I've been doing some research to build a low-power computer that can run all of the time while being reasonably powerful. I thought that an Atom 330 system would be fine. However, Tom's Hardware had an article showing that a Core 2 cpu/G31 board can use just as few watts and be much more powerful.
After looking at the power numbers a little closer I'm not sure what is the best way to go:
My main choices so far are:
1) Build a system using the current Atom based motherboards + low power hdd's (including the 945 chipset which is of course outdated and inefficient)
2) Wait for Pinetrail-D motherboards supposedly in Q1 2010 and build a system similar to the 1st choice
3) Use a cheap netbook or nettop (I'm assuming these use lower power chipsets than the 945gc that comes with the atom based motherboards)
4) Use a g31 chipset motherboard with a low power 775 cpu.
All I want to do with this computer is store backups of other computers, be a print server, play music through a bluetooth adapter to my stereo bluetooth headphones, and run a magic jack.
What is my best bet in terms of getting the lowest power usage? Should I wait for the Pinetrail-D boards?
After looking at the power numbers a little closer I'm not sure what is the best way to go:
My main choices so far are:
1) Build a system using the current Atom based motherboards + low power hdd's (including the 945 chipset which is of course outdated and inefficient)
2) Wait for Pinetrail-D motherboards supposedly in Q1 2010 and build a system similar to the 1st choice
3) Use a cheap netbook or nettop (I'm assuming these use lower power chipsets than the 945gc that comes with the atom based motherboards)
4) Use a g31 chipset motherboard with a low power 775 cpu.
All I want to do with this computer is store backups of other computers, be a print server, play music through a bluetooth adapter to my stereo bluetooth headphones, and run a magic jack.
What is my best bet in terms of getting the lowest power usage? Should I wait for the Pinetrail-D boards?
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