picclock Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Hi - my first post here so I hope someone with wide knowledge can help with a new desktop. This computer will be used for sucking data from numerous usb2 hubs and sharing transferring it over a small network. The key thing here is that it will need minimum of 10 usb ports which will connect to hubs through which the data will flow. USB3 would be ideal but because of the data source only usb2 is possible. I would like to transfer data from as many ports as possible but will settle for 4 active full bandwidth ports, 480kbps (if I can have more it would be better). I plan to use usb cards in pci slots to get the maximum data transfer unless any better ideas are forthcoming, so two pci slots with 7 ports plus the native motherboard usb ports should just about do it. The hard disk will have to be SSD as the unit will be subject to poor environmental conditions, in terms of vibration and temperature. An Intel processor (i7 ?) is probably best with the normal 8gb of ram or so. OS Win64. Video not that important , just HD with HDMI for simplicity. Optical storage only as a convenience for installing the OS and any other software. Most important thing is good reliability with good connectivity - 1GB copper ethernet a must. No overclocking (if I can say that on this forum :-) ) . PSu ought to work from 100 to 240V without any links or switch changes. Possibility of UPS depending on the supply situation. So any help in terms of choice of motherboard and chipset would be much appreciated. Best Regards picclock Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjj226_Angel Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I must not be understanding something. Why are you using USB for home networking over cat 6 Ethernet cable? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
My_Inner_Fred Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I must not be understanding something. Why are you using USB for home networking over cat 6 Ethernet cable? +1 exactly what I was thinking. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Capitan Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I stopped at no overclocking.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjj226_Angel Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Can you explain the goal of the PC rather than the goal of any one computer part? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black64 Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 OP can't be serious Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanTheGamer11 Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) I understand that he wants a pc with loads of usb ports with an ssd that will hold data from the usb drives he wants to get stuff off which will be connected to a network via Gigabit ethernet... what's so hard to understand? But like Angel said... Edited July 21, 2012 by Dan The Gamer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
picclock Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I understand that he wants a pc with loads of usb ports with an ssd that will hold data from the usb drives he wants to get stuff off which will be connected to a network via Gigabit ethernet... what's so hard to understand? But like Angel said... Thanks for your interest. This is not for a home pc and will never likely play games. It is for data collection and unfortunately the input from the data sources is USB2 only. These are not memory sticks. It is also mobile in that it will fit into the back of a van with of other PC's. I'm not allowed to divulge much more except that it will be used by the movie industry, and if successful will likely have many clones - so really its an industrial use. No intent on my part tp mislead. Just looking for the best technical solution. Hopefully from someone who has more experience and in depth knowledge of the current range of available motherboard chipsets as to which would be best suited to this kind of application Best Regards picclock Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
d6bmg Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I understand that he wants a pc with loads of usb ports with an ssd that will hold data from the usb drives he wants to get stuff off which will be connected to a network via Gigabit ethernet... what's so hard to understand? But like Angel said... I can't understand his post either. :-( If you have assumed it correctly, then OP needs some PCI-E USB3 cards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanTheGamer11 Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) I can't understand his post either. :-( If you have assumed it correctly, then OP needs some PCI-E USB3 cards. Read his new post , just read it carefully It seems to me that you need a motherboard with a lot of USB controller chips cause one chip shares all the bandwidth with the ports connected to it so if you want the full bandwidth of USB 2.0 you need a controller chip for each port that will be used for the transfers. Ask somebody to test if using two external disk drives on the same controller chip work at the same transfer rate as only one being connected, might save you a few bob Are you going to be using external harddrives as the usb 2.0 devices? Don't think all that data will fit on one SSD? Edited July 21, 2012 by Dan The Gamer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
picclock Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Read his new post , just read it carefully It seems to me that you need a motherboard with a lot of USB controller chips cause one chip shares all the bandwidth with the ports connected to it so if you want the full bandwidth of USB 2.0 you need a controller chip for each port that will be used for the transfers. Ask somebody to test if using two external disk drives on the same controller chip work at the same transfer rate as only one being connected, might save you a few bob Are you going to be using external harddrives as the usb 2.0 devices? Don't think all that data will fit on one SSD? hi Dan ypu seem to have a handle on this. As soon as the data reaches over a gigabyte it will be offloaded to another computer via the ethernet link. USB2 is maxed at 480kbps on a good day, thats only 60kbytes per second, hence the need for lots of pipes to the bus to keep the data flowing. PCI bus usb cards should easily be able to handle multiple streams at that level, one card I am looking at specifies that it will handle all ports at full bandwidth simultaneously. Assuming the pcie bus doesn't get clogged two of these cards plus the onboard usb pipes should do it, or if I can find a motherboard with enough slots 3 cards. OLd PCI is 133MBytes per second whereas new PCIE is 500MB upward depending on multiplyer. The snag is that none of these figures tell you how fast the processor can read this data and send it on its way to the disk cache to be written. However this is very much a work in progress so I'm just trying to find the best and most suitable cpu and motherboard (with pci slots) to do the job. Many thanks for your time Best Regards picclock Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluePanda Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 USB 2.0 will do 20+ MB/s...per port... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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