Hi ctodd,
FWIW, after some research at http://silentpcreview.com, I decided to
wait for Penryn before doing a new build for home file/slimserver (and
possibly DVR).
To deal with my new SB3's needs (and light home file serving) in the
short term, I've recycled an old IBM Thinkpad T23. I had a
non-functioning unit that turned out to have a reasonably quick fix.
Once I had it operating I:
- Changed out the memory to 1GB total ($125, eBay shopping)
- Added a Cardbus-to-ESATA adapter ($50)
- Antec MX-1 external drive enclosure ($60)
- Samsung HD501LJ 500GB drive ($120)
So I've got $355 invested (helps to start with the inoperable laptop of
course), plus the time to do a clean OS & software install.
The T23 has the 1.2GHz P3-M Tualatin (out-benchmarks my 2GHz P4
desktop). So far I've had it concurrently loaded with:
- playing music on the SB3
- extracting (EAC to FLAC)
- updating the web interface to my laptop, and
- running [EMAIL PROTECTED] protein folding at a 70% duty-cycle (lowest
priority)
No playback problems so far. The CPU temp is cycling between 50C and
70C (fan comes on at 70C, very quiet out in the room, should be
inaudible once I put it in the rack). The Antec MX-1 and Samsung are
inaudible from about 0.5m away, I haven't seen the HD501LJ reporting
more tha 2C above ambient ... The MX-1 does a nice job of cooling.
Across a 48-hour test run my power meter reported the average power
consumption at 32w. My use pattern lets the Samsung (music and other
data, Thinkpad's internal drive is the OS) spin down for a lot of hours
during the day; the lid is closed (no display backlight), and SpeedStep
is dropping the P3-M's clock during the 30% non-Rosetta time.
Completely idle, external disk spun-down power was 21w.
I think you could beat those power numbers with the Via CPUs and
careful component choices, but if you've got an old laptop that can
keep itself cool without too much fan noise, you may be able to beat
the cost of a new Via-based build by "recycling."
Cheers,
Alan
--
AMRoberts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMRoberts's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=12883
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=37751
_______________________________________________
discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
