What CPU for Sage Server i5 or i7

[wayner]

I will be building a new Sage server shortly. This server will be running comskip on HD-PVR files and it will be transcoding files for Sage Placeshifter as well as transcoding files for the Sage Mobile web browser or AirVideo to iPads.

Should I go with a faster i5, like a i5 660 that runs at 3.33GHz or a slightly lower i7 870 that runs at 2.93 GHz.

[madpoet]

My i3 does just fine with all of that

[Helheim]

i5 760 is best bang for your buck in my opinion. Quad core instead of dual and twice the cache as the 660 for cheaper!

[wayner]

The i5 760 (2.8GHz) is about the same price as the i5 660 (3.33 GHz). Will it be faster at comskipping and other similar activities with a slower clock speed but more cores?

[Helheim]

Here the 760 is about $40 cheaper. It also has turbo frequencies of 3467 & 3333Mhz. Personally I'd go with more cores and cache if you want to run multiple comskips at the same time as well as recording.

[Bikeman]

One more thing to think about, all i5-6xx series have video built in whereas the i5-7xx series and i7 series do not.

Jeff

[wayner]

Do you need a special mobo for the video feature? Any suggest Asus mobo if that is the case? I was thinking of a P7P55D-E. Is that onboard video good enough to handle H.264 files from the HD-PVR?

[Bikeman]

It needs to have the H or Q57 chipset. Look for a VGA, DVI, DisplayPort or HDMI connection on the motherboard.

Jeff

[Fuzzy]

H55/57 or Q55/57 I believe are required for the on-chip GPU. my i3 based client will playback anything I throw at it flawlessly - never going above about 60% CPU (VC-1 isn't hardware accellerated). It should have NO problem handling serving duties as well.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Bikeman

It needs to have the H or Q57 chipset. Look for a VGA, DVI, DisplayPort or HDMI connection on the motherboard.

It seems like pretty much all of the H mobos are MicroATX. I would prefer a full ATX board since you generally get more slots - and I also need firewire on the mobo or else that will take up another slot.

Any suggestions on an exact motherboard mobo with firewire, at least 6 SATA slots and a full ATX size? I would prefer Asus since I am more familiar with their mobos in the past.

[Fuzzy]

There, in general, aren't many consumer level Full ATX boards at all anymore - most simply don't need them. Consider that most newer boards have most everything on the board, including decent video, and that's just fewer slots needed. That said, Newegg does have 3 different full ATX 1156 boards with HDMI, and at least 6 SATA ports.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138281
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121396
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131624

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

There, in general, aren't many consumer level Full ATX boards at all anymore - most simply don't need them. Consider that most newer boards have most everything on the board, including decent video, and that's just fewer slots needed.

Am I being unreasonable for wanting slots several slots or is this unneeded and should I go with a mATX board?

Certainly I need at least one PCIe X1 card for a tuner and it would be nice to be able to use one or more older tuner cards, like a PVR-150, even if I am just going to hook it to something like a security camera. And it seems like most mATX boards don't have firewire so that will require an additional slot, either PCI or PCIe X1.

[Fuzzy]

I'd say about 50% of boards (mATX or otherwise) include firewire. As for the 150 - that may be a reasonable options - though there are USB tuners as well.

Most full ATX boards only add extra PCI slots - not extra PCIe (of any flavor) - over an mATX board.

Certainly not being 'unreasonable' - and as I pointed out, there ARE full ATX boards available that suit your needs - I was just trying to explain the lower number of boards available.

[KeithAbbott]

Have you considered this mATX motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-263-_-Product

Mine has been working quite well. Although if you need PCI slots, it won't fit the bill, since it only has PCIe.