Chosing cheap desktop: recommendation?
Madison Kelly
linux-5ZoueyuiTZhBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org
Thu Nov 13 13:01:52 UTC 2008
If you are interested in a little extra work for a machine that would be
very low power, I'd recommend something based on the new Intel Atom CPU.
It's what is in my laptop (ASUS Eee PC1000h) and I use it as my daily
driver. Not the strongest video, but otherwise I've had no performance
complaints at all.
If you want a canned machine, look at the ASUS Eee Box. If you want to
save more money, take a look at (parts linked from mini-box.com):
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-power-kit?sc=8&category=13
- $54.49 - 12vDC 120w DC/DC PSU w/ adapter
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.438/.f?sc=8&category=13
- $0.99 - Expansion slot adapter for PicoPSU
http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-D945GCLF2-Mini-ITX-Motherboard?sc=8&category=100
- $89.00 - Dual Core Intel Atom 1.6GHz, Gbit, DDR2 533MHz 2GB
(Above in USD)
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=018399&cid=RAM.187.844
- $35.99 - 2GB DDR2 800MHz
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013168&cid=HD.443.877
- $69.99 - 500GB 7,200rpm Hitachi SATA2 drive (~24w)
(Above in CND)
I didn't look at a case as I've got alternate plans for these parts.
Unlike the Eee Box or PC1000h, the above mainboard gets you a dual-core.
All in, you are looking at about 50w power draw under normal load, if I
did my math right.
The only thing I would warn is that, being a new chipset, the onboard
NIC can require a little finagling to get going. Under Ubuntu I just
downloaded a readily-available custom kernel and I would very much
suspect FC9 will have similar, if not supported out of the box. CentOS 5
may be a bit more tricky, but heck, even Debian supports the chipset
with a little how-to reading.
The trick isn't the drivers, they work with open source code (no need
for NDISWRAPPER) and are supported by recent kernels, you just need a
kernel with the support enabled.
Best of lucck however you go!
Madi
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