Automation Software horsepower

[royalj7]

I was wondering if any of the folks running CQC or Mainlobby are running the server portions on a Intel Atom processor rig? I'm looking at the Ion platform and while it looks perfect for what I want, I don't want my touchscreen pages taking 30 seconds to load or update. Just wanted to get peoples experience.

--Jamie

 

[IVB]

are you looking at it for the server or the client? I don't have it either, but it would be interesting to see both perspectives.

I know CQC needs darn little to run, but i wonder exactly how little is darn little given that it is network-distributed but centrally managed.

 

[Waynedb]

You might want to consider this board if you want a single core Atom, 6 RS-232 ports, 6 USB and dual gigabit Lan.
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9830

I am not running CQC or Main Lobby but I do use a dual core Atom for my Home Automation Server, much faster than my old Via C3.
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832

 

[royalj7]

Yea, I guess I'm where alot of folks are/have been. I'm looking to drive some touchscreens, probably running CQC, and I want something 1) that's low power, 2) Inexpensive, 3) fast enough to run the home automation software. There are lots of options but I have no experience with hybrid/net computers, so I don't know what is fast enough. There is:

1. The MSI board Wayne pointed out - Pros: Has lots of serial ports, low power. Cons: needs a hd, ram, case, and OS. Approx cost* ~ $167+35+22+38+90 = $352
2. HP HP t5720 - Pros: Comes with OS, low power, don't need all the above things. Cons: I would assume the Geode processor is the slowest one I'll be considering, limited memory and HD space. Approx cost ~ $120
3. MSI Wind - Pros: low power, comes with case. Cons: Needs hd, ram, and OS. Approx cost ~ $135+35+22+90 = $282
4. Roll my own - Pros: Will be the fastest system here, total control over components. Cons: Not as low power, more work for me. Approx cost** $80+35+22+43+90 = $270
5. Netbook - Pros: It has everything, no need to add or build it. Cons: More like questions...can CQC and/or Mainlobby run on XP Home? Can laptops/nettops run while the screen is closed? Approx cost $350

What do you all think?

--Jamie

*All from Newegg except the actually board/cpu. 80 gig hard drive, 2 gigs ram, cheapest uITX case and power supply, XP Pro
** All from Newegg. micro ATX board with AMD Sempron LE-1300 cpu, 80 gig hard drive, 2 gigs ram, cheapest micro ATX case and power supply, XP Pro

 

[IVB]

5. Netbook - Pros: It has everything, no need to add or build it. Cons: More like questions...can CQC and/or Mainlobby run on XP Home? Can laptops/nettops run while the screen is closed? Approx cost $350

Until recently, my whole setup was on XPHome.

For laptops, if you have the CQC service running, then closing the screen has no effect - it'll prevent it from going into standby.

 

[DavidL]

for smaller setups, the Atom works fine for MLServer and CQCServer.

 

[forgets]

i've actually had a system like this in place for about 6 months now, mine is a jetway fanless (1.2ghz) almost all the same specs, 6 serial ports and all. They work great for running home automation programs within reason.. i've tried both cqc and mainlobby on mine, but when loaded up with rules, and having it communicate through all the serial ports at one time, and sending out info to 2 touchscreens and playing 3 simultaneous music streams it tended to get bogged down. I remedied that by running a lighter client, j9 automation engine, which is only about 6mb in size, and stripping windows down a lot, removing non essential services and the like. I also scaled back a lot of the fancy graphics on the touch screens.. and now it's zipping along. I found the cases for lots of mini-itx systems exhorbitant, so i just mounted it in a spare 14" can i put in the wall with some elk plastic standoffs. I'd highly recommend a fanless system, since they make no noise whatsoever, that coupled with a solid state hard drive means you'll never even hear it.

My system also has such low power draw i set it up with a 30 watt solar panel, charger, and battery, and it runs free of cost 24 X 7 with no increase in my electric bill.

 

[elcano]

It all depends on how much horsepower do you need. I have actually used my NSLU2 based NAS to run a Python script polling my M1G. Not much, but it is possible. At 5W for the entire system, it is very power efficient.

Like you, I'm also looking to build an scalable Atom based replacement for the NSLU2 (using linux or a BSD variant). My idea was fanless, single CPU motherboard with 4 SATA ports and enough PCIe capacity to add another 4 port SATA card in the future. Having 2 Gb Ethernet ports and/or more than one PCIe slot would be a plus. I think that I found something some time ago, but it was an industrial design (very expensive). I also have problem with the available Intel chipsets. Even that the CPU is power saving the chipsets are not. The ION chipset was designed with the purpose of enhancing graphics (at low power, I agree), but even if it is better than the Intel chipset, it would be using power on graphics hardware to drive a headless NAS - so it does not makes much sense.

Aren't Atom processors just perfect for running lightweight NAS servers? What else have you seen? Are new lower power chipsets in the near horizon?

Edited: Just noticed that the MSI-9832 a Logic Supply meets pretty well my need. Is this the original Intel chipset? I'm not sure if this was the industrial design that I found earlier.

 

[royalj7]

My system also has such low power draw i set it up with a 30 watt solar panel, charger, and battery, and it runs free of cost 24 X 7 with no increase in my electric bill.

I would love to see some pictures of this setup forgets. I live on a shaded lot in a residential neighborhood, so my dreams of power independence and sticking it to the "man", in this case the power company, are really just paranoid pipe dreams, but a small setup like your's would allow me to tinker around and maybe take one or two systems off my grid.

Thanks,
--Jamie

 

[Waynedb]

Edited: Just noticed that the MSI-9832 a Logic Supply meets pretty well my need. Is this the original Intel chipset? I'm not sure if this was the industrial design that I found earlier.

The MS-9832 at Logic supply has the less efficient chipset vs. the MS-9830, I have a fanless MSi-9832 but I see they added a fan to the chipset now.
The Atom n270 based cpu on the MSi-9830 board has a TDP of 2.5 watts vs. 8 watts for the Dual core Atom330 base MSI-9832 board.
The MSI-9830 manual list the power draw for a complete PC at 11.94 watts when running 3Dmark 2006 vs. about 26 watts for the MSI-9832.

By the way the Logic Supply names won't bring up as many web hits as using the MSI names so here are the actual MSI names, MS-9830 is a MSI Industrial IM-945GSE-A and the MS-9832 is a MSI Industrial IM-945GC motherboard.

The z5XX series Atoms are more efficient but I don't know where to get a motherboard using it that has all the conectivity I want.

I found this link that has power draw info on Atom processors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel...microprocessors

 

[royalj7]

So, doing some more research on my options (cause we all know while doing research you can put off actually committing and spending that ungodly amount of money) looking mainly at power efficiency and performance. The costs for each option are all pretty close to each other, and if I can save buck I’m going to jump on it, but I only plan on having one touch screen now, two max in the future, so cost isn’t my number one concern.

So, for option 4 (roll my own), I can expect around 35W idle and 80W full load using a AMD 4050e cpu based on some work Tom’s Hardware did with a similar processor http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon...wer,2259-7.html.

For the MSI Wind I’m looking at 28/36W based on a similar system Tom’s tested. I believe it would be very similar for the MS-9830 Wayne had mentioned. Based on this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dual-c...30,2141-11.html , I see no reason to get the dual core Atom over the single core.

From what I can tell, I’m looking at 12-15W idle for the netbooks, depending on which brand. That is with the screen on, so from wikipedia’s entry about the acer aspire, the screen is 3W, so I’m looking at 12W, pretty low. At full load it goes up to 36 or 59W depending on which source I believe. I’ve seen both numbers out for the Acer Aspire, but I expect with the screen closed the numbers would again be a bit lower.

I couldn’t find any numbers on the T5720. Has anyone that owns one put it on a kill-a-watt meter to check power consumption?

Sooo, after all that blathering, I’ve narrowed it down to rolling my own uATX system or a netbook like the acer or one of the Eee's.