Sage server upgrade to Xeon, client help.

[mleonard]

Very soon I will be upgrading my home server which runs SageTV as it’s primary task. My current AMD Athlon XP 3000+ system can’t keep up with what I would like it to do. Some of the tasks it will run will be….

- SageTV (recording 2 HD OTA streams via HDHomeRun and 2 cable TV SD streams via PCI capture).
- Commercial skipping (for all 4 streams)
- SageTV streaming to up to 2 clients
- Replay AV (recording radio and internet streams)
- File & backup server
- RealVNC (monitor/keyboard/mouse over intranet)
- Microsoft Exchange server? (would be nice down the road…)

I also have a Workstation system for 3D illustration, graphics, and other fancy stuff. It runs on (2x) Xeon 5130 CPUs. I’m thinking if I get a server with the same dual Xeon chipset, I can make the most of my money when I upgrade the Workstation CPUs and moving the old chips to the server. Following is the hardware I’ve spec’d for the new server:

- Motherboard - Supermicro X7DVL-E-O - 500V Chipset, Dual Socket 771 Intel 5000V ATX Server Motherboard - Retail
- CPU - Intel (1x) Xeon 5110 - Woodcrest 1.6GHz 4M shared L2 Cache Socket 771 Active or 1U Processor - Retail
- Memory - Kingston N82E16820134330 - 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 FB-DIMM ECC Fully Buffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Server Memory - Retail
- Power Supply - Supermicro PWS-0060 - SUPERMICRO PWS-0060 600W P4 XEON REDUNDANT COOLING POWER SUPPLY

With this upgrade, I will have my old server to use as a Sage Client for my 40" 1080p Samsung LCD. I only need this to run the Sage Client and stream video to the display from the server, without any extra's like DVD. Here's what that system will look like:

- Motherboard - Abit AN7 - nForce™2 Ultra 400-based, 400MHz FSB, Dual DDR400 support, SATA PCI Controller, 2 channels SATA 150 RAID 0/1, AGP 8X/4X (0.8V/1.5V), AMD-K7 Socket A 266/333/400MHz FSB Processor
- CPU - AMD Athhlon XP 3000+ - 2.09 GHz
- Memory - Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO - 2x512mb, 2 x 184 DIMMs, Dual Channel, DDR400, 2-3-3-6, XMS3200 speed, XMS Pro Series
- Video Card - ATI FireGL X1-128 - (128 MB) AGP Graphic Card: mid-range workstation graphics accelerator

This system too was once a graphics Workstation so I hope it handles streaming well. Please let me know how these 2 systems will hold up what I'm asking. I'm especially concerned about the server load recording & scanning for commercials. While on the client, I hope the AGP video card can handle the HD video streams. Thanks for you help.

Michael

[GKusnick]

I'm not familiar with the FireGL card, but if it's more than a couple of years old I wouldn't count on smooth HD playback from it.

Also I would not recommend using your Sage server as a file/backup server or Exchange server. Those types of usage have spiky demand patterns that might interfere with smooth recording and playback. I'd put all that other stuff on a separate box with its own disk system and network interface. If the Exchange server isn't mandatory, an inexpensive NAS device could cover your file server and backup needs without competing with Sage for system resources.