Re: power-efficiency & non-x86 desktop systems

On 11/14/08 21:22, D G Teed wrote:
[snip]

You can build a desktop from an Intel Atom based motherboard
and CPU. 40 Watts maximum for the CPU and mainboard.
With a high efficiency power supply, I'm measuring 42 watts idle,
47 watts under load. That is with twin 320 GB SATA drives and 2 GB
of RAM and a DVD drive.

I have one running Debian for web server and mail server (light duty) and I also
run a desktop on it. Low cost hardware, low cost power consumption.
I am predicting this kind of product will be big the future,
as energy costs rise.

What's it's performance when watching a Flash-heavy website, or playing a movie?

It is surprisingly good. It does have some sort of hyperthreading as
two processors show in top. Many say it is comparible to the
Pentium 4 Celeron at 1400 Mhz. I was coming from a dual PIII 550
system and noticed dramatic improvement, partly with the FSB
and memory speed upgrade. I have not tried quicktime movie trailers,
just typical movie playback sites like youtube, and it has no hiccups.

Mine is the Atom 230. There is another called the 330 which is
dual core. Someone benckmarked the Atom 270, 330 and regular
Intel core duo here:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=43085

If you were really concerned about multimedia, get the 330.
On the Windows world, people are building home theatre PCs
around these.

For me, the 230 is fine for light web site and email server.
The only reason to get a traditional CPU is for heavy server
or heavy gaming use.

I figure mine will pay for itself in $400 of energy savings over 4 years.
Our electricity is going up by 10% in January. That never seems to go down.