WHS stuttering

[benogil]

Many forums list stuttering as a problem with WHS streaming. Certainly many factors involved, but some mobo's seem to not have the problem, and some do.
Usually, the stuttering is related to demigrator.exe kicking in as it goes through it's frequent balancing pass.
Seems like it nerbs the nic as it consumes cpu cycles. I/o suffers, and you get a stutter.
Some people with very nice mobo's, quad processors, and 4 GB ram still see stutter.
I was wondering if anyone had either a general or specific mobo they were using that did not have this ( stuttering ) quirk.
You can see another discussion here :
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1441127.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Qyv10]

Hi benogil, I just built a WHS machine specifically to run Squeezecenter as my audio server.
I am using a Supermicro MB, PDSBM LN2+ and have no stuttering during play back.
This might be partly the MB and/or the on board NIC's as they are Intel PRO gigabit NIC's. I remember reading some people changing to this NIC and the problem going away.

I first tried WHS when it came out on an old comp I don't use any more and had lots of stuttering and stopping issues with it.
This was the main reason I haven't set this up since WHS came out.

This MB is a bit pricey but is meant to be a server board so minimal video just to get it up and running.
So far during network testing I am getting about 70 MB/s write and 65 MB/s read on this box from/to a Win 7RC client with 9k jumbo frames turned on.
I believe this is a normal thru put for WHS because of the JBOD disk speed limits.
I am happy with these numbers as it blows away my Buffalo Link Station Live numbers (~15 - 20 MB/s both ways).

I didn't really want a RAID set since I know nothing about Linux and RAID.
As well as loosing half the capacity for duplication purposes.
I like WHS's file duplication on a per folder basis.

Needless to say I am going to retire the buffalo and strip the drive for the WHS system.

specs:
MB Supermicro PDSBM LN2+ mATX
CPU Intel E2160 @ 1.8 GHz
Memory 2 Gig RAM
HDD 300 Gig Seagate IDE for OS drive, twin 500 Gig Seagate SATA 7200.12's for storage.
Case Supermicro mATX tower came with w/300 Watt PS.

The MB has a listing on the SM site saying it is made for a certain 1U rack case but works fine in my case even though the board has an 8 pin aux power socket and PS has only a 4 pin.
SM tech support said with my CPU(ie low power) the 4 pin should be ok but recommends an 8 pin.
So far had no issues with it.

Hope this helps out somebody as it took me weeks of reading to try and find some info about this problem.

Q

 

[sammynl]

Many forums list stuttering as a problem with WHS streaming. Certainly many factors involved, but some mobo's seem to not have the problem, and some do.

Heard that before, I'd start looking at the network, try inserting a different vendor NIC if you still have a slot available and disable the onboard one. May well be driver related imho. How fast is your switch and are there no port mismatches?

 

[benogil]

Oh, well, as usual I might have been less vague. I had a friend with the problem, and it does pop up on the forums, so I wanted to get some feedback.

My experience has been similar to those posted. Spend on a decent mobo,nic and you will be fine. Server grade is best, and stay away from the nvidia drivers if you can. Some, even with good ( quad core, 4 gb ram ) still have demigrator hiccups. But, they are using desktop boards.

Thanks for the feedback. Oh, strangely enough, this is seldom experienced with the low-spec HP servers. Their builds do not use VSS services, not sure that is key.

Ben