[GRLUG] Net-top as server?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> > I think some of the P4's consumed
> > 125W.  Maybe the special edition ones.
> > But the clock speeds are high, and they
> > eat power.  At $125 one could use some
> > of the savings to give to the power company...
> The NetBurst architecture is pretty bad at a performance-per-watt basis. 
>   However, the Atom architecture is no angel; While researching building 
> a carputer, I was warned away from Atom-based boards as they "ran too hot."

We have an Atom based netbook at work -  about 2.5 hours batter life.
My 17" laptop - about the same or better.  I'm not impressed by the
power claims of those things either [although in all likelihood I have a
bigger battery].  But still not impressive;  for what you sacrifice with
a netbook I'd expect something like six to eight hours of battery life.

> But, again, if we're talking about simple file serving, your CPU demands 
> are going to be very, very low, and the power-consumed-while-idle is 
> extremely low for any x86 CPU designed after the Pentium (As in, the 
> thing that would have been called 80586 had Intel not lost their 
> trademark case against Cyrix), I think.

Yep, assuming you verify that power-saving features are enabled and
working.  Recent LINUX kernels/distros seem to do a decent job
out-of-the-box but I'd still double check.  Also there are lots of
components other than the CPU & planar, most importantly the power
supply or brick.