[PLUG] low power desktops

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> 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
> 
Hmmm ... would make a nice thin client for a humongous VMware server
with linked clone Windows "desktops".

-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P), WOM

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős