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Low wattage pcs

AshleyT

By AshleyT
in Boat Equipment

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AshleyT

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I'm looking for a low wattage PC for my boat, I do a lot of office work on the PC and some gaming nothing much. I'm looking for just a basic PC would be nice if it could run off of the 12v does anyone know where I could buy one from or how to build on etc parts

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BEngo Veteran II

BEngoDonate to Canal World

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I'm looking for a low wattage PC for my boat, I do a lot of office work on the PC and some gaming nothing much. I'm looking for just a basic PC would be nice if it could run off of the 12v does anyone know where I could buy one from or how to build on etc parts

 

 

Buy a laptop- these are generally designed to be low power consumption items and can still drive a decent screen which won't be that power hungry though probably 240v. The laptop itself (though not a Dell which will work but not charge) can run off a Maplin 12v DC laptop power supply.

 

N

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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I'm looking for a low wattage PC for my boat, I do a lot of office work on the PC and some gaming nothing much. I'm looking for just a basic PC would be nice if it could run off of the 12v does anyone know where I could buy one from or how to build on etc parts

 

This crops up regularly on here, have a search for existing threads.

 

The consensus seems to be that all computing shovels power down from the batteries in spades, but laptops have smaller spades than desktops.

 

The display is the main culprit. Laptops with smaller screens use less power broadly speaking, and the dimmer you set your display the less power. Finding a balance you are happy with seems to be the trick.

 

MtB

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Chalky Experienced

Chalky

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Alternative is a car PC or a small industrial computer. We use some of the small industrial ones at work for development work and they are about the size of a box of cooks matches. No hard drive, everything is stored on SD cards or USB sticks. We link these up to a small 12V monitor and a USB keyboard. Not the world's most user friendly machines but they are low power.

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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Just been and got one...... velly interesting.

 

Less than 5 watts, works with any old (or new) telly. Looks like it does most of the things other machines do, but efficiently because of "Defenestration"

Bill

 

So this prompts two questions in my furry brain:

 

1) How do you run all the stuff normal mortals need on their PC (Word, Firefox, a cheap printer, etc) without Windoze or a masters degree in computer science?

 

2) How much power does a telly use compared to a PC monitor?

 

 

MtB

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billh Rising Star

billh

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So this prompts two questions in my furry brain:

 

1) How do you run all the stuff normal mortals need on their PC (Word, Firefox, a cheap printer, etc) without Windoze or a masters degree in computer science?

 

2) How much power does a telly use compared to a PC monitor?

 

 

MtB

I don't know yet- early days but this is my impression:

It comes with a simple web browser that worked first time- I would imagine that Firefox would work , i'll try it eventually. As for Word etc, I wonder if "LibreOffice" , a good free alternative to Gates' Office can be installed? A networked or USB printer should be possible too? The point is , someone, somewhere will be trying all this and then posting a "How to" for it.

The TV power consumption is in proportion to screen size- a few watts for a notebook size TV to a couple of hundred on one of those wall mounted monsters, your choice.

I didn't get it to be a main machine, doing everything, more to fiddle about with in terms of programming and interfacing with " other devices". It's cheap enough for that. I am intrigued by its small size and supposed possibilities.

Bill

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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I don't know yet- early days but this is my impression:

It comes with a simple web browser that worked first time- I would imagine that Firefox would work , i'll try it eventually. As for Word etc, I wonder if "LibreOffice" , a good free alternative to Gates' Office can be installed? A networked or USB printer should be possible too? The point is , someone, somewhere will be trying all this and then posting a "How to" for it.

The TV power consumption is in proportion to screen size- a few watts for a notebook size TV to a couple of hundred on one of those wall mounted monsters, your choice.

I didn't get it to be a main machine, doing everything, more to fiddle about with in terms of programming and interfacing with " other devices". It's cheap enough for that. I am intrigued by its small size and supposed possibilities.

Bill

 

Very interesting, thanks for your reply.

 

I was especially intrigued by your comments about using a TV screen though instead of a monitor. The vast majority of low-power PC consumption seems to be the display and I'm still not clear. Are you suggesting using a TV monitor instead of a PC monitor purely for convenience and economy, or because size-for-size, and brightness for brightness, a TV monitor uses less power than an equivalent PC monitor?

 

MtB

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billh Rising Star

billh

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Very interesting, thanks for your reply.

 

I was especially intrigued by your comments about using a TV screen though instead of a monitor. The vast majority of low-power PC consumption seems to be the display and I'm still not clear. Are you suggesting using a TV monitor instead of a PC monitor purely for convenience and economy, or because size-for-size, and brightness for brightness, a TV monitor uses less power than an equivalent PC monitor?

 

MtB

No, the Raspberry Pi has two video outputs, one is a simple composite video from an RCA socket , many older TVs have this , including routing it through the TVs SCART socket, the other is via HDMI cable, as on most newer TVs and * some * monitors. The HDMI is able to go to 1080 HD and carries stereo sound ( also output on a 3.5mm socket). It should be noted that there is no VGA monitor out, the thinking being that this format is now old hat,though I'm not sure I agree with that philosophy. In a nutshell, , it's designed to use more or less any TV, but not what I would say are the most common monitors.

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grahoom Rising Star

grahoom

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It should be noted that there is no VGA monitor out, the thinking being that this format is now old hat,though I'm not sure I agree with that philosophy. In a nutshell, , it's designed to use more or less any TV, but not what I would say are the most common monitors.

 

Can get an adapter to convert the HDMI to standard vga monitor - no problem (I have one for my raspberry pi).

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