Low Power i86 Computer

zoneblue

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

NG, id just be holding out a bit, i see that early silvermont mobs are already starting to sprout, and will proliferate soon enough.

eg: http://linuxgizmos.com/bay-trail-i-board-trio-includes-tiny-nano-itx-sbc/
http://www.fanlesstech.com/2013/08/bay-trail-mini-itx.html
http://linuxgizmos.com/bay-trail-i-board-trio-includes-tiny-nano-itx-sbc/

Ive watched several atom generations emerge and they always hit the industrial/embedded market first, then filter through to enthuisast boards.

For 'PR' info about silvermont see:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6936/intels-silvermont-architecture-revealed-getting-serious-about-mobile
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2041014/intel-exec-says-silvermont-trumps-arm-in-power-performance.html

BTW RIP your old board! An NGO that i built a box for in 1997 recently retired a pentium 1/80MB ram. It was second hand when it was installed. That old HP corporate gear was tough as boots. It served firewall, ip accounting, intranet, listserver, backup,email,dns etc for their whole organisation, and ran continuously for 16 years, with uptimes in the two year range, mainly UPS battery changes. In that time it had one of the 2 hdds replaced, and i changed the RTC battery once, that was it. Amazing... and it was still going when retired. I think it just offended some new bean counter in the office.

NorthGuy

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

zoneblue wrote: »

BTW RIP your old board! An NGO that i built a box for in 1997 recently retired a pentium 1/80MB ram. It was second hand when it was installed. That old HP corporate gear was tough as boots. It served firewall, ip accounting, intranet, listserver, backup,email,dns etc for their whole organisation, and ran continuously for 16 years, with uptimes in the two year range, mainly UPS battery changes. In that time it had one of the 2 hdds replaced, and i changed the RTC battery once, that was it. Amazing... and it was still going when retired. I think it just offended some new bean counter in the office.

Yes, that's how my current server was built. I retired a PC and made it to a linux. Replaced several fans during the years. The hard drive died once, CMOS memory died and didn't work even with a new battery, but other than that worked fine. I'm now concerned because the hard drive sometimes makes noises as if a small tractor drove by. So, I'm afraid that's not too long until it dies. Fans got old and dirty. Power consumption bugs me too.

So, I'm replacing it with a small (and silent) one. If I cut some 30W of consumption, it'll save me $90 a year, so it'll pay for itself within few years. The only bad thing is that I can't use my old trusty ISA modems and they will have to be replaced.

DavidOH

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

FWIW:
My recent build.
Tested using about 31 watts. Micro PC AND the 21" monitor.
The PC alone uses about 17 watts. On standby (or OFF) uses about 3.
Motherboard is Intel Atom Dual-Core D525. http://tinyurl.com/6m9g29s
Integrated 6-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC. Integrated Intel GMA3150 Graphics Controller LAN.
This includes the 32GB SSD (But not the wireless internet connection or the wired modem)

I found the Samsung LED monitor on sale for $140 with FREE shipping.

The case is (IMO) the ONLY micro PC case: http://tinyurl.com/7ycfnp9
The picoPSU Power supply is in and this thing is totally silent.
I used an OCZ Solid State Drive. This should be enough for my needs.
The size is about 8.5 inches deep by 7.5 wide and 2.5 tall.

n3qik

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

This might be overkill/price for you but:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859107921
I have a G6 and this G7.

NorthGuy

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

I want to thank everyone for the suggestions.

After thorough considerations, I decided to go with ALIX.2D13. It had the lowest price (slightly over $300 shipped and taxed), the lowest power consumption, all the features I wanted, and was more powerful than I needed.

Here it is. You have to order all the parts individually, so you get a bunch of small stuff that you need to assembly.



Connecting U.FL connectors on WiFi card is really hard with my bad eyes, but here it is assembled:



The cover will stay off until I install everything and make a backup copy of the CF card. So far, I installed Linux 2.6. All the drivers and features are in place. It'll now take some time to configure everything.

So far, the results were good. Power consumption is excellent:



When I load it, it can go to 5.2W, but I guess I just don't use its full power because it never goes above 5.2W. The ideal server for off-grid houses.

Shadowcatcher

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

A bit late but I plan on ordering a http://cubox-i.com/ as a back up and to use with the Teardrop.

techntrek

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Sweet. Putting it together is half the fun. :cool: I'll have to look into the specs of that machine.

westbranch

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

NG, was it a north of 49 vendor?

NorthGuy

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

westbranch wrote: »

NG, was it a north of 49 vendor?

Yes, but for some weired reason prices are in US dollars. Since NAWS does not sell computers, I think it is ok if I post the link:

http://www.corpshadow.biz/bizstore/

NorthGuy

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Shadowcatcher wrote: »

A bit late but I plan on ordering a http://cubox-i.com/ as a back up and to use with the Teardrop.

This looks cute, but it is ARM based, not i86.

westbranch

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

NG did you go with their standard 120-240v wall wart plug in or are you using a 48v to 18v converter?

NorthGuy

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

westbranch wrote: »

NG did you go with their standard 120-240v wall wart plug in or are you using a 48v to 18v converter?

I bought the plug with the computer. It consumes 1.2W without computer, but this seems to go away when the computer is plugged in.

My system is about 50ft from the house, so I have to go with all AC.

DavidOH

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Cool! I've seen plenty of others using Secure Data cards for storage ( I do too ) but the Compact Flash is faster.
Everything looks like it's there. Networking, wireless, USB. Very nice. Looks like a winner.
Just give us one more post on how it performs for you. 8)

BB.

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Posting links to other vendors/sites that further the conversation/ask and answer questions/etc.--Are fine.

-Bill

westbranch

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

NG here is one that might work for you. A bit more expensive at 4000 Eur, but only uses 0.0165W !!
http://gomspace.com/index.php?p=products-hub

part of the smallest satellite, 4"x4"x4",now in space...http://www.nanosatisfi.com/

mtdoc

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

westbranch wrote: »

NG here is one that might work for you. A bit more expensive at 4000 Eur, but only uses 0.0165W !!
http://gomspace.com/index.php?p=products-hub

!@#$@!!

These are essentially development boards. ARM7 board for 4750 EUR ATmega 1281 for 4000 EUR! Maybe I'm mising something but neither of these should cost more than $100 .- or is this just the price you pay to be associated with something put in Space?:roll:

westbranch

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Yup, that 5 letter word... SPACE.... just has an astronomical multiplier...(pun intended):-):blush:

RandomJoe

Re: Low Power i86 Computer

Very nice looking system, NorthGuy. Saw it's using a Geode, I didn't realize those were still being made. Some time ago the company I worked for was using them in a web interface panel for our HVAC control system. The system as they supplied it was quite anemic, but I took a couple "dead" boards (it was always a corrupted flash drive but they replaced the whole panel) home and found they were really nice embedded systems.

I don't know what went wrong with the original OSes installed (very cut-down Linux) but had found I could dd an image from a good CF card onto the "bad" one and the system lived again. Something must have been scribbling on the drive in the wrong places. I set them up with Pebble Linux as firewalls (had two NICs) for a couple friends and they worked flawlessly for years. I liked those boards a lot more than the ARM stuff, since I'm so familiar with x86. Not near as much strangeness to contend with!