Low Power PCs

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • hargraverch
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Jan 2008
    • 30

    Low Power PCs

    Hi All

    Have had my Eee Box order cancelled, and am now free to purchase a low power unit to run my cortex system has anyone come across one or is using one that can advise.

    thanks

    ron
  • Paul_B
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2006
    • 608

    #2
    Maybe it will help if we list our Cortex servers and measured power with a plugin meter?

    VIA EN-15000 Mini-ITX Mobo and Matrox 70GB HDD = 28W

    Comment

    • hargraverch
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Jan 2008
      • 30

      #3
      Hi Paul
      Am not really avvie with pcs and am looking to find a low power one, i was told to look at mini it systems, i am able to build em its just finding out whats best and what better way than here.

      thanks

      ron

      Comment

      • JonS
        Automated Home Guru
        • Dec 2007
        • 202

        #4
        My Dell latitude D600 (centrino 1.7G) consumes 19W with screen off, 26W including screen - another advantage is it has battery backup. Still - no expansion for the telephony card I bought ages ago. I am hanging on for an Atom with low power chipset, serial port plus at least 1 PCI ... its been a long wait for something better than the laptop as sadly PC cards with centrino chips have always been very expensive cf VIA mini-itx etc.

        JonS
        Last edited by JonS; 7 February 2009, 09:18 PM. Reason: extra consumption info
        JonS

        Comment

        • Paul_B
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jul 2006
          • 608

          #5
          For Mini-ITX probably easiest and best to go with VIA themselves or Jetway. Have a look a Linitx or Mini-ITX websites. If you have a single machine then you probably want it to be a bit more powerful and that over-rides the power consumption, consider the EN or SN boards from VIA.

          If you just want a dedicated PC for HA then Cortex has very low requirements so you could look at something like the Jetway J7F2 1.2Ghz Eden CN700 Mainboard which is Fanless and consumes 7W plus chipset and HDD means like power consumption around 15W (educated guess rather than my own measurement)

          Just to clarify Mini-ITX is a form factor so you can have Mini-ITX motherboards with an Intel Atom or AMD Geode as well as the more normal VIA CPU's.

          Comment

          • chris_j_hunter
            Automated Home Legend
            • Dec 2007
            • 1713

            #6
            power requirement (in both senses) would go up a bit if including a capture card & CCTV in the HA scheme, of course ... as part of presence sensing, as well as for identification & baby-sitting ... we certainly chose our MiniITX board to cope with this ...
            Our self-build - going further with HA...

            Comment

            • JonS
              Automated Home Guru
              • Dec 2007
              • 202

              #7
              I was tempted by the a Jetway board like this last summer (may have been this one). How do these processors compare with a centrino in terms of grunt/Ghz? Is there a SPECint rating for PCs?
              not sure what you mean by single machine, but I'm looking to build a machine for Cortex primarily and low power is key as its running 24-7. In a perfect world it would be power-stepping so that as and when I get around to adding a CCTV camera or two and activate them the same machine will run with a bit more juice and soak up the load. The Centrino seems very good at this sort of thing, but has moved dual core and higher power (juice).
              I've monitored the CPU on my machine and with Cortex its <~10% on my current machine which is great.
              The marginal improvement in juice of the Jetway plus my perception it will be lower grunt, doesn't make the case for me to experiment - still saving for a house full of DFPs :-)
              Thanks
              JonS

              Comment

              • JonS
                Automated Home Guru
                • Dec 2007
                • 202

                #8
                What did you go for again Chris ?
                TIA
                JonS

                Comment

                • chris_j_hunter
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Dec 2007
                  • 1713

                  #9
                  a VIA EK10000G & as much memory as it would take + IVC-200G capture card

                  (took a moment to find it - had to go find what box it's still in - daren't bring it out & put it together 'til we've finished plastering & screeding - too much fine dust ! - and that's waiting on the thermometer coming up from its current miserable levels ... busy bringing up to date & finalising our plumbing & heating & electrical infrastructure design at the moment, big job)
                  Our self-build - going further with HA...

                  Comment

                  • hargraverch
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Jan 2008
                    • 30

                    #10
                    hi
                    Thanks for the response have being looking at www.mini-itx.com site, and they do a starter bundle using a 1.6ghz atom chip starting from £149 depending on hard drive, any advice welcome as to the suitability to run HA only



                    ron

                    Comment

                    • toscal
                      Moderator
                      • Oct 2005
                      • 2061

                      #11
                      I had a Mini ITX MII12000 running XP pro, homeseer and pinacle showcenter software. It would just about cope with running all this. It only had 256Mb of memory. I had to reboot it it once a week. It used to lock up. But this was probably caused by lack of memory. Its now got 500Mb and it works fine as a home PC for the kids.
                      IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
                      Renovation Spain Blog

                      Comment

                      • jpdw
                        Automated Home Guru
                        • Oct 2007
                        • 169

                        #12
                        Another mini-itx ...

                        VIA EN1200 (1.2Ghz fanless EN series), 160Gb 2.5in HD, 1Gb memory, conventional PSU. Running XP & Cortex (hm... some idle time to use !)

                        Measured power pull was (IIRC) ~29-30w.

                        I've a small brick+DC/DC PSU that would drop this down to ~19-20w but I originally had issues with the serial port when using it and it got too cold for me to stop Cortex to investigate further (...waiting till March/April...).

                        Last reboot? Probably October or something like that.
                        Jon

                        Comment

                        • Kevin
                          Moderator
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 558

                          #13
                          I'm using a fanless rackmount Atom based solution from http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk . Running WHS on the same server - seems fine Has some expansion slots (depending on model) and built in RS232. A bit expensive though...

                          K

                          Comment

                          • jcmiguel
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Apr 2008
                            • 38

                            #14
                            Atom pc

                            I have the atom from tranquilpc running cortex as well. It is working fine now but I wouldn't recommend their services. I spent more than 6 months trying to solve problems that they said were not there although every time I had it on temperature would rise.

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X