Mini PC running Sab - Buyers help needed

[darksupernova]

Hi Guys,

Which mini-PC should I use for Sabnzbd without XBMC?

I've done quite a bit of searching but can't find anything specific to this set-up, maybe someone can point me in the right direction, as there's so much to chose from!

I have a powerful HTPC which currently runs all my Sab operations and XBMC. However I don't like having this beast running all the time as it's power hungry. I'm looking to get a mini-pc for running ONLY sab operations (eg couchpotato, sickbeard, downloading and unpacking to network shared storage) then when I want to watch/play I'll boot up the HTPC (which will be pointed at the network storage). Bearing in mind budget, would you recommend NAS or will it be okay to plug an external drive into the mini-pc and run traffic through the mini-pc and across gigabit network?

I'm on a tight budget (under £100), I only need something powerful enough to download at 5-10mb/s and unpack at reasonable speeds, it doesnt need to run XBMC.

I'm happy with a slightly older or second hand device. If anyone has any suggestions then please let me know. Selling one? I'm based in London and happy to meet.

Thank you!

Max

[shypike]

Anything with a modern Atom CPU or anything comparable to a PC younger than five years will do.
1G of RAM will be helpful.

[darksupernova]

Thank you for your quick reply! Do you think this will do the job?

http://www.ebuyer.com/614389-intel-nuc- ... n2820fykh0

[shypike]

It will work, but maybe not to the max speed.
I'm not familiar with Celeron and how it relates to Atom.
How fast is your ISP connection?
With an Atom of a few years old and Windows you'll go upto 5 MBytes/sec (about 50Mbit ISP speed).

[darksupernova]

I get about 50mb/s at the moment from the ISP, but hoping that it will go up soon.
I'll do some research on processors then, do you think 1gb RAM is enough?

Thanks again for your help

[hanker]

sabnzbd (and sickbeard) will run on truly minimal hardware. I have these running on a Seagate Dockstar, which has a 1.4(?) GHz ARM processor and 128 MB of RAM. It boots from a usb flash drive, and has storage and swap on an external usb hard disk. I have had this running for about two years. No problems at all.

htop:

----8<----
CPU[| 4.5%] Tasks: 140 total, 1 running
Mem[||||||||||||106/122MB] Load average: 0.19 0.73 0.82
Swp[|| 88/999MB] Uptime: 137 days(!), 21:50:41

S CPU% MEM% TIME+ Command
S 0.0 67.1 12:43.86 python /home/doc/.sickbeard/SickBeard.py
----8<----

[shypike]

sabnzbd (and sickbeard) will run on truly minimal hardware. I have these running on a Seagate Dockstar, which has a 1.4(?) GHz ARM processor and 128 MB of RAM. It boots from a usb flash drive, and has storage and swap on an external usb hard disk. I have had this running for about two years. No problems at all

What is your ISP speed and your average download speed?
Extensive par2 repairs will be a challenge.

[hanker]

What is your ISP speed and your average download speed?
Extensive par2 repairs will be a challenge.

My ISP max download speed is supposedly 12 mbit/s. sabnzbd download speed is throttled to 500 kB/s.

The Dockstar is not fast, but it works well, never crashes, and uses very little electrical power.

[JesusOnEez]

Hi Guys,

Which mini-PC should I use for Sabnzbd without XBMC?

I've done quite a bit of searching but can't find anything specific to this set-up, maybe someone can point me in the right direction, as there's so much to chose from!

I have a powerful HTPC which currently runs all my Sab operations and XBMC. However I don't like having this beast running all the time as it's power hungry. I'm looking to get a mini-pc for running ONLY sab operations (eg couchpotato, sickbeard, downloading and unpacking to network shared storage) then when I want to watch/play I'll boot up the HTPC (which will be pointed at the network storage). Bearing in mind budget, would you recommend NAS or will it be okay to plug an external drive into the mini-pc and run traffic through the mini-pc and across gigabit network?

I'm on a tight budget (under £100), I only need something powerful enough to download at 5-10mb/s and unpack at reasonable speeds, it doesnt need to run XBMC.

I'm happy with a slightly older or second hand device. If anyone has any suggestions then please let me know. Selling one? I'm based in London and happy to meet.

Thank you!

Max

An old Intel Mac Mini might be a good option. I've got one up and running with Ubuntu 14.04 (for the same reason as you...to keep all the SAB/SB/CP/HP processing away from my HTPC). You can also upgrade the meagre HDD to an SSD and upgrade the RAM if you want to...if you can break into the damn thing!