I just purchased the new Intel motherboard based on the Atom D510 (part # BOXD510MO) that came out last week. It's a fanless, low-power board which I'm planning on putting into a larger case just for better cooling (space isn't a consideration). The mobo has one PCI slot and one PCI-Express "Mini Card" connector. It's quite different than the previous Intel Atom releases.
Specifications:
-Mini-ITX
-4 GB memory (DDR2 800/667) (I will use all 4GB)
-Intel NM10 Northbridge chipset
-Dual channel
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" hard drive (the 2.5" drives cost too much)
-Antec NSK3480 enclosure (Micro-ATX) with 380 watt power supply (I think I'll only need about 100 watts max)
-I don't have a camera capture card picked out yet.
This will be a stand-alone Linux box that will run only Zoneminder and Misterhouse (open source, home automation software to control ten or so X10 switches).
I'm hoping with this setup that I can run more than 4 cameras. I prefer analog cameras, but if I have to, I can use network IP cameras with their own motion detection (I've read that motion detection is the thing that pushes a processor though I don't know that for a fact).
Has anyone done anything like this? Do you think this plan will support more than 4 cameras? I don't need a high frame-per-second rate.
New Intel Atom D510 motherboard and Zoneminder
I have a Zoneminder running on an Intel Desktop Board D510MO.
OS: Ubuntu 10.4 LTS Server
RAM: 4GB
HDD: Western Digital 320GB x 2 on LVM
Capture Card: 4 Chip x 4 Channel (BTTV chipset)
Camera: 2 x IrLab Indoor IrCam / 2 x IrLab Outdoor IrCam
The performance is relatively OK, but I am still looking at optimizing the performance especially with regards to the CPU load. Reducing the frame rate helped but the reduced CPU load is not very significant.
OS: Ubuntu 10.4 LTS Server
RAM: 4GB
HDD: Western Digital 320GB x 2 on LVM
Capture Card: 4 Chip x 4 Channel (BTTV chipset)
Camera: 2 x IrLab Indoor IrCam / 2 x IrLab Outdoor IrCam
The performance is relatively OK, but I am still looking at optimizing the performance especially with regards to the CPU load. Reducing the frame rate helped but the reduced CPU load is not very significant.