New Computer Uses Less Than Half the Power

[Snax]

I just thought I would showcase the upgrade that I did this last month to cut my computer power use to less than half of what it was before.

The original system:

Athlon XP3000
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512MB ddr
Dual Maxtor 160GB 7200rpm 8MB drives RAID-0
Panasonic DVD-R
GeForce4
Enermax 350W PS
17" LCD monitor


The new system:

Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
2GB DDR2 667
Single Seagate 250GB 7200rpm 16MB SATA 3.0
Panasonic DVD-R
Onboard Intel GMA 950 Graphics
Enermax 350W PS
17" LCD


The original system sucked down 175W just at idle and peaked at 220W under hard use. The new system goes from 82W at idle to just over 90W under heavy load including the monitor - and it's faster. Not by a longshot, but marginally. It certainly multi-tasks better with the dual cores, but much more noticeable is the improvement in hard drive performance. The new drive technology absolutely smokes what the previous RAID could do. And the GMA graphics seem to perform on par with the aged GeForce.

Clearly, the new machine is no gaming or number crunching powerhouse. It is however plenty fast for everything else that I do, noticeably faster in many ways, and more importantly, something I have far less guilt about leaving on all day for streaming radio or tv.

Other highlights are virtually instantaneous sleep mode response going in and coming out, and ultra low power use in that state, plus the entire motherboard is barely larger than a CD case and requires only one fan for the chipset. The CPU heatsink is fanless, and now I don't even run a case fan, letting the power supply handle airflow instead.

Essentially I have built what many are now marketing as a 'Nettop' computer. I think I built mine better for less money however, spending $169 on everything.

Oh, and in case people think I'm silly for swapping out of one computer for one that is barely faster in some respects, the Asus motherboard was becoming increasingly unreliable and needed to go. I should have ditched it 2 years ago when the onboard RAID controller crapped out (which I replaced with a PCI card), but now even the power regulator is in the midst of going as well.

I know I could have gotten more speed for the money, but that wasn't the goal.