Meet my new Cortex PC - Fit-PC

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  • Paul_B
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2006
    • 608

    Meet my new Cortex PC - Fit-PC

    For a long time my Cortex PC has been a general purpose machine with a conviluted setup. Now my home automation system is at a size where reliability is everything and deserves to be on a dedicated PC where I'm not messing around. Chris introduced me to FitPC a few years ago and intially I was dismissive, believing I could build the same for less. However, over the years the price has dropped and I've come to realise I can't do the same for less. The main USP is the extremly lower power consumption, so meet my unboxing of a Fit-PC3 Basic - http://www.tinygreenpc.com/fit-pc/fit-pc-3.aspx

    Box.JPGContents.JPGDiskPanel.JPGFront.JPGIntelSSD.JPG
  • Karam
    Automated Home Legend
    • Mar 2005
    • 863

    #2
    Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences with the FitPC.
    Possibly along similar lines might also be: www.aleutia.com

    Comment

    • Paul_B
      Automated Home Legend
      • Jul 2006
      • 608

      #3
      My new FitPC is all setup and running Cortex (even remembered to transfer the key from the old PC for a change). First impressions and I am very impressed. The construction of the FitPC is very good, the unit is solid and seems wonderfully well thought out. I went for Windows 7 32bit as the operating system and all installed withouth any problem, drivers were easy to find and install from http://www.tinygreenpc.com/support.aspx

      So how much power does the unit draw? Well I attached a plug-in energy meter (http://www.maplin.co.uk/plug-in-main...-monitor-38343) which after 30 mins from boot measured 11W. Being a techie I did some playing around with power options and dropped the CPU frequency to 800Mhz in the supplied Catalyst utility. Retesting now showed 8W with drops to 7W. I achieved what I wanted.

      As a word of caution the above reading were before I installed Cortex so I do need to measure again. But it is all looking good and task manager doesn't suggest the machine is struggling. CPU is next to nothing most of the time and in use memory is 800MB. The unit I bought was without disk drive and I added a Intel 520-Series 60GB SSD.

      All in all a good result, I have a dedicated Cortex PC that draws less than 10W

      Comment

      • chris_j_hunter
        Automated Home Legend
        • Dec 2007
        • 1713

        #4
        that's encouraging, under 10W ...

        how about battery back-up / UPS - we've found having one essential, with significant power & fan-noise implications ...
        Our self-build - going further with HA...

        Comment

        • Paul_B
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jul 2006
          • 608

          #5
          Not yet Chris but the FitPC isn't in its final location. When it is then I need UPS power for both the PC and Idratek so on my to-do list

          Comment

          • Paul_B
            Automated Home Legend
            • Jul 2006
            • 608

            #6
            Everything is now finalised with my Fit-PC. Cortex is up and running connected to the PC via USB and I also have a USR Robotics modem connected, again via USB. The machine has been running for a few days and I've monitored the power usage from a plug-in watt meter. It seems to be pretty steady at 11W. Performance doesn't seem to be an issue but then Cortex isn't a very demanding application. I've also installed Logitech Squeezebox server on the machine to enable a few slimdevices to be used with Idratek, again performance appears to be fine. Hope this may help others in their search for a dedicated PC to run Cortex.

            One day I might add solar panels and at 11W I'm pretty sure I could drive the FitPC and Idratek from a relatively small PV array using batteries.

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