tv server only:mobo/OS that sleeps properly (1 Viewer)

[iancalderban]

built a MP1.0.0 rig 1.5 years ago, its been stable ever since. . I've never upgraded my MP build (never needed to - is this some record?) and it never misses recordings.

my main htpc box sleeps when I'm not watching tv. I did try to get sleep working on the server, but it was totally unreliable - failure to wake up, failure to record after waking up, etc, so I run my tv server 24/7. in the effort to be green, I'd like to revisit this.

I completely still want seperate tv server and client - I run multiple clients including laptops, and frequently upgrade the OS on clients, and like the ability to be able to reboot a client at will if a gfx driver or codec crashes and leaves me with black (or blue) screen. so I am thinking new mobo for the server, to support a lower power CPU, and try to get it to sleep nicely.

I am asking for recommendations of low-power motherboards (and OS, and any sleep management apps) that sleep and wakeup nicely when being used purely for TV server. I run with a couple of DVB-S and DVB-T cards so micro-ATX minimum size. AMD preferred, but will look at intel.

thanks
Ian

 

[dm15644]

AW: tv server only:mobo/OS that sleeps properly

I'm using a 3 year old system as a server, runs fine:

Asus M2A-VM
Athlon 3800+
TV MSI TV@everywhere E-Duo DVB-T PCI

Since I'm using the machine also to store and backup all kind of data, I'm running MS WHS. It's not officially supported by MP, but there's a lot of threads in the forum to make it work and it's rather easy. You can download an evaluation copy from MS and see if it works for you. There's an add-in called LightsOut which will do the standby job for you.

Previously I had XP, Vista and Windows 7 on the TV sever. My experience is that Windows 7 worked best with respect to standby. XP was also ok and the fastest boot. Vista didn't have any particular advantages.

Previously I also had a Happauge Nova-T 500 TV card. Lots of standby issues in XP and also Vista, ok in Windows 7. I got rid of the card in the end and replaced it with the a.m. MSI. Serveral people in AVS forum say that PCI does not work properly with S3, so I'd recommend to look for PCI-E TV cards. For me at least it worked when I got the MSI TV card instead of the Happauge.

Oh, fyi my system idles at ~55W. I'm running Cool&Quiet, that's all for power saving.

Cheers,
jayrock