New Intel Atom S1200 series, with ECC support

[Dale Mahalko]

There's a new CPU available from Intel, just released in mid-December 2012, a 64-bit dual-core Atom processor that can use as little as 6 watts, but also supports ECC, the S1200 line:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/Intel-Atom S1240.html

(Apparently Intel is fighting back against the claim that ARM is more efficient for small-device applications.)



This new processor to me is probably the final puzzle piece for building a truly reliable and energy efficient DIY NAS device.

Combine it with a used hardware SAS RAID controller such as the Dell PERC-6/i (about $150 on eBay), and the WD RED drives (intended for NAS), and you can have a really heavy duty professional grade NAS, with 64-bit, ECC, RAID-6, global hotsparing, automatic hotspare failover, and 72-hr battery-backed RAID cache -- but also very quiet and energy-efficient.



Though it looks like I'm still going to have to wait a while to start an NAS project using the Atom S1200. At this point, manufacturers likely have motherboards for it in testing, but not ready for release yet.

Currently Supermicro's only S1200 based board is the Nano-ITX "X9SBAA-F" which unfortunately has a PCI slot rather than PCI-Express, so I can't use a PERC-6/i card with it.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/5017/SYS-5017A-EF.cfm



Also I'm trying to determine what sort of hardware alerts can be reported from the PERC-6/i when it is not installed in a Dell server. I don't know if RAID drive failures or failover events can be reported by the OS to me, if this RAID card not installed in a Dell.

But still, the future looks bright for extreme energy efficiency with DIY NAS, and all the protection and redundancy bells and whistles of a full-size rackmount power-hungry server.

 

[GregN]

Thanks for pointing this out, I too am interested in emerging MBs

 

[rquared]

Fyi

Thought I'd add to this post as I've been down the road a number of times over the last couple years of running a SOHO NAS. As you posted, power consumption was a key objective of your build. What I encountered was the MB/CPU/RAM was only a small percentage of the overall power. Running an HP P400 RAID controller with 4 1TB drives attached consumed well over 100 watts of electricity. Granted, transfer rates were very fast copying large amounts of data at about 80-90MB/sec. However, the RAID controller itself consumed over 20 watts of electricity and because the RAID controller would not power down drives when not in use, each drive consumed 10 watts continuously. Combine that with the MB accessories and my power consumption was less than desirable. Not to debate which NAS is better/worse I opted for a QNAP 4 drive which will utilize green drives (5 watts each) and power down when not in use. My NAS runs at 15w idle, 35ish under load. My throughput has dropped mind you, (software vs. hardware RAID) but only to about 40MB/sec which is totally acceptable for me. Our household converted to 100% media streaming which we do from the NAS and have never had any issues including when I'm copying large amounts of data to or from the NAS. To give a comparison, I run my entire network rack now at 105w. (cable modem, Cisco ASA 5505, Netgear 5 port gig switch, Asus 16n wifi/router, Cisco 1131 AP, QNAP-4x2TB, Supermicro D525 server with ESXi 4.x running Astaro UTM and misc other VMs, 1500XS APC UPS, I think that's it). ymmv, but thought I'd help if you were considering it for a NAS. I personally can't wait for the Supermicro SYS-5017A-EF to add to my existing D525. Planning on moving all my VM's to it (since it has VT-x) and using the other for my Security Onion security appliance(currently utilizing another atom board for that). Enjoy!