Jump to content

Low Power Computers

GlenBlk

By GlenBlk
in Living Afloat

 Share

Featured Posts

GlenBlk Collaborator

GlenBlk

Posted
Posted

I am planning my move aboard and one of the most important things is being able to work on my computer sometimes for 10 hours a day.

I have found some computers that can run on less than 20 watts but I am wondering what screen to use that would be low power.

I am also considering a suitable laptop that has a decent size screen as a potential alternative so wonder if any exist with long battery life?

 

It would be very helpful to hear from boaters who use computers on board and what kind of energy their setup is using to help me make a good choice.

 

thank you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
oarfish Community Regular

oarfish

Posted
Posted

Modern machines are very variable in their power requirements. My MBP uses anything from 40-200+ watts (when 3D card is at full tilt). I easily get 5-6 hours out of the battery doing software development, which is pretty heavy power wise.

 

Your best bet for genuine low power computing is something that isn't x86, but that is going to limit you to chromebooks, winrt or linux.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
koukouvagia Influencer

koukouvagiaDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes, I have to say I am also a software developer and I have a macbook pro. As I work in an office it's long battery life is ideal for boat living, as is my Ipad 3 which I think is a great bit of kit.

 

 

We use three computers on the boat. OH has a Chromebook, I have an ultrabook (Sony Duo11) and son uses a Macbook pro professionally as a book illustrator.

However, I'd say forget about the Mac. It seems to want its own power station – way beyond the capacity of our modest battery and charging setup. The 300W inverter, which is fine for the Chromebook and the Sony, simply squeaks and gives up with the Mac. Personally I could never use the Chromebook all day. The screen, IMHO, is simply not good enough, although the battery life is very good.

 

As for the Duo 11, it's the bees' knees and cats'whiskers. Never used a better machine. Battery lasts about 4 hours. This could be doubled with an extra battery pack.

Edited by koukouvagia
Link to comment
Share on other sites
smileypete Veteran II

smileypete

Posted
Posted

I am planning my move aboard and one of the most important things is being able to work on my computer sometimes for 10 hours a day.

I have found some computers that can run on less than 20 watts but I am wondering what screen to use that would be low power.

Just about any screen with an LED backlight, compare max brightess vs max power use, though most can be comfortably used well below max brightness.

 

Your best bet for genuine low power computing is something that isn't x86, but that is going to limit you to chromebooks, winrt or linux.

Yeah, wouldn't mind one of these, early days yet but I can see myself getting something similar in a year or two:

http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php

201211251432377371.jpg

201211291304301718.jpg

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am planning my move aboard and one of the most important things is being able to work on my computer sometimes for 10 hours a day.

I have found some computers that can run on less than 20 watts but I am wondering what screen to use that would be low power.

I am also considering a suitable laptop that has a decent size screen as a potential alternative so wonder if any exist with long battery life?

 

It would be very helpful to hear from boaters who use computers on board and what kind of energy their setup is using to help me make a good choice.

 

Get a laptop of one that will suit your requirements, they will all roughly use the same wattage for the same processor speed. You can enable more power saving in the control panel / settings (copy them from the when only on battery to when on mains power is a good start).

 

Also get a 12v-laptop transformer so you don't need to run an inverter. (You can also get mac versions (ebay!) if you decide to go mac).

 

What will be more important than the PC/laptop is your power generation on the boat, you'll need decent NON leisure battery's for your boat and a good method and of charging (in-built diesel generator would be my first choice). - There's a good pinned thread in the equipment area on power..

Edited by Robbo
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DaveP Proficient

DaveP

Posted
Posted

Depending on your geekiness it may be worth looking at a Raspberry Pi - about 3W power consumption, but you'll also need power to feed a hard drive, screen, input devices, 3G dongle etc. It's going to really depend on how big a monitor you need and how much number-crunching is required; but I'd say that you're looking at 30-50W total consumption at the low end...

 

--

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
oarfish Community Regular

oarfish

Posted
Posted (edited)

Seen them take a lot more than 85W that according to my inverter. Don't know how efficient the adapter is. Still, yeah you are right that 300W should handle it. 2 MBPs on our 10Amp 12 volt circuit regularly trips it out, so not sure if the 12v adapters are much better than using an inverter.

Edited by oarfish
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Robbo Veteran II

Robbo

Posted
Posted

Seen them take a lot more than 85W that according to my inverter. Don't know how efficient the adapter is. Still, yeah you are right that 300W should handle it. 2 MBPs on our 10Amp 12 volt circuit regularly trips it out, so not sure if the 12v adapters are much better than using an inverter.

 

Well a MacBook could pull 7amp I'm guessing two would trip a 10amp Circuit breaker!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mango Experienced

mango

Posted
Posted

We use three computers on the boat. OH has a Chromebook, I have an ultrabook (Sony Duo11) and son uses a Macbook pro professionally as a book illustrator.

However, I'd say forget about the Mac. It seems to want its own power station – way beyond the capacity of our modest battery and charging setup. The 300W inverter, which is fine for the Chromebook and the Sony, simply squeaks and gives up with the Mac. Personally I could never use the Chromebook all day. The screen, IMHO, is simply not good enough, although the battery life is very good.

 

As for the Duo 11, it's the bees' knees and cats'whiskers. Never used a better machine. Battery lasts about 4 hours. This could be doubled with an extra battery pack.

My 15" MacBook Pro (just a year old) works fine on a 150 watt inverter (a cheap one from Maplin, bought over 10 years ago). That's no surprise because the power supply is rated at 85 watts and it does not use more than this. I've used it on three other Mac laptops too, over the years.

 

The problem is that some boats have too much voltage drop in the DC supply, so the inverter bleeps and cuts out due to low supply voltage. I had a hire boat like that this year and could see that the 12 volt socket had been wired with inadequate gauge cable. To charge the MBP I had to use the big sine wave inverter, which is less efficient for small loads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Arthur Brown Influencer

Arthur Brown

Posted
Posted

Most laptops use less than 100w and few computers use more than 400w. Chose the monitor carefully for comfort.

 

Have some spare power for back up toys - external HD etc.

 

Dell laptops are silly fussy that they run on a dell power supply -they don't work on the usual 12v supplies.

 

Sort out power generation -you will need lots of power be it solar or diesel

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmr Veteran II

dmr

Posted
Posted

As yet another boat living software writer....

Surely software development is NOT power hungry? Its mostly thinking and a bit of typeing so mostly the computer is sat doing nothing but waiting for its operator to press a button (the Windows idle loop). Compilation, and testing of cpu intensive software is another matter.

 

Laptops are the way to go as low consumption will have been part of the design process, and they take up less space. Avoid fancy graphics cards and very fast cpu's. Very few manufacturers give power consumption figures and they are quite variable. In general get the lowest spec you can live with.

Get the Maplin 12v to 19v jobbie rather than an inverter.

My laptop draws less than 2amps (at 12 volts) so a ten hour shift is less than 20Ah, no big issue. My wife had a big Rock laptop with graphics card etc etc but that had to go...it ate over 7 amps!

Netbooks are good for power consumption but the screen is too small for software development and the cpu slow, but they might be useful if you need a second machine for testing on different versions of Windows etc etc.

 

..........Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

As yet another boat living software writer....

Surely software development is NOT power hungry? Its mostly thinking and a bit of typeing so mostly the computer is sat doing nothing but waiting for its operator to press a button (the Windows idle loop). Compilation, and testing of cpu intensive software is another matter.

 

Laptops are the way to go as low consumption will have been part of the design process, and they take up less space. Avoid fancy graphics cards and very fast cpu's. Very few manufacturers give power consumption figures and they are quite variable. In general get the lowest spec you can live with.

Get the Maplin 12v to 19v jobbie rather than an inverter.

My laptop draws less than 2amps (at 12 volts) so a ten hour shift is less than 20Ah, no big issue. My wife had a big Rock laptop with graphics card etc etc but that had to go...it ate over 7 amps!

Netbooks are good for power consumption but the screen is too small for software development and the cpu slow, but they might be useful if you need a second machine for testing on different versions of Windows etc etc.

 

..........Dave

I use an old Satellite Pro laptop (freebie) on the boat with one of those Maplin adaptors that you speak of. It runs Win7 fine, and I watch videos on it. Very economical on power. Use it loads.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites
routrax Contributor

routrax

Posted
Posted

Another dev here (really so many of us on boats?)

I've got a 15" Samsung series 9 and it gives me 7-8 hrs on Linux or Win7, it's really thin and light too, so good for trips to the office.

 

I've been looking at this company for a desktops http://aleutia.com/ , not bought one yet, but from what I've read on their site, I think they understand the 'low power' thing quite well.

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chris Pink Veteran II

Chris Pink

Posted
Posted

Top MacbookPros are around 85w so a 300w inverter will run no issues...

 

Yes, I don't know what they're on about, mine ( as big as they get ) runs off a 220W inverter just fine with enough over to run a printer or hard drive and various drill chargers. It does take 7-8 A from the 12v more or less constantly and the dongle or phone uses another half an amp so I consider it a fairly hungry beast. Video (card) processing seems to be the most demanding power wise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
oarfish Community Regular

oarfish

Posted
Posted

As yet another boat living software writer....

Surely software development is NOT power hungry? Its mostly thinking and a bit of typeing so mostly the computer is sat doing nothing but waiting for its operator to press a button (the Windows idle loop). Compilation, and testing of cpu intensive software is another matter.

 

Visual studio and continuous testing tools like ncrunch will keep the fans going. If I'm doing something more lightweight then no. Gaming definitely turns laptops into bollock burners.

 

Another dev here (really so many of us on boats?)

 

Seemingly. Maybe we should do a survey post?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DHutch Veteran II

DHutchDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

Parents have got a Shuttle Xs35v2 with a SDD which is a fairly nice looking piece of kit, although I haven't used it much its very nice that it makes no noise at all.

 

As said, monitor-wise your then probably on a LED backlit LCD.

 

 

Daniel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.