low power computing

[number four]

i have found these units and was wondering what the IT croud thought of them

and any other ideas?

 

i want to:

conect to internet

word and excel

music i tunes etc

photo storage (external drive) and editing.

may be video edit later

also have some films on a hard drive.

 

so which model would do the job?

i am not very ofay with IT

 

http://www.aleutia.com/products

[Lady Muck]

Looks very interesting (thanks for the link), but if it's just low power you want, you might be better off with a laptop, someone posted a link to low powered laptops, think it was Grahoom? Anyone know?

As you want to photo edit, I guess that rules out netbooks (of which I've heard the newest Samsung has a 10 hour battery life)

[DHutch]

I like the idea of playing about with some of this SFF technolgy.

- Consdering the little macs and the likes have been around for so long, im amazed at how many full sized desktops still find there way under desks operatating as what is typicaly little more than a dumb terminal.

 

Read a few reviews and get one bought. Post on here how it does.

 

Laptops arent all bad, but a high spec laptop will draw as much as any desktop if your not carefull.

 

 

Daniel

[Lady Muck]

Took one look at the linked site and all I could think was 'want'

[number four]

its some thing i would like in the new boat

but dont know enough about the subject to make a good desision

 

hear is another site

http://www.in-carpc.co.uk/hardware.htm#atomdc

 

i like the space saving as well as power.

i thought the price was not to bad

what do you all think?

[MickG]

I found this site recently,sounds a good possibility at a quoted "less than 10W Max"

 

http://www.fit-pc.co.uk

Mick

Edited November 6, 2009 by MickG

[casper ghost]

I have an Advent 4211 notebook, got it free with 24 months subscription on T mobile, only 15 quid a month. Works fine, most of the time anyway.

[Lady Muck]

its some thing i would like in the new boat

but dont know enough about the subject to make a good desision

 

hear is another site

http://www.in-carpc.co.uk/hardware.htm#atomdc

 

i like the space saving as well as power.

i thought the price was not to bad

what do you all think?

 

If you're doing photo and video editing, I'm not sure an atom processor willl be up to the job, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't atom processors the ones used in netbooks?

[RLWP]

If you're doing photo and video editing, I'm not sure an atom processor willl be up to the job, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't atom processors the ones used in netbooks?

 

The Gadget Show tested an Acer Revo with the Atom processor, including picture and video, and it came top in their test.

 

Richard

[Lady Muck]

ahhh I stand corrected.

[number four]

my curent pc is a

pentium 4cpu 2.80ghz

2.80ghz 960mb ram

hdd 76gb

 

will this be a good replacement?

http://www.aleutia.com/products/p1

 

i will also need a DVD read write so would need a usb powerd one if poss any recomendations?

i have some external HDD for storage.

i also use a HPw19 12v flat screen but am thinking of getting a 12v 20" LCTV that does everything and using it as a pc screen

[Chris J W]

The Gadget Show tested an Acer Revo with the Atom processor, including picture and video, and it came top in their test.

 

Richard

 

These little beauties are getting some rave reviews for their power and physical size.

 

ACER Revo R3600

 

http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/productv.do?Lan...;CRC=1141311666

 

Review

 

Trusted Reviews Website Linky

 

My mate's considering getting one as, bang for buck, they're just perfect for what he wants. Small, cheap, and 'powerful enough' for him.

 

Tried to convince him to get a MacMini but in this case the cost was the defining factor.

[Nickhlx]

These little beauties are getting some rave reviews for their power and physical size.

 

ACER Revo R3600

 

http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/productv.do?Lan...;CRC=1141311666

 

Review

 

Trusted Reviews Website Linky

 

My mate's considering getting one as, bang for buck, they're just perfect for what he wants. Small, cheap, and 'powerful enough' for him.

 

Tried to convince him to get a MacMini but in this case the cost was the defining factor.

 

 

These little "Aleutias" look brilliant for the money ....

 

Nick

 

[Chris J W]

These little "Aleutias" look brilliant for the money ....

 

Yeah, not bad looking bits of kit.

[WotEver]

The Gadget Show tested an Acer Revo with the Atom processor, including picture and video, and it came top in their test.

Video for those on broadband here: http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/jon-...on-test-nettops

 

Tony

[twocvbloke]

Why not have a crack at building your own low power mini-PC, you can get the stuff from http://www.mini-itx.com/store (lop off the /store bit to have a gander at other's creations, some are pretty cool!!!), it's only a few screws, some plugs and a stick or two of RAM...

 

(you'll also find the parts for most of those Aleutia systems there too!!!)

 

As for a monitor, if you have an LCD TV, check to see if it has VGA-in, if it has then you can use that instead of using more power running another screen...

Edited November 6, 2009 by twocvbloke

[Nickhlx]

Why not have a crack at building your own low power mini-PC, you can get the stuff from http://www.mini-itx.com/store (lop off the /store bit to have a gander at other's creations, some are pretty cool!!!), it's only a few screws, some plugs and a stick or two of RAM...

 

(you'll also find the parts for most of those Aleutia systems there too!!!)

 

As for a monitor, if you have an LCD TV, check to see if it has VGA-in, if it has then you can use that instead of using more power running another screen...

 

 

I used to build PCs for the office, and a few better known customers ( wasn't my main line ) but as my local suppliers dried up / went bust, it died a natural death and now I have lost touch...

 

I did try and compare buying a spec against building the same spec and it was cheaper to buy, and also came with cheap software bundles, making it much cheaper to buy ready made tested and guaranteed .... but making up a small low power device could be fun for the boat - I do have a low power 12V 19 inch monitor available, so that might be the way to go...

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

[number four]

I used to build PCs for the office, and a few better known customers ( wasn't my main line ) but as my local suppliers dried up / went bust, it died a natural death and now I have lost touch...

 

I did try and compare buying a spec against building the same spec and it was cheaper to buy, and also came with cheap software bundles, making it much cheaper to buy ready made tested and guaranteed .... but making up a small low power device could be fun for the boat - I do have a low power 12V 19 inch monitor available, so that might be the way to go...

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

 

could some of you with the knolage please answer my questions in post #11

i would like to know if the marine pc is a better speck than the one i have, and as i already do every thing i need on my existing pc therefor it should cope with what i need ?

i would like to swap my existing monitor for a 12v tv/dvd unit that also has pc monitor capability.

so creating a multimidia system runing on 12v

[alan_fincher]

i would like to swap my existing monitor for a 12v tv/dvd unit that also has pc monitor capability.

so creating a multimidia system runing on 12v

Generally, in my experience, smallish TVs that can be used as a PC monitor do not have a screen resolution anything like as good as a high quality lap-top.

 

You can use them connected to a computer, (we have occasionally done so to play DVDs), but the screen quality is often not that great if you want to use the PC for complex text work.

[Chris Pink]

I do have a low power 12V 19 inch monitor available, so that might be the way to go...

 

Which model is this?

[twocvbloke]

could some of you with the knolage please answer my questions in post #11

 

Sorry, must have missed that...

 

I think their H1 HTPC unit looks good for what you're after, it lacks an optical drive, but it's easy to purchase external ones to use as and when you need to (saves power too not having a drive permanently on, I'm lucky in that respect as I can shut off power to mine on my laptop)...

 

http://www.aleutia.com/products/h1

 

I have to say I'm impressed with the spec, and with no or hardly any moving parts, it looks good for boaty use...

 

And it has the ability to hang off the back of an LCD monitor, thus saving room on your desk for your stuff like mouse and keyboard (and anything else)...

[WotEver]

could some of you with the knolage please answer my questions in post #11

i would like to know if the marine pc is a better speck than the one i have, and as i already do every thing i need on my existing pc therefor it should cope with what i need?

It's a little bit apples and oranges but I'd say that no, the dual Atom processors wouldn't be a 'better' spec than your P4. However, the marine pc will draw far less power and will be substantially more robust.

 

Edit to say Ooops, missed 2CV's response, but we don't disagree so I'll leave mine as 'added info'.

 

Tony

Edited November 7, 2009 by WotEver

[number four]

Sorry, must have missed that...

 

I think their H1 HTPC unit looks good for what you're after, it lacks an optical drive, but it's easy to purchase external ones to use as and when you need to (saves power too not having a drive permanently on, I'm lucky in that respect as I can shut off power to mine on my laptop)...

 

http://www.aleutia.com/products/h1

 

I have to say I'm impressed with the spec, and with no or hardly any moving parts, it looks good for boaty use...

 

And it has the ability to hang off the back of an LCD monitor, thus saving room on your desk for your stuff like mouse and keyboard (and anything else)...

 

thanks for the advice

which model are you sergesting the standard or delux as the standard does not seem that diferent (but i know nothing)

and the delux is not 12v so a converter is neded and this would add power consumption and inconviance.

could someone explane how 2x 1.6 is less than 1x2.8 (i already have) in terms of the cpu?

what are your thoughts of the free operating system they are offfering?

[WotEver]

could someone explane how 2x 1.6 is less than 1x2.8 (i already have) in terms of the cpu?

In the simplest terms, cpu SPEED is what the 1.6 and 2.8 figures above refer to.

 

The internal architecture and instruction set on an Atom processor differs fundametally from a P4 (or P3, or P2, or Xeon etc) and those aspects can have far more impact than simple bus speed. That's why you don't see Celeron cpus any longer - they were faster in bus speed but slower to actually carry out commands, resulting in a 'less powerful' computer.

 

Tony

 

Quick edit to add that the whole reason that Atom processors (as fitted to many laptops and nettops) were designed, was to provide a processor that draws less current than desktop processors. That's what would make the Aleutia a good choice for a boat.

Edited November 7, 2009 by WotEver

[WotEver]

Generally, in my experience, smallish TVs that can be used as a PC monitor do not have a screen resolution anything like as good as a high quality lap-top.

Alan is spot on here. The very best resolution you'll get on a 'True HD' TV is 1920x1080 pixels, and that would be an expensive TV. More likely you'll get a 720P screen which will have a resolution of 1440x720 pixels . If it's an older/cheaper standard def TV it'll likely be less than 720 x 576 pixels.

 

PC World (not my favourite shop) are currently selling an 18.5" TFT LCD monitor with a resolution of 1366 x 768 for only £88. They're doing a 20" at 1600 x 900 for £110. A Google will turn up many better deals. You won't beat that with a TV.

 

Further, be wary of only an SVGA input on a TV. It won't be a lot of use on many modern PCs which only have DVI connectors these days.

 

Regards,

Tony