advantage of havng multiple networked computers and I will set up a home "render farm" for my 3D animation work. This will spead the work over two computers and speed up final rendering a lot. Hopefully no more 3am panic before deadlines! I might even pump 4GB into the server, as this will help with rendering calcs in After Effects and Lightwave. The second PC would be called into "render mode" (in other words overclocked etc) only occasionally, and would run as a low power-drain music server most of the time. It would have the horsepower though to be a powerful render node when needed to be. For power savings I would have the CPU underclocked (the Core2Duo runs about 60Watts full tilt I think, underclocked would be less than that), basically running the PC in "silent running" just ticking over. No fancy schmancy power hungry graphics cards or anything, just onboard Lan and graphics, 1TB hard drive (A Samsung one known for low power consumption) Also, I'm going to use an "80+" power supply - 380watts - which is designed to be 80% or more efficient, runs cool and quiet and uses less power as none is lost through heat. It'll only draw what it needs and do it efficiently. Over time the savings in the leccy bill should mount up. I'll switch it off at night too, just fire it up in the morning, or when I get in from work at night, whatever. So a combination of different things to help run a comparetivly low power PC I guess, rather than a "one-stop" solution like running a NAS or whatever. Thinking about it recently, the benefts a 2nd PC could bring me in my work is more than just a Squeezeserver, so its justified. Thinking about it now, I could also use my Main PC as a backup for my FLACS, save even more money than buying a second hard drive for backup! -- Gazjam ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gazjam's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18604 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=50310 _______________________________________________ unix mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/unix
