On 24 Aug 2006 14:22:39 -0700,
dterrors@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>kony wrote:
>> On 23 Aug 2006 15:36:50 -0700, dterrors@hotmail.com wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >I want to buy an ITX pc with these requirements:
>> >
>> >1. Low power consumption. Low Low Low.
>>
>> Ok but how low does it really need to be?
>> For example, you might be able to get an idle CPU under 2W,
>> but if it'll be cool enough at 5W and the PSU/etc can handle
>> 5-10W, there may be no reason to shoot for 2W. Plus, if you
>> have a slower CPU having to keep busy a larger % of the
>> time, that idle wattage time is a lower % of total time,
>> while the slightly higher wattage CPU may be in idle mode
>> twice as long, offsetting much of the difference till it'd
>> only matter if you were trying to run it off batteries.
>
>I needs to be as low as it can reasonable be. In other words, not an
>800 psu like so many computers have today. I want the whole thing
>drawing under 150. But lower is better, hence I don't need to specify.
That's not too hard, if you buy the cheapest system Dell
sells today, it'll be under 150 and isn't even particularly
engineered towards low power. Even so, supposing the PSU is
150W, it is better to have a lot of margin, be drawing 50W
from a 150W PSU rather than 120W, particularly if there's
limited airflow and/or high ambient temp, the PSU will last
longer. If moderate temp and good active cooling (merely
meaning a fan somewhere even if low RPM, and appropriately
located chassis intake or exhaust vents), it may not matter
so much.
>
>
>
>>
>> >2. Small as possible.
>>
>> Again only you know how much this really matters. There's
>> small like mATX, or flex, or mini, ITX, or even SBC (single
>> board computers) than vary significantly not only in size
>> but cost and features. Then there's the case, it might be
>> easier to define what your case will be then what'll fit
>> into it.
>
>
>Again, I want it as small as possible, smaller is better. SBC sounds
>good, sure. I don't have a definition of "what my case will be".
Then it's a bit pointless to go for something much smaller
than the case you end up using, will accomodate, true? That
is, unless you're building one from scratch and if that is
the situation, you may or may not benefit from any one
dimension of a board being smaller. For example, the
cheapest thing I linked last time (IIRC) was a PCChips
M789CG @ Newegg, and it's only a couple dozen mm longer than
most of the EPIAs. Whether you could exploit two dozen mm or
not depends on what else is being stuffed into same case.
>
>>
>> >3. Needs to be able to house a normal 3.5" ide/ata drive. Not a laptop
>> >drive.
>> >4. Has some usb ports.
>> >
>> >It does NOT need much else:
>> >
>> >1. only needs 128m of memory
>>
>> Need it be full sized memory or SO-DIMM (Notebook) is ok?
>> What type of memory? Speed?
>
>I don't care. Sure, notebook is fine.
I'm only asking because from your initial specs, there are
too many choices, and you didn't specify the budget or how
important size was, how much of a premium it was worth for
slight size reduction... since the smallest SBCs are even
lower performance and rise in price quickly. $1000 might be
a typical price-point.
http://www.gms4sbc.com/products/prod...p60x/p60x.html
>
>>
>> In general you might want to define a few requirements for
>> the use, as uber-low-power systems can have drawbacks such
>> as:
>>
>> L2 cache size
>> Memory throughput, and related-
>> Video performance
>
>As stated in the original post, it doesn't need good video
>capabilities. I don't care about cache and memory throughput.
Ok, but then I wonder why you don't care?
My point is, most people think of very low power or SBC
systems in terms of what a desktop can do. You made a
comment about a PII or Celeron 500 recently, but for some
things either of these CPUs will be MUCH faster than a SBC,
if you chose one with very low cache or memory throughput.
>
>>
>> >2. CPU just need to be x86 compadible and low power. Hell I'd take a
>> >PII. A celeron 500.
>>
>> You write that as if Celeron 500 is extremely low. It's
>> actually faster at many tasks than some very small/low-power
>> setups, particularly at floating point calculations.
>
>Ok good to know, thanks. I'm shooting for something near a pII, as
>stated.
Some other architecture would be similar "on average" but
that average could be substantially higher or lower
performance in multiple areas.
In other words, if it were as useful to know what desktop
CPU you'd have liked to to be equivalent to on average, I
would have asked that instead. If you can't resolve past a
PII for a desktop you can only use a PII desktop, or far
overshoot the mark just be sure you're covered, which means
the Pentium Mobile platform.
>> The more popular answer is a Via Epia, there are now
>> multiple generations with different performance but none are
>> very fast, relatively speaking. Price can vary a lot, best
>> to find a model and then price-compare for that model before
>> purchase.
>>
>> http://www.logicsupply.com/product_i...roducts_id/212
>
>
>That one looks really good thanks very much
Depends on your needs... It's larger than it might need be
due to having the PCI slot, the card slots, and is going to
be less tolerant of small, low airflow chassis because they
cheaped out and used electrolytic capacitors. On the other
hand, in past years you couldn't get anywhere near this much
functionality at this size, for this price, it is a great
value for some uses. The Via 600MHz CPU is significantly
slower than a PII-400 or Celeron 500.
Need help finding a mini-ITX pc to buy. 
Linear Mode
