[PLUG] low power desktops

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 08:41:58AM -0800, Eric House wrote:
> > On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Ian Burrell <ianburrell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > [mini-itx low-power systems?]
> > > >
> > > > Any other suggestions?
> > > >
> > >
> > > You might want to consider the Eee Box with Atom processor, DVI
> > > output, laptop hard drive, and slim case.
> 
> I have one of these, and love it!  It's not super-fast, but it's
> basically equivalent to the five-year-old IBM desktop that's my main
> development machine.  It's running Ubuntu 8.10 easy as you please.
> It's inaudible from 2' away, and draws less than 20 watts (according
> to reviews; I haven't measured yet.)

Also available here for $300:

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Processor-Drive-Linux-Black/dp/B001HPNDJ2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1229391808&sr=1-2

This looks pretty tasty.  Perhaps you can bring it to one of the
meetings and (with warning) I can look at it with my power meter,
and in general admire your purchasing acumen.  If you bring it to
the clinic, we can start it up with available monitors and keyboards.

Something so small presents a theft hazard (it is for my doctor
wife, who has patients with mental as well as physical problems)
but it supposedly will attach to the back of her LCD monitor.
Thieves must be very large and very ambitious to steal the monitor,
too.  It is also nifty that these are claimed to boot in a few
seconds, meaning that the machine can be quickly turned on and
off between uses, saving even more power.   Perhaps this is only
with the installed EZOS Linux distro (whatever that is).

It was offputting at first to see that it doesn't have a CD/DVD
drive.  External USB drives are surprisingly expensive, but I have
a USB case and a bare CD/DVD drive I can cobble together for the
rare occasions one is needed.  During the 99% of the time that an
internal CD drive is NOT being used, it just wastes space and power.

I asked my wife how often she uses the drive in her current office
machine (which the new system will replace) and she said "never,
I'm afraid to use it".  So perhaps I shouldn't worry about it.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs