Usenet server: Wandboard vs Odroid-U2

[NickMaverick]

Hi everybody!

I was hoping you could give me some advice. I'm planning on buying a new low-cost device to run all my usenet and other server related stuff on. Namely sabnzbd+, sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones, owncloud (i have a RasperryPi with XBMC on it to watch the downloaded stuff, but I might end up doing that on the server directly, as well). I'm currently running this on an old laptop but I'd like to switch to something less power cosuming and fanless. I've come across two devices, the ODROID-U2 and the Wandboard, which both seem promising and are both relatively cheap at $90.
They do have some differences but it's hard vor me to tell which are more important for my use, which is where your advice would come in.

The main differences are:
Odroid has a Quad core ARM Cortex-A9, the wandboard Cortex-A9 Dual core
odroid has 100Mbp/s LAN, the wandboard has Gigabit LAN
odroid has 2 GB RAM, the wandboard has 1GB

If it were just for file server purposes, I guess the wandboard would be the better choice due to the faster LAN jack. But since sabnzbd will have to do some unraring, I might end up wanting more processor performance. But, again, I can't really judge how much processing power all of this really needs and how big the difference between the two processors really is.

Does anybody have an opinion about this?

Cheers,
Nick

[SlackMaster]

100Mbit is faster than most ISP WAN speeds and the ethernet port on your raspberry pi is 100mbit. No sense in getting something for the gigabit speeds if you can't use it.

[NickMaverick]

SlackMaster, thanks for the reply.
I guess you're right, the RPi woudn't benefit from the faster port. Using it as a fileserver, though, I could take advantage of it by accessing a smb drive from my laptop. Although I guess if I want to run all of that through OwnCloud it would always take a round trip via my ISP and it wouldn't matter anymore.

Do you think I would be able to take advantage of the additional processing power the odroid offers?

[bluc]

What did you end up with? looking at doing same thing I have a raspberry pi but not enough guts(to slow downloading/unrarring and to slow on lan copying finished files) looking at the same two boards as you, wondering what the max cpu requirement is with sab will the dual core max the internet connection or do I need the quad? or is the quad overkill. I have a 25Mb connection btw, and also going to use it for a lan print server via cups.

[NickMaverick]

I have to confess that I haven't gotten any further since three months ago. I haven't purchased any device.
I did do some testing on the RPi with unraring and found that it was faster than what I expected (although I don't remember any specific numbers). So maybe the next step should be to see how well SAB actually runs on the RPi. What have you done with your RPi in this respect?
HTG recently posted a How-To on running SAB on an RPi, so it might be feasible.
Personally I'm leaning more towards the U2 than the Wandboard. Should I decide to use the U2 as a XBMC client too (instead of using the RPi for that) and running all of the other things on it I think I might want the four cores and the more powerful GPU. Streaming HD should be possible with 100Mbit/s (right?). Besides, if it's an RPi who has to receive the video stream your're limited to 100Mbit/s anyway. And most of the other stuff (like file backup through OwnCloud) leaves the LAN at some point anyway, so the faster LAN-jack wouldn't be of much use.
SAB also needs a lot of RAM, which also speaks for the U2.
What's been keeping me from purchasing (besides lack of time) is that the shipping cost for the U2 is pretty high and including the necessary acessories it would effectively cost about $150. Still fairly cheap but significantly more than $90.
Although I have no personal experience with cups, I would expect either one could handle your printing needs, even an RPi, no?

Cheers,
Nick

[bluc]

Yea have the raspberry pi setup and working for sabnzbd and cups but I find it slow for sab. averages about 600Kbs (net connection can handle 1.2MB) downloads and about 4Mb network transfer unsure exactly how long it takes to unrar but its pretty slow also. Looking for something with more grunt. Wondering if the wandboard will have enough grunt to handle the downloading and speed up the unrar as well. I think for me network transfer speed after everything is finished is more important and is why I'm leaning towards wandboard.

[NickMaverick]

Well the wandboard will definitely be faster than your current set up. What do you need to transfer from the wandboard/U2? Media to the RPi would be limited to 100Mb/s and printing doesn't need that much bandwidth, does it? Do you also want to use it as a fileserver inside the LAN?

[bluc]

yea thinking of lan server also. Like the cpu on odroid if only it had gigabit sata would also be nice found this one here http://au.element14.com/freescale-semic ... 20Products which hardware wise ticks all the box's but software wise to run ubuntu(which I want to run) you would need to compile it and the community for it is near non exist ant. Also no pre made cases avaialable for it. Desicions descions

[NickMaverick]

Yeah, if the U2 had Gbit LAN the case would be clear. The one you link to looks good on paper but, as you said, no community and it's also quite a bit more expensive.
To be honest, I think the Wandboard will do just fine for your needs. The quad core would be nice to have, but if network speed is important then the wandboard is the way to go.

[bluc]

Yea have been looking for comparison benchmarks but no luck yet on that front yet. Also found this about the wandboard http://www.tuicool.com/articles/2EN3Yb

[bluc]

Also found this http://boundarydevices.com/imx6-builds/ seems there is quite a community with pre made images available for the freescale sabre light quad board. Only draw back now is a case. Both odroid and wandboard by the time all the extras are bought they are not much cheaper than the sabre light.

[NickMaverick]

Looking at different stores it looks like the sabre light would cost me more than twice that of a Wandboard.
I would like it if the board I purchase had some good community support, so I feel like the Wandboard or the U2 would be better in that respect.
Another option would be the UDOO. Quad core A9 and Gbit ethernet. But it's not available yet and I don't know about cases.
Currently I'm leaning towards the Wandboard.

[bluc]

another interesting find http://boundarydevices.com/products/tit ... -z530-sbc/ can run ubuntu or windows pretty sure this is the same atom soc used in the current windows 8 tablets and only has a 5w average power draw could be a combined htpc and downloader, but no buy now option or any sign of a case

[NickMaverick]

looks interesting. but now you're back to 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet...

[bluc]

Yea I noticed that to, after posting here but left my post as its the first board I have seen running the new Intel soc. I might stick it out with my pi for another few weeks(was going to order the wandboard tomorrow) and see what I can find. From what I have read the sabre light board is the same as wandboard but a quad instead of a dual core cpu. Also saw mention of the sabre light with 2gb ram, a quad with 2gb ram would be sweet. May look into that further before purchasing anything.

Sorry its the nitrogenx6 I am looking at not the sabre light. (from what I read just a different layout of the connectors.) there is a case available for it and few other bits and pieces. Linky http://boundarydevices.com/products/nit ... ex-a9-sbc/