Re: [dwm] Low Power Fanless Computer

On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 11:50:04AM -0400, voltaic wrote:
> I have been looking into this kind of thing myself. What I found is
> that getting an Atom nettop computer would be a significant downgrade
> in performance (from my Pentium M). Both in performance and
> power/Watt. Also, GMA900 on the EEEs is slow enough that rendering
> webpages is not very smooth. Imagine what that would be like in 3
> years.

Hmm, currently my Pentium 4 M works quite well, but as I said, JavaScript
will slow down our computers much more in the future ;).
 
> I looked at two things. First is the Neuros Link, which has a low
> power Athlon LE-1660. The form factor is not that small, and it does
> have a fan (supposedly quiet), but it does accommodate a full hard
> drive, has eSATA, DVI and HDMI. The problem with it is the ATI
> graphics chip... Linux support for these is still terrible, despite
> the recent releases of documentation. The open source driver is moving
> very slowly for the AMD/ATI hardware.

ATI graphics cards are a no-go criteria for me, I've enough trouble with
the one in my laptop.
 
> Though, Neuros Link is very cheap ($250):
> http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link
>
> Another item is the Dell Studio Hybrid. That thing gets good reviews.
> It is a real computer, unlike the Atom stuff. There is a Core 2 Duo
> laptop processor in there, which is the best performance/Watt you can
> get. Apparently it is very quiet (does have a fan), draws 25W at idle,
> and 40W max, and has a GMA X3100 graphics chip. DVI and HDMI (though
> only one can be active at a time, so no dual screen). It can be had
> for $500. Sadly, it is not small enough to be VESA mountable. Also, no
> eSATA, so you are stuck with a single internal drive.
>
> http://www.dell.com/hybrid

Yes, the received a gold rating from EPEAT:

http://www.epeat.net/ProductDisplay.aspx?return=search&action=view&search=true&productid=1897&epeatcountryid=1

But today every major Computer manufacturer has that.
 
> Anyway, I think both of these options are imperfect, but maybe someone
> will find them useful. I am waiting for the NVIDIA Ion stuff to come
> out. NVIDIA has a acceptable Linux drivers I hear.

Proprietary drivers are not acceptable for. I ported the Nvidia drivers to
the latest -mm tree for a while and that was no fun. X.org updates broke
them entirely and you had to wait a week or so to use 3d acceleration again.
 
> -v

Regards,
Matthias-Christian
Received on Sat Apr 25 2009 - 16:27:34 UTC