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Author Topic: Quiet, low power PC  (Read 1341 times)

Iain

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Quiet, low power PC
« on: January 14, 2007, 06:53:38 AM »
Hoping someone here can set me off in the right direction. Never built a PC and I'm a bit lost as it has been a few years since I was anything like up to speed on what is available.

Looking at the One Laptop Per Child project I noted that the laptop uses a new very very low power AMD chip with 386 or 486 level performance. Nowhere near powerful enough for my wants, but set me off thinking. What I'd like would be a quiet, low powered relatively small PC that would run Ubuntu and allow me to use the internet, office applications (via OpenOffice or Abiword) and watch DVD's and video files, no games . Fancy 3D effects for the Ubuntu desktop seem to be workable on older graphics cards - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zWSj-ezYO4 (Ubuntu Edgy + Beryl working on Athlon 2600 with Geforce 5200FX it gets interesting about 40s in if you like this sort of thing).

The intention would be to have plenty of RAM in it. Where to start my research?
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Sindawe

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2007, 06:57:25 AM »
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lee n. field

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2007, 08:31:55 AM »
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Harold Tuttle

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2007, 10:25:03 AM »
i would think the current Apple iPhone system will yield products in this area

What about a PSP?
http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
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wingnutx

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2007, 10:58:51 AM »
Water-cooled PCs are very quiet. Better cooling than a fan, too.

Tom's Hardware is a great site.
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Sylvilagus Aquaticus

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2007, 11:55:03 AM »
Interestingly enough, the system I prefer for my home use is based on an Athlon 2600 with 512mb, and a GeForce5200FX with 128mb. Works quite well for me, running a W2K partition and a SuSe partition.

It's also extremely quiet and doesn't produce a perceptable heat problem.

Old stuff still works fine.

Regards,
Rabbit.
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wingnutx

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2007, 11:57:48 AM »
My AMD 1800+ with a fan is quiet enough that I don't generally notice it, and it runs everything that I need quite quickly.

I don't do anything 3-D like shooter games, so the 1800 is plenty of horsepower for me. Another half gig of RAM might be nice, but any more processor would likely be a waste.

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Iain

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2007, 12:37:52 PM »
I am thinking about 'older stuff', I've got quite a similar system to yours Rabbit, except I have an ATI graphics card and they can be a real pain with Ubuntu.

Thanks for the links, I've looked at a few ideas. The Via chipsets seem pretty cool, if I wanted a tiny internet only PC and wasn't worried about any video/dvd playback then I'd probably go with one of those. A quick perusal of ubuntuforums seems to indicate that things aren't quite as easy with via set-ups as they are with AMD/Intel based systems. The other thought that appeals is using a notebook processor. Basically I'd like a system that I barely know is on and am not bothered about just leaving on. Got much reading to do it seems.
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Ben

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2007, 04:24:37 PM »
Quote
The Via chipsets seem pretty cool

Just an FYI. I haven't used any MBs with Via chipsets in recent years, so they may have fixed their issues, but a few years ago, I bought a gaggle of computers for the office, all with Via chipset MBs, and EVERY ONE of them failed within two years. Maybe just a bad batch, but it sure soured me on them.
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mfree

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Re: Quiet, low power PC
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2007, 08:47:12 PM »
Do some load development indoors a few days a week with no hearing protection.

Soon that FanMax dB+++ with the 500mph 120mm fans is stone silent Smiley
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