Fit-PC 2 Discussion

Yes, you are advised to run no more than 2 notebook external HDDs without external power from the Fit.
For some reference the Sony DVD burner's power pack that I mentioned shows 5.2 volt & 2000mA output max, so the burner would be out.

 

Hmm.. can't seem to see the spin down value in there? Any ideas:

Code:

/dev/sda:

 Model=WDC WD5000BEVT-00A03T0                  , FwRev=01.01A01, SerialNo=     WD-xxx
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=976773168
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4 
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6 
 AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

 

Yes I see what you are saying, it's coming up as unknown setting.
I tried manually querying with -B and no value which normally sends a "get" but it doesn't work on this parameter it seems. You may just have to set a value manually, the unknown setting may be half the problem. Try 255 first to see if it fixes it, then choose something from 1 to 127 which suits. Please post how you get on.

Some quick info to let you (and others) know what the -B sets:
-B Set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive supports it. A low value means aggressive power management and a high value means better performance. Possible settings range from values 1 through 127 (which per‐
mit spin-down), and values 128 through 254 (which do not permit spin-down). The highest degree of power management is attained with a setting of 1, and the highest I/O performance with a setting of 254. A value of
255 tells hdparm to disable Advanced Power Management altogether on the drive (not all drives support disabling it, but most do).

 

Ok, setting it seems to say it worked:

Code:

~$ sudo hdparm -B255 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled

But querying it afterwards, it still says "unknown".. However, with this setting it definitely seems to have stopped the noise. Not sure if I want to leave it like this though.

After trying that I came across this thread on the ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=939888

Which says to use the capital "I" option and it seems to give you the correct results:

Code:

toe2toe@grolsch:~$ sudo hdparm -B 127 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to 0x7f (127)

toe2toe@grolsch:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep level
Advanced power management level: 127

toe2toe@grolsch:~$ sudo hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled

toe2toe@grolsch:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep level
Advanced power management level: disabled

I can always reboot and see what it was using as the default.

edit: rebooted and it's still disabled so I guess it keeps this setting? I would've thought it would revert to defaults unless I specifically turned off power management via editing /etc/hdparm.conf

 

First off sorry to be a numb nut but can this sucker be a backend MythTV backend with an HDTV USB stick. I can see it has limiatitions in certain areas. Gets bad idea of running a SAS PCI card for mini server. Waits for OCAU to eat me alive

 

http://ht.com.au/part/W6417-Shintar...ve-DVDRW-R-DL-DVD-RAM-USB-external/detail.hts

What about something like this?

 

Yes it can, I've tried it briefly with a Asus U3100 mini tuner.

Looks alright as it's designed to be run off USB power - but doesn't detail any wattage.

5 volts and 500mA per port is STD usb output, which is what the Fit does so you can only assume it should.

 

Problems!

Getting garbage trying to play a 720p MKV
http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=722

 

How did you get on?
Mine played Big Buck Bunny (you know I'd choose that one....) perfectly, once setup right.

 

Power consumption tests

I finally got some new batteries for my power tester on the weekend and took some measurements tonight. The tester is one of these Jaycar units. I'm not entirely sure about the accuracy of it, particularly at low power draw, but here are my results:

Idle: 9-10W
Load: 10-12W
Lowest measurement during testing: 7W
Peak measurement during testing: 15W
Standby - 0W

Here's an image showing the typical idle power draw:


Click to view full size!

Load was tested by running the following command:

Code:

(while true; do true; done) & (while true; do true; done) & ( while true; do find / -type f -exec cp {} /dev/null \; ; done ) &

Interestingly, the lowest measurement was seen during the load test (which makes me doubt the accuracy of the meter) as it would mostly jump between 10 and 12W but briefly drop to 7W occasionally. During idle periods it would stay steady on 9 or 10W. The peak measurement of 15W must have only been a one off spike as I never saw it get this high while I was watching the meter, 12W was the typical high water mark. With the unit powered off it draws no power at all which is good to know, but when are you going to switch it off?

I'm fairly happy with these results, keeping in mind that the 6W figure mentioned on the Fit-PC2 website is talking about power draw of the system itself and doesn't take into account inefficiencies in the power brick. According to this thread on the Fit-PC2 forums the power brick is supposed to be over 80% efficient though.

Perhaps somebody can do some more accurate testing with a multimeter or something?

 

Are those results for a system with a HDD, SSD or something else?

 

Those figures look spot on for a complete system (keyboard and optical mouse) with 500gb hdd under Ubuntu Linux. Mine gets 9 to 12 watts also.

I believe you get a tad better with it running Windows XP . That last comment of mine is crap after testing today. Windows XP and Win 7 and Ubuntu Jaunty all use the same 9 to 12 watts for fitpc2 + WD500 blue + keyboard & mouse + 8Gb USB stick + both wired and wireless networks.

 

It's got a 500GB WD Scorpio blue drive in it.

Except that it's not a complete system, no keyboard or mouse attached.. just the power cable and a network cable.

 

Hard drive temp

Here's a graph of my hard drive temperature as well:


Click to view full size!

The system is fairly lightly used so the hard drive is sitting idle most of the time. The gap yesterday is when I had it off for the power consumption testing. You can see the increase to 37 deg while I had the bash loop running.

 

Try cpuburn instead?

Code:

sudo apt-get install cpuburn

Code:

burnP6

I want one of these things... what's the total system cost for you guys and how are your various OSes running now you've owned them a little while (and what OS did you guys decide on?)?

 

As you can see from my last past my fitpc2 is currently triple booting. Jaunty is now supported you'd have to choose between Win XP or Jaunty. Win7 doesn't go above 1024 x 768 with the latest drivers and Karmic is still coming along but runs fine except for the 2D only video drivers.


Please read this for Jaunty install: http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=768

BTW, if anyone uses the new BIOS update as it stands, please disable "Diagnostic screen on boot up" in BIOS. otherwise you may get an error with "operating system not found". All other BIOS options are fine to use, including hyper threading and the boot summary display option.

Cheers.

 

System cost for me was $425 for the Fit-PC2 plus ~$125 for the hard drive, total $550.

I'm running ubuntu 9.04 server on mine. I don't have any display, keyboard or mouse connected to it though so I don't have any opinion about which OS works better for HD video etc.

 

Finally ordered my Fit-PC2 diskless today. Enjoying the stronger dollar I ordered 2 at $412.01 AUD each. Just a week ago that was the price for 3. Once you order 3 you are subjected to the import tax which kicks in at $1000 so I just ordered the 2. I have 1 or 2 others interested so I'll team them together to order another 2 in a few weeks time probably.

Getting 500GB WD Scorpio Blue for $99 so all in all $510 complete system, well spent I reckon!

 

Nice, good price!

What are you planning for yours?

 

The main reason for my Fit-PC2 purchase was to reduce my power bill so mine will be replacing most of the tasks my fileserver is currently used for. It's a torrent box, file streamer and handles other jobs like updating in real-time my mains energy monitor into software. Nothing fancy, all about the electricity savings for me. Obviously 500GB can't replace multiple terabytes but it'll be able to do 90% of what the fileserver now does.

My flatmate is also planning to get one to replace her somewhat thirsty Mac which is on a lot too. She's a light user for which the Mac is completely overkill and the Fit-PC2 ideal. I sold her on the Fit-PC2 idea

Can't wait to get my new toy