I bought this little microserver couple of weeks ago for data storage and want it to have some load so that it's not just idling all the time. I've been looking at the GT430 and GT520 (both 1 and 2GB 520s) and cannot decide which one to use there. The server has an OEM 150W power supply. I can use only half-height single slot models. The server also houses 5 HDDs.
Could you guys help me decide on the card?

There are two 430 models - newer black one and older green one. Right now I can only find the green one where I live.
Links:
[url=http://eu.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1430-EL&pwindow=specs&family=GeForce 400 Series Family]EVGA GT430 01G-P3-1430-EL (green one)[/url]
[url=http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1433-KR&family=GeForce 400 Series Family]EVGA GT430 1GB 01G-P3-1433 (black one)[/url]
[url=http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1525-KR&family=GeForce 500 Series Family]EVGA GT520 1GB 01G-P3-1525-KR[/url]
[url=http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=02G-P3-1529-KR&family=GeForce 500 Series Family]EVGA GT520 2GB 02G-P3-1529-KR[/url]

UPDATE: Huh, EU site lists more models but can only get the ones I mentioned. Tried to make links clickable, but did not succeed.

It depends what you want to achieve. The GT430 has 96 shader cores, and the GT520 has 48 shader cores. That means that the 430 should achieve greater SETI throughput, but - since it's older technology - at the expense of higher power consumption and hence higher heat dissipation. I'm not familiar with the HP microserver range, but with 5 HDDs in there, and the graphics card in low-profile format, heat is going to be an issue.

White-space is not a valid part of an address - replace the spaces with '%20' to get the links working.

The GT 430 has twice as many cores as the GT 520 - even though it's a generation behind, it still has more processing power than the GT 520.

Edit: Ah, looks like Richard replied first.

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Soli Deo Gloria

The Microserver is very much a fixed spec machine. Before adding a GPU check the power requirements and the PSU, you may hit a wall there as I think its about 150W-200W in a non-standard package :-(

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

With only a 150 watt power supply, I would think you would run into trouble with any GPU. You certainly wouldn't have much, if any head room. That could cause a lot of errors, and system stability problems.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

With only a 150 watt power supply, I would think you would run into trouble with any GPU. You certainly wouldn't have much, if any head room. That could cause a lot of errors, and system stability problems.

Steve

Yes, that 150 watt power supply is going to be a problem, and that machine already has FIVE hard drives.

I think you should not add in a discreet graphics card.

I bought this little microserver couple of weeks ago for data storage and want it to have some load so that it's not just idling all the time. I've been looking at the GT430 and GT520 (both 1 and 2GB 520s) and cannot decide which one to use there. The server has an OEM 150W power supply. I can use only half-height single slot models. The server also houses 5 HDDs.
Could you guys help me decide on the card?

There are two 430 models - newer black one and older green one. Right now I can only find the green one where I live.
Links:
EVGA GT430 01G-P3-1430-EL (green one)
EVGA GT430 1GB 01G-P3-1433 (black one)
EVGA GT520 1GB 01G-P3-1525-KR
EVGA GT520 2GB 02G-P3-1529-KR

UPDATE: Huh, EU site lists more models but can only get the ones I mentioned. Tried to make links clickable, but did not succeed.

They can never be bothered to give us ACTUAL power requirements for these things, but he TDP for for the 430 cars is 50-60w & the TDP for the 520 is ~30w. From that point of view I would opt for the 520. Then the question just becomes do you want 1GB or 2GB. If the cost if not a lot more I'd opt for the 2GB myself, but the 1GB card should be fine for S@H.

As this is a "microserver" are these 2.5" drives? They are generally 2.5w each. Where the 3.5" drives could be up in the 10-15w range each. Is this the Atom 330 based machine in your current list of computers?

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All the drive bays are 3.5in

It frightening how quickly power adds up:
~50-75w for the hard disks
~15w for the cd/dvd
~15w for the processor
?? for the memory
?? for the chipset
?? for the usb controller (on board)
?? for the ethernet controller (on board)
I'd shoot a guess at 120-130 are already spoken for, so be careful, very careful in adding a gpu.

Then there's the space - the HP microserver has two half height, half length slots, so its a tight box with little scope for decent cooling air over the cards - even for 20-30w...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The best way to work out what your system is using is to get a kilowatt meter,
like one of these http://www.amazon.com/Arbor-Scientific-P4400-Kill-Meter/dp/B001JHGY2Q
they are available for just about any plug/socket for any country.
They all look much the same, and don`t cost much. a lot less than a burnt psu . . .

That will only tell you how much power is being consumed by the PSU "at the wall", not what is available on each of the DC lines within the computer. A PSU with a soft 12v rail might look as its well inside its limits from the outside, but internally its over the limit.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I bought this little microserver couple of weeks ago for data storage and want it to have some load so that it's not just idling all the time. I've been looking at the GT430 and GT520 (both 1 and 2GB 520s) and cannot decide which one to use there. The server has an OEM 150W power supply. I can use only half-height single slot models. The server also houses 5 HDDs.
Could you guys help me decide on the card?

It depends what you want to achieve. The GT430 has 96 shader cores, and the GT520 has 48 shader cores. That means that the 430 should achieve greater SETI throughput, but - since it's older technology - at the expense of higher power consumption and hence higher heat dissipation. I'm not familiar with the HP microserver range, but with 5 HDDs in there, and the graphics card in low-profile format, heat is going to be an issue.

The best way to work out what your system is using is to get a kilowatt meter,
like one of these http://www.amazon.com/Arbor-Scientific-P4400-Kill-Meter/dp/B001JHGY2Q
they are available for just about any plug/socket for any country.
They all look much the same, and don`t cost much. a lot less than a burnt psu . . .

You've little room, Watt wize, and probably 1 +12V rail, capable of 8 to 10Amps
would be needed, depending which card you'll choose.
I'll doub if a 150Watt PSU has enough head-room for this.

A Kill-a- Watt certainly is worth every penny . Besides the PSU mostly has
info written on it. Most of them have protection against shortcut, overload (Amps) and Voltage (drop; +/-2 to 10%), depending on type and size.

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I've been looking at the review for both models and the 430 beats 520 in terms of performance, but 520 is more power supply friendly (although with a performance hit).
As for the cooling, there is a single 120mm high-CFM PWM fan which actually does pull a very decent amount of air through the fully loaded server.
It can actually hold only 4 HDDs, the 5th one is in the 5.25" bay (OS disk which doesn't need to be removed anyway).
The OS drive is a 250gb 7200rpm Seagate that came with the server. Sounds like a jet engine and will probably be replaced by something less annoying in the future.
The reason why I want a dedicated gpu in there is to have some load during extended periods of idle (during the day) and free cpu for VMs. The onboard gpu (ATI Mobility Radeon 4200) is not enough for that.

As rob smith wrote, the drives are all 3.5". I'm using the Western Digital WD20EARS Green drives, so the 50-75W estimate is a bit much. Ran 3 of them on the Atom machine powered by a 90W notebook adapter (a normal desktop machine) and had no issues at all.
The Atom machine in my list is my HTPC/Test machine, currently used as a temporary home server until I get the network in order. The board in there is the Asus AT3IONT-I Deluxe model (if anyone cares).
The server is AMD+ATI box.

The hardware in the server is pretty much notebook class stuff. And there is no DVD drive in mine.
To get an idea of power draw "at the wall" with ESXi (I'm using windows) HP MicroServer Power Consumption Video.
I've seen people putting ATI Radeon HD5450 in it, however don't know the exact config of the server (PSU, disks, etc.). There are some models with 200W PSUs available, though those come with the fully loaded servers, i.e. disk + dvd drive.
Guess I'm going to have to get a power meter to at least get some rough values.

Thanks for pointing out the error in the links, but it won't let me edit the original post anymore.

Thanks for pointing out the error in the links, but it won't let me edit the original post anymore.

So you know. You only get 1 Hr to edit a post here.

The WDC green drives normally run the the 5-7w range depending on the number of platters. I have been using an older 1TB model for the past several years.

My machine that uses a mobile Core 2 Duo draws about 40-50w running S@H full tilt. It only has 1 2.5" SATA drive in it, but the TDP of the Atom is about 25% of my C2D. So you are probably running near the same or more than likely less than I am right now. Also the HD5450 is about a 20w card.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

The Microserver is very much a fixed spec machine. Before adding a GPU check the power requirements and the PSU, you may hit a wall there as I think its about 150W-200W in a non-standard package :-(

I have seen the power draw for the older PCI (not express) version of the GT430 (96 shaders and 512MB DDR2 RAM) is quoted as 69W under load.

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It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

Thanks for pointing out the error in the links, but it won't let me edit the original post anymore.

So you know. You only get 1 Hr to edit a post here.

The WDC green drives normally run the the 5-7w range depending on the number of platters. I have been using an older 1TB model for the past several years.

My machine that uses a mobile Core 2 Duo draws about 40-50w running S@H full tilt. It only has 1 2.5" SATA drive in it, but the TDP of the Atom is about 25% of my C2D. So you are probably running near the same or more than likely less than I am right now. Also the HD5450 is about a 20w card.

Guess I'll have to get friendly with this system and check my posts from now on :)

That's why I chose the Green drives. They offer pretty good performance and low power consumption. Ideal for file servers.
Again, the Atom machine is not the Microserver. Microserver is AMD+ATI box. The power draw is a bit higher than the Atom machine.
I looked at the HD5450 a while ago but all of the available ones have dual-slot coolers (so no go). Plus more projects use CUDA rather than ATI Stream.

The Microserver is very much a fixed spec machine. Before adding a GPU check the power requirements and the PSU, you may hit a wall there as I think its about 150W-200W in a non-standard package :-(

I have seen the power draw for the older PCI (not express) version of the GT430 (96 shaders and 512MB DDR2 RAM) is quoted as 69W under load.

I just realized I have an 800W power supply lying around. Think that might be enough? :D
I don't want to mod the server as it's still new (got it 2 weeks ago) and under warranty. Just some small upgrades, like RAM and this GPU. But I guess I need to check the 150W PSU.

Just looked at youtube vids on that microserver

HP Microserver + HD5450
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrUWoH7LDRE&feature=related

and

HP MicroServer Power Consumption Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zbjGywEkTA&feature=related

FYI

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