Free Low Power Computer

   / Free Low Power Computer #1  

Luremaker

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Ontario
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With our electricity rates constantly going up over the past few years I've been on a mission to cut down on my family's electricity use. I replaced all my light bulbs with the new low wattage CFL bulbs and I put a timer on my electric hot water tank. I've become more diligent of shutting things off now than ever before. Even after doing all this my hydro bills still seem to be rising. I'm thinking one of our big power hogs much be our computers.

In our home we have 5 computers running most of the time. Each of my two boys have a computer along with my wife and myself plus we have a fifth computer running 24 x 7 as my file server and gateway. So I decided to search out a low power motherboard. A board which would consume very little power yet have enough power to run my desktop (email, internet, word processing, photo editing etc.) and file server and gateway.

So after a little research I picked up two micro ITX Intel D201GLY2 motherboards for $75 ea plus a mini computer case (13 x 14 x 3.8? for $55 ea and 2 sticks of DDR2 for another $19 ea for a total of $149 per computer. All in all a nice cheap computer. This Intel motherboard comes with the processor already installed and measures only 6.75 x 6.75? Reading reviews, this board with a hard disk should only consume 15 to 28 watts of power, that's less than 10% of my current server and gateway computer or between 4 and 5 cents of electricity per day. I am hoping it will pay for itself in less than a year in power savings alone. Wow a free computer.

It took me less than 5 minutes to assemble (connect power cable, install second network card and one sata hard disk cable) and power up the motherboard in my high tech centre which also happens to double as my basement and another 10 minutes to install the free server and gateway software. Plugged it into the internet and it all works. Now I'll let it run for a few days and see how this low power green sever and gateway compares to my old server.

Now to my new desktop computer. Took a couple more minutes to assemble it and about 10 minutes to install the desktop OS. I am impressed with this little computer. Having used it for a single evening I'm happy with the performance. Now I am no gamer and this computer would never work for any serious gaming but for the average guy looking for a low low power consuming computer one of these just might work for you.
 

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   / Free Low Power Computer #2  
Are you still using a CRT monitors? If so, it typically is the largest power draw on a computer. Flat screens draw considerably less.
 
   / Free Low Power Computer #3  
Yep, that's pretty low power. Bear in mind that the processor on that is rated from 15 to 28 watts of power. The chipset, etc. takes up another 10-15W, and the hard drives are rated at 8-10W, so you are closer to 40-50W for the system. Still much better than the standard 150W!

Wait until motherboards start appearing with the Atom processor that was recently announced -- only 4 watts for the processor, and it runs circles around the Celeron. With those motherboards, which can easily run on just a 4GB flash stick (think network attached storage), you are looking at a total system power of 15W.
 
   / Free Low Power Computer
  • Thread Starter
#4  
BigE_ said:
Yep, that's pretty low power. Bear in mind that the processor on that is rated from 15 to 28 watts of power. The chipset, etc. takes up another 10-15W, and the hard drives are rated at 8-10W, so you are closer to 40-50W for the system. Still much better than the standard 150W!

Wait until motherboards start appearing with the Atom processor that was recently announced -- only 4 watts for the processor, and it runs circles around the Celeron. With those motherboards, which can easily run on just a 4GB flash stick (think network attached storage), you are looking at a total system power of 15W.

I'll have to reread a few reviews. But like you said the power usage is still pretty low. Having run this new box for a week now I am really happy with the overall performance of this little machine. Can't wait for the Atom processor. Any idea when those will be available?

orezok said:
Are you still using a CRT monitors? If so, it typically is the largest power draw on a computer. Flat screens draw considerably less.

No monitor is used on my server as it is simply a mb with a hd. On all of our computers we have upgraded to LCD monitors. Anyone looking for a few free CRT monitor?.
 
 
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