Mac Mini:
People who are selling used/refurbished Mac Minis are bat$#!+ insane.
$300 for a 4YO G4 seems the going rate. More for newer Minis. Up to $1K for a new Mini with an Intel processor.
Are these things made outta gold, or something?
Thing is, Minis are essentially laptop hardware without the battery, monitor, and keyboard. Their only saving grace is that they run on 85W external power supplies, keeping power consumption down.
Mini/Micro PCI looked up some itty bitty PCs and found the two promising prospects at:
http://www.cappuccinopc.com/They seem more suited to my purposes than the Mac Mini.
Cappuccino GX1Full-up PC with HD (disk or solid state)
Configured the way I would like it, it would run ~$360
My options would be stock but with a 256MB SSHD, no optical drives
Max power consumption of 64W, likely less with SSHD & no optical drive.
I would run damnsmalllinux on it.
Star-466a Thin Client SolutionsThis is also interesting. Thin client but with the option of SSHD.
Configured to my prefs, ~$264
My option would be a 256MB SSHD.
Max power consumption 5W
Again, I would run damnsmalllinux on it.
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I think I am inclined to start with the Linux NSLU2, considering that spanking new ones can be had off ebay for $63 (price + shipping).
HD Power Consumption (CAUTION: Serious geekiness ahead)Getting this data from manufacturers is difficult.
Luckily, three years ago, these folks:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/storage/hddpower.htmldid a comparison on then-current HD power consumption / heat dissipation.
It was quite enlightening.
max spinup = 16-30W
idle = 4.5-13W
intensive constant load = 7-15W
typical usage = 4.7-13.3W
This does not take into account the overhead paid for external HD electronics (control board & enclosure)
This site gives various % power consumption for various modes that includes the board & enclosure:
http://www.xpcgear.com/me740ps.htmlActive Mode (100% Power Consumption)
The HDD is at "Read / Write" mode, and it is under full speed operation.
The hard disk consumes most power at this condition
Idle Mode (80% Power Consumption)
The HDD is under "Waiting" mode (waiting for read / write commands from system), and the HDD is still working. At this condition, the power Consumption is a little less than Active Mode
Suspend Mode (20% Power Consumption)
The HDD is into "Suspend" mode, it is completely shut down, but still with alive power. The power consumption is much less than Active / Idle modes.
Power Down Mode (under 7% power cosumption)
The HDD is under "No Power" status. Not only the HDD is completely shut down, but also there is no power to the HDD. Only the control board of the enclosure will consume power
Hmm, this looks like a spreadsheet analysis problem to determine what I can expect, power consumption-wise.
int_hd_mode int_hd_low_W int_hd_high_W ext_hd_mode ext_hd_ratio_max_usage less_idle ext_hd_low_W ext_hd_high_W ext_hd_elect_est_low_W ext_hd_elect_est_high_W
max_spinup 16 30 - - #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE!
int_const_load 7 15 active 1.00 0.93 7.53 16.13 0.53 1.13
typical 4.7 13.3 - - #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE!
idle 4.5 13 idle 0.80 0.73 6.16 17.81 0.43 1.25
- - - suspend 0.20 0.13 #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE! #VALUE!
off 0 0 power_down 0.07 0.00 #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0! #DIV/0!
Averaging between int_cont_load & idle, the overhead power consumption for the external HD board & enclosure:
avg_ext_hd_elect_low_W 0.48
avg_ext_hd_elect_high_W 1.19
Interpolating / extrapolating from data above:
int_hd_mode ext_hd_mode ext_hd_low_W ext_hd_high_W
max_spinup - 16.48 31.19
int_const_load active 7.53 16.13
typical - 5.18 14.49
idle idle 6.16 17.81
- suspend 1.51 3.23
off power_down 0.48 1.19
Assume 90% of time the HD will be spun down (suspend) and 10% of time in use (int_const_load/active):
ext_hd_low_W ext_hd_high_W
2.11 4.52
So, power consumption will be approximately 2 to 4.5W
So, approx 2-4.5 W power consumption.