There's a thread on openbsd-misc[1] with a few alternatives. If one only could get tiny fanless computers with awesome graphics capabilities, for the Morrowind experience ...
[1] http://marc.info/?t=123963008800005&r=1&w=2 On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 02:59:12AM +0200, Matthias-Christian Ott wrote: > Hi, > after a few months of latop-only computing (my good old P4 1.8Ghz is now = > - > after 7 years - a Windows machine in our household), I plan to switch to = > a > normal computer again. > > My requirements are the following: > > o Low power consumption (< 10W; 25W upper limit) > o Support for major Free Software operating systems (no strange, custom > GNU/Linux distributions), especially GNU/Linux or NetBSD > o Fanless and no moving parts > o No proprietary drivers, etc. (BIOS and bootloader acceptable) > o Standard form-factor or custom case/enclosure (if so, hole for rp-sma > connector) > o Smallest form-factor that is possible (I don't understand why compute= > rs > are still the size of a bottle crate) > o Standard connectors (USB, VGA/DVI, Ethernet) > o VESA mount (if possible) > o low budget (< 500=E2=82=AC) > > After I found no RISC processors or SOCs, I looked at x86 CPUs. There thr= > ee > low power architectures: VIA C7 and Nano, AMD Geode and Intel Atom. > > VIA's technology (especially the C7) seems to be out-dated. VIA offers a > mini-itx board with its Nano CPU (VIA VB8001), but it has small fan and i= > ts > power consumption is slightly above the limit. > > AMD's Geode is obsolete as well. The Geode LX family has the advantage of > low power consumption and small form factor. However, the performance per > watt ration is low. > > Intel's Atom processors are modern and have probably the highest performa= > nce > per watt ration. However, the smallest affordable form-factor is mini-itx > (I talked to several companies that manufacture smaller industrial boards= > , > but the price performance ratio was terrible and buying one of those woul= > d > be my last option). Similar to the Nano most of the Atom Boards have a po= > wer > consumption that's a bit above 25W (there are the Z510 and Z530 embedded > Atom CPUs, but the come with the GMA 500 graphics chip which has no free > drivers). Nvidia's Ion, especially the Acer AspireRevo, seems to be quite > promising, but has proprietary drivers. > > I wanted to ask you (because you very likely use your computers the same = > way > I do) whether you think the Geode is sufficient for the next three years = > or > so, otherwise would buy a cheap Atom mini-itx computer. > > Usually I use my computer just for programming, typesetting (mainly > with groff and heirloom-doctools, but also occasionally with LaTeX), > reading and research. I don't need any computing power for simulations, > calculations, etc.; I can get access to bigger machines if I really have > such special tasks. > > What bothers me a bit are these multimedia applications (video codecs, > etc.) and particularly web applications. I'm really not sure if the > Geode would be able to render on of these new JavaScript + HTML =3D > graphics-and-user-interface-API web apps in one and a half years or > so. Moreover, I can't imagine the CPU to decode a medium-sized h.264 vide= > os > which seem to have become today's quasi-standard. > > Maybe you know a better alternative. > > Regards, > Matthias-Christian >
