some ruminations on saving money, power, etc.

[peterd-5Yk8i0ShuGxAfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org (Peter Doherty)]

> On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 10:01 AM, Dan Ritter <dsr-mzpnVDyJpH4k7aNtvndDlA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> ...
>> The server can't and shouldn't sleep, but maybe I could replace
>> it with a lower-power part. Currently, it's an Athlon 3500
>> (single core) with 1.5GB RAM, a 2 disk RAID mirror and an
>> external USB disk for backup.
>>
>> It looks like an Atom D510 is roughly comparable to the Athlon
>> in performance, and would reduce power usage about 50W, counting
>> the required new motherboard and RAM.
>
> You sure about that?
>
> http://sandeen.net/wordpress/?p=297
>

A lot of the boards using the Atom have northbridge's using considerably
more than the CPU.
I think the last specs I looked at (over a year ago) was using an 8-watt
dual core Atom paired with a 25 watt Intel Northbridge.  Hmm...

So when looking at integrated CPUs, you have to look at the board's power
usage, not just the processor.

I ended up with an Nvidia ION board which was closer to something like
12-17watts I think.  A marginal improvement.

Peter