PC+Server with low idle power consumption

[raghu1111]

I would highly appreciate recommendations for replacement for my current 'always on' computer at home. Mac Mini seems to be pretty close to what I need, but hoping for a more open system that is friendly to Ubuntu. Atom based is not powerful enough.

Usage :

• Always on, runs ubuntu, central server for various things (photos, music) at home
• idle most of the time
• Used for browsing a few times in a day
• Planning to connect two monitors for "home office work".
• Would like to run windows in a virtual machine (for iTunes).

Requirements (in order of importance) :

1. Low idle power consumption (~ 30 W).
2. Reasonably powerful when in active use. No Atom please.
3. Size is not an issue.
4. 3D graphics performance is not an issue.

Building my own is fine.. But I am suspecting the power requirements make almost a semi-laptop.

One option is using a decently powerful laptop. Please suggest a laptop that has good support for dual monitors.

 

[Zap]

That idle power consumption will be a killer.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1091/1/

At idle the system had an idle power consumption of under 27.9 Watts. At 100% CPU load, thanks to Cinebench R10 being run, the entire system consumed just 69.9 Watts. The LCD alone consumed 40.2 Watts as you can see in the image above.

So, 30W (for whole system) is as good as it gets for anything beyond Pineview Atom. Other alternatives are VIA (which wouldn't be much better than Atom) and some of the industrial mini ITX boards that takes notebook CPUs, but it would still be cutting it close. I'm not sure that at this time you can get the performance you want for 20W.

An alternative is some kind of deep sleep mode, but I'm not sure that would work for it being a home server at the same time.

 

[raghu1111]

Thanks Zap. 30W is also pretty good I think.

I will update my requirements. I could save over all power consumptions in different ways :

• Use internal hard disks, rather than external. I will have more than 1 disk anyway.
• get better speakers that automatically shutoff when not in use.

Do you think the system mentioned in the above review is straight fwd (i.e. no special treatment to reduce power)? I will go through the review completely.

 

[raghu1111]

For reference, Dell Inspiron 580s with i3-530 lists power consumption at 38W idle and 77W max. It is pretty hard to find these numbers. For Dell, these are listed under http://www.dell.com/regulatory_compliance_datasheets . At least Dell lists them.

Gateway also has i3-530 system with better specs http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529598110.php , but I could not get power consumption numbers.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Get an AM3 Sempron 2.7Ghz 45W CPU ($35). Throw it on a decent Gigabyte/Biostar AM3 board ($80~100). Undervolt it a bit and then underclock it down to 2Ghz or so to compensate. It will idle in the 30's. I know because I have one as my 24/7 server. It's more than powerful enough for ubuntu, even server 2008 r2. I use a single stick of DDR3 2G 1333 memory (less sticks, less volts sucked up). Fanless on the CPU (large heatsink). Less little fans that don't move much air, less volts being sucked up. I use a large silent fan to move more air for the power being used. But you can go fanless on the CPU with a $20~$30 heatsink (like mugen 2 or less even). Sempron is much more powerful than an Atom too. Much more.

Note that most CPU's can idle in the low, low 30's. It's not a problem. You can get a Quadcore and do this with CoolNQuiet (AMD) in Server 2008 R2 since it can park cores (amazing). The real hidden energy vampire is the chipset of the motherboard you're using. This is what kills ATOM boards. The ATOM may be a tiny wattage CPU, but it's chipset is limited due to Intel's license and those chipsets eat like 30watts themselves, so it sort of defeats the point of ATOM in the first place. Plus ATOM just isn't powerful enough yet.

Very best,

 

[raghu1111]

Thanks for the responses.

I am interested in over all power consumed at the wall socket. Looking at lack of of easy choices, an i3 laptop looks like the simplest. An advantage is that it is much easier to find good use for older laptops once I decide to replace it couple of years later..

I didn't know Atom boards are so bad. There are many atom nettops with < 20w...

I have a SU2700 laptop and it it takes 12-13W (10W with LCD off).