Topic: Anyone using an Intel Atom based setup?

[purpaboo]

I'm looking at running 7.4 on an Atom based setup, and wondering whether there's any gotchas.

The processor seems more than powerful enough (I currently run most of my SME boxes on pentium IIs!) and should save a bit on electricity bills.

Anyone?

[gzartman]

I'm looking at running 7.4 on an Atom based setup, and wondering whether there's any gotchas.

The Atom processor supports mainstream i686, so you shouldn't see any issues from SME.

You do know that the Atom processor was designed for mobile and, especially, ultra-mobile PCs don't you?  Why waste the extra money on an Atom processor when you can get a higher powered Core-2 Duo CPU for the same price.

You aren't going to see any noticeable difference in your electric bill by using an Atom processor.   These processors were meant to go into machines with many other power saving features, which a server/workstation does not have.   Unless someone gave this processor to you, you are really wasting your time considering it for a server application.

[purpaboo]

Hi

Thanks for the confirmation that the Atom should be okay.

I sense a bit of angst in your response though! Did you have a bad day yesterday? 

As I said, I am going for the Atom as it is low powered (as I said, most of my other setups are pentium II based, which is more than enough for my circumstances). I neglected to mention that it is also cheap (£49 for mobo, chip and RAM), small (mini-ITX - 17cm x 17cm), quiet, and it's going in an old hi-fi separate case so it doesn't look out of place in a living room.

I would do a Core-2 Duo CPU if I could find a similar barebones set-up for a similar price.

Again, thanks for the help.

[gzartman]

Nope, no angst what so ever.

Just giving you some food for thought.

[purpaboo]

Cool. Angst is generally a bad thing.

The Atom has a TDP of 4W, and the Core 2 somewhere between 35W and 80W. Maybe 19W if you're running a Celeron version.

Considering this will be running with a 2.5" drive, I think the power savings should be considerable over the estimated lifetime (3 years) of the machine.

[OzMoosis]

Hi Purpaboo,

I've just installed SME 7.4 on an Intel D945GCLF board, which has an Atom 230. The board works fine, but are a few minor points:

SME doesn't support the onboard LAN. ( A lot of Linux versions don't.... ). I disabled the LAN in the BIOS and added a 3Com PCI LAN-card.
I didn't have a 2,5" SATA harddisk at time of installation, I'm testing with a 3,5" PATA disk, so I'm not sure that SATA works with SME.
The 60 Watt PSU supplied with my case wasn't powerful enough to boot with a CD-ROM drive attached, I had to power the CD-ROM from the PSU in another PC. Once SME is installed of course the CD isn't needed anymore, so that's not a big issue either.
When you select a PSU, make sure it has a 12V 2x2 connector, this board needs it.

This Intel board isn't passively cooled, there's a fan on the Northbridge chip (not on the Atom!), but maybe that can be replaced by a passive cooler. That would keep it even quieter. I think you will need a small fan in your case, just to be safe.

I have the same desire as yourself, to have a small, quiet, energy efficient server for home use. Price for the components I used is about EURO 200, roughly $ 250,-.

Hope this helps,

Marcel

[purpaboo]

Ah thanks. Now that IS helpful info!

Here's some possibly helpful info in return.

A list of gotchas for installing Linux on these Atom boards:

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d945gclf/sb/CS-029475.htm

Some BIOS updates:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2916&OSFullName=Linux*&lang=eng&strOSs=39&submit=Go!

Linux LAN drivers for the crappy Realtek NIC:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2916&DwnldID=16242&strOSs=39&OSFullname=Linux*&lang=eng

HTH

[OzMoosis]

Thanks for the links, I'll check out the BIOS updates.

I won't try to install the LAN drivers, though. There are some other forum threads about this, ( http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,41413.0.html) and it's apparent that installing extra drivers isn't easy and only works until the next SME kernel update. Too much hassle for me!

Hopefully SME 8 will include the drivers.

Marcel

[kevinb]

Please forgive me if I ruffle any feathers here but ….. from the research I have done it does not appear the Atom chip would be a good solution for any application except a dedicated personal device (PDA, Phone, etc).

It appears that the Atom chip, when combined with the current chipsets consumes about the same amount of power at idle as a Core 2 or Athlon system. Furthermore, under load the Atom chip has a significantly poorer performance-to-power ratio than the other two chips.

So at idle the Atom uses the same amount of power and under load it is slower and using more power to get the same task done.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-atom-efficiency,2069-13.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Athlon-Atom-Nano-power,2036-13.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997-14.html

[m]

If appears that the Atom chip, when combined with the current chipsets consumes about the same amount of power at idle as a Core 2 or Athlon system.

that's true, TDP is 4 W per CPU core plus 25 W chipset.
The new Kontron motherboard promises much better values: 5W for Z510 CPU+Chipset
http://de.kontron.com/unternehmen/news-events/kontron+miniitx+motherboard+mit+intel+atom+prozessor.2870.html

[p-jones]

I have just installed SME (7.3) on the Gigabyte ATOM board GA-GC230D. The only gotcha that I encountered was the NIC was not recognised. Realtek 8101 Gigabit NIC

I upgraded to 7.4 and the new kernel recognised the NIC and it is all working just fine. I wold not expect an issue starting from scratch with the 7.4 ISO.

Quite happy with it but it is still not a snappy as a Dual Core P2. Limitations are the 2Gb Memory and just the one PCI slot. Inexpensive cases are scarce but they go into a Micro ATX case OK. As you correctly state, they are very cheap and very capable for a small home network or a small business network that is not being asjed to work too hard.

Must say, in my case, Power Consumption was not my primary consideration.

[OzMoosis]

Hi Purpaboo,

how did you get on with your search for a mini-itx server? My Intel D945GCLF setup has been running for a few weeks now. Installing SME to a Samsung 2,5" sataII HD was no no problem. It consumes about 27W on average, compared to 75W for my old p4 server, but is noticeably a little bit slower. I replaced the stock chipset fan with a quieter one from Scythe. It is happily humming away screwed to the wall in my hallway cupboard.

I like the Atom so much I'm considering buying a Shuttle x27d, which has an Atom 330, to replace my desktop PC...

Marcel

[purpaboo]

Hi OzMoosis

I still haven't taken the plunge. I'm waiting for the dual-core Atom board with lower power consumption. I think they're due out in 2 or 3 months from now.

Glad to hear your setup is working smoothly.

[yersin]

Hi, I hope I'm asking for help in the right forum topic. I've tried to virtualize Sme server 7.4 in a Acer Aspire One, which comes with an Intel Atom N270 processor, under Virtualbox, but found an error while installing: "there was error installing kernel-smp ..." Is it due to the processor? I've tried to install using both options as sme and smei586. What's wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[p1ur]

Hi
I have a running sme 7.4 server/gateway at home. It runs on a board from MSI: IM-945GSE with a intel atom N270, 2 Gb RAM and 2 lan Gigabit Ethernet Intel 82574L.
There was no problem installing SME 7.4, but the 2 NIC's gave me a headache (http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,33103.0.html)
They are up and running now, but I wont recommend this road.
I have had problems installing with certain BIOS setting (cant remember which, but it could be Hyper Threading Technology or ACPI)

P1ur