On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 6:49 PM, elijah rutschman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello, > > I have recently heard that ARM CPU's tend to be more power efficient > than x86 CPU's. > I know that several free operating systems, Debian GNU/Linux included, > support some non-x86 architectures, such as ARM and MIPS. > > So, this brought 2 questions to mind: > Which processor architecture, or specifically, which CPU lines are > specifically designed to be power-efficient? > > Are there any non-x86 motherboards with PCI, SATA, USB, etc. that > would be powerful enough for moderate desktop use, i.e. web surfing, > compiling software packages, and playing movies? > You can build a desktop from an Intel Atom based motherboard and CPU. 40 Watts maximum for the CPU and mainboard. With a high efficiency power supply, I'm measuring 42 watts idle, 47 watts under load. That is with twin 320 GB SATA drives and 2 GB of RAM and a DVD drive. I have one running Debian for web server and mail server (light duty) and I also run a desktop on it. Low cost hardware, low cost power consumption. I am predicting this kind of product will be big the future, as energy costs rise.
