Low Power

[Biscuit]

If i had overclocing profiles on my mobo i probs would just do that, but i cant be arsed constantly having to adjust all the bois settings, id rather just buy a new cheaper system. I dont actually think this system will get used all that much next year because i can imagine it just slurps the juice in comparison to my Macbook pro and a 1.3GHz via ITX system...

Also you didnt answer the question, will a 1.3GHz 1G ram via system be ok for media centre applications?

I would probs look at a psU like this Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK assuming it wouldnt be really noisey

Edit: or just get something like this... Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

[Biscuit]

Tell you what i will re-word the question - build me an uber low power media centre/server for basic use for as close to £100 as possible

dvd drive and hard drives kb mouse monitor are already available and linux will be used

case needs to have capacity for at least 2HDD and i would prefer it to be a desktop case but not essential

[peterb]

One of the several barebones systems that Scan sell might do the job - you might just make the budget, depending on the memory/processor you use.

[Cistron]

I recently read an article about low power PCs in my computer magazine of choice (good old German c't). They were mentioning some Asrock board, which apparently is very moderate in power consumption and ideal for the job. I'll have a look when I'm home - if you can wait until ~10pm.

[Biscuit]

I recently read an article about low power PCs in my computer magazine of choice (good old German c't). They were mentioning some Asrock board, which apparently is very moderate in power consumption and ideal for the job. I'll have a look when I'm home - if you can wait until ~10pm.

NO I CANNOT WAIT I NEED IT NOW na if you could copy up any useful info that would be cool man

[Biscuit]

Tell you what i will re-word the question - build me an uber low power media centre/server for basic use for as close to £100 as possible

dvd drive and hard drives kb mouse monitor are already available and linux will be used

case needs to have capacity for at least 2HDD and i would prefer it to be a desktop case but not essential

Best i could do was 120 odd with an AM2 system... shame they dont have the 939 barebones as i cud have just used my opteron....

[Cistron]

The board is: Asrock ALiverNF7G-HDready
Apparently one can get as low as 20 Watts on idle in combination with a 2.5" drive and a picoPSU.

downside: only a Geforce7050 chip.

[Cistron]

Something else I read about AMD processors recently: AMD has created a new 'constant' called the Average CPU Power (ACP), which is NOT similar to the Thermal Design Power (TDP). It simply states the average power consumption of the CPU, as the name implies. However, AMD is somewhat sloppy when they state the wattages of their processors, meaning that it isn't clear from their tables whether they talk about ACP or TDP!

For example: the relatively new Brisbane core BE-series is marketed as energy efficient series with a wattage of 45W. This is not the TDP, as test have shown that systems consume (consisting only of motherboard, one bar of RAM, 2.5" HDD and the CPU) up to 100W.

In case of a HTPC this probably does not matter _that_ much, as most things won't stress the CPU too much. The new 780G chip seems to work fairly well for HD-DVD processing as well (review on SPCR). Nevertheless, it's annoying that AMD is confusing their constumers.

[Biscuit]

Cheers for all the info Cistron

[mikerr]

Low power... buy a laptop.

Cheapest and best solution ,, you get battery backup for free too

[Biscuit]

Low power... buy a laptop.

Cheapest and best solution ,, you get battery backup for free too

To expand the hard drive capacity i have to either get an external (not a particularly appealing solution) or pull the thing apart and pay premium for a slower lower capacity hard drive and on top of that... im not likely to be able to buy a half decent laptop for £100-150

[DanceswithUnix]

I would personally go for an AM2 based system with VIA chipset motherboard. They seem to run cooler than NVidia chipsets, and whilst Intel kit is better when running flat out the AMD CPUs seems cooler at idle.

Cool-n-quiet is well supported under Linux too, so fan noise is easily minimised.

Barebones £65 + Sempron £21 + £16 for a gig of RAM.

Couple of quid over, but I expect if you chose your own case+psu+mobo you can drop under that.

[Biscuit]

Funny you mentioned semperons i spotted that option this morning Thats pretty much the moneymaker tho cheers pal

[arthurleung]

Funny you mentioned semperons i spotted that option this morning Thats pretty much the moneymaker tho cheers pal

Or you could just get a cheap second hand rig

[Biscuit]

how would the celeron duo CPUs size up? i could get a 945 motherboard off a mate for like £15 and then stick a celly in there, a gig of cheap ram

Possibly this case (it holds ore drives than it says, check here) and im away, decent media computer/server for around £100!