[Freedombox-discuss] Energy efficient Intel server

[Rob van der Hoeven]

On Wed, 2012-03-28 at 10:25 +0800, Sandy Harris wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:36 PM, Rob van der Hoeven
> <robvanderhoeven at ziggo.nl> wrote:
> 
> > Last week i build a new Intel Pentium system that is very energy
> > efficient. Idle power consumption is just 23 Watt, max power consumption
> > is 53 Watt (no graphics). It can be used as a FreedomBox server/general
> > purpose PC or both...
> 
> For such a server I would look at solid state disk -- much lower power
> than hard drives, but higher cost per gigabyte and for a FreedomBox
> difficulty in erasing it completely may be a concern. See a previous
> thread here for discussion.

I looked at SSD's too but decided not to buy one for the following
reasons:

1) A 128 GB SSD cost about 100 EUR more (hey, i'm Dutch :-).
2) The Green HD i selected only uses 2.1 W when idle.
3) If SSD prices drop, i can always replace the HD by a SSD.

> 
> I'd also look at Intel's Atom line of low-power CPUs:
> http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/atom/atom-processor.html
> Those get CPU power usage down under 5 watts.

I have an ASRock system (Atom 330 with ION Graphics). This system also
has an idle power consumption of 23 Watt. The Atom 330 is old of course.
Some time ago I did some calculations on this IBM board:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d525mw.html

This passively cooled board comes with the newer Atom D525. There is a
technical PDF which mentions all currents for the different power
connections. I used this to calculate the power consumption. Don't know
the answer anymore, but i was not impressed.

> 
> Wikipedia lists Via Nano and AMD Fusion CPUs as Atom competitors.
> Those might also be an alternative.

We should examine all possible hardware for the FreedomBox. Love to hear
experiences with other hardware!

Rob.
http://freedomboxblog.nl