Low Power (watts) PC for media server?

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Mobius

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Jul 7, 2004
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I've just had my latest power bill, and it's atrocious! I have two PCs running 24/7 as well as 2 laptops in the house. The laptops I don't care about, they are super low power already, and my Athlon64 Gaming box is going to spend a bit of time switched off.

However, I have an ancient Athlon 650 running my media server, with 2 x 250GB HDDs. This runs 24/7, and I just discovered it's drawing an average of 170 watts! That means it's costing almost $30 a month to run it. I make good money, but I hate the idea of my media server alone costing a dollar a day - that's money which can be better spent on trips to Fiji, and new tyres for the 928!

So, what I want to do is get the lowest power (and cheapest price) PC it's possible to buy - but it's gotta be new. It only needs to be VERY basic: all it needs is 2 x USB (KB + Mouse), Ethernet, VGA output, IDE or SATA sockets, and 256MB of RAM. I'd prefer a single PCI slot, (or onboard 802.11g, as the existing server is on my Wi-Fi network with a PCI Wi-Fi card). I use VNC to connect to the thing, so it just needs to sit in the garage making very little noise and using very little power. It only needs a CPU fast enough to serve MP3s and DivX movies to my media player in the lounge...

I'm a white box builder myself, so I am pretty up with the play regarding desktop and laptop PCs, but I have not a single clue about micro and nano ITX boards, CPUs etc.

Can you recommend a cheap, and super-low-power chipset/CPU combination which would suit my needs? Thanks!
 
Check out some mini-itx boards. mini-box.com has a power calculator that's pretty helpful. I'm showing a EPIA 800 (800mHZ) with 2 3.5" drives and 2 usb devices using between 45 and 55 watts.

Calculator: http://resources.mini-box.com/online/powersimulator/powersimulator.html
Their store: http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html


Edit: BTW, the board has 2 pc133 ram slots (1 gb max), 8 MB video, 2x IDE, onboard lan and audio, 1 pci, and 4 usb ports. It's about $100.

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.15/it.A/id.160/.f
 
Yea, you should check out www.mini-itx.com or you can look at motherboards that use the pentium-M. The mobile pentium will be way more expensive than the top of the line Sp1300 Mini-itx. :D

They are very easy to work with. They have integrated everything. The newer ones even use ddr 400. They are pretty good servers ,but don't have the processing power or memory bandwidth for anything else. ;)

 
Thanks people. I appreciate your input.

Pentium M is total overkill for this application. In fact the existing 650MHz Athlon is probably overkill too! The VIA EPIA 800 looks like the perfect solution though. Problem is, I searched my suppliers (I'm in New Zealand) and I can't find a mini-ITX case or PSU anywhere! ACK.

Might have to end up importing from the US. *sigh*
 
Epia 800 is a perfect choise. Mine is using 35-40 watt with a 3.5" IBM 20 GB harddrive.

I think a wireless NIC will add some watt if you add that.

One thing you could do is to run the OS of compact flash card and configure the harddrives to spin down after 1 minute, you will then save about 10 watt per harddrive then.
 
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