I'm currently torn between two low power machines to use a Windows Home server but i was wondering which will use the most power? No power calc out on the internet seems to give me ball park watts.

The first contender is a Intel D201GLY2 - http://www.intel.com/products/motherboa ... /index.htm

The second is a EQS AB6S-RS690IKM with a AMD Athlon LE-1650 (45W) - http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11717

Both systems will have 2 SATA drives & 2GB memory in them with no other drives, usb etc.

I've currently got a picopsu120w & 110w laptop psu to drive the pc but is that going to be enough?

Cheers

J

The D201GLY2 draws a tiny amount of power (~40W full load), I'm sure any difference between it and the other option will be less than 10 watts at load. I'm would have thought that the AMD choice will draw more power, but then I am just guessing. If you're that intent on saving watts then you should be looking at a Via solution. A 90W picoPSU will be plenty for your listed setup, you're looking at a 40-60W load DC draw with your listed Intel setup, depending on the exact hard drives you use.
I take it you're aware of the (deal-breaking for me) issues with WHS? I would hold off until the problems are fixed or try a flavour of Linux.

No way i didn't realise that WHS was broke! Thanks for the heads up.

Looks like i better find an alternative any suggestions?

I'm really tempted by the AMD setup as it will give the server a lot more power but at lot more wattage.

Cheers

J

How low power are you trying to go?

If you're not constrained for physical space a microATX AMD system can reach similarly low levels of power consumption (~30W from the wall idle albeit without 2x3.5" hard-drives). The upside of uATX is that generally everything is easier -- cases are easier to find and cheaper, heatsinks, etc., more room for generally everything inside the case.

Well the problem is i've already got a hoojum cubit 3 that only takes mini itx motherboards. Do you think i will be able to power the system with two hdd's for less than 110w?

J

Ah OK, I missed that, thought you were building from scratch.



110 watts oh hell yes. Wattage-wise a mini-ITX or properly specced uATX wouldn't pull more than ~70W under CPU heavy load with a couple of 3.5" HDs. Probably a fair bit less generally. Headline watts isn't the problem.

The real issue I'd say is whether a picoPSU can provide the amps on the 12V line to spin up two 3.5" HDs simultaneously. Can't say I've tried with mine...

Ok thanks for advice, i done a little bit more research and the AMD LE-1650 processor pulls 45w (not sure if this is ideal or under load?) so if the motherboard takes 10w and the hdds take roughly 20w it would appear to work with my 12v 8.5a laptop psu.

However if my calc's are wrong i could be left with a lot of stuff i can't use.

j

Well, I'll be surprised if your CPU pulls 45W in reality. That 45W rating applies to a whole class of AMD CPUs, and it's very much a worst-case scenario. I have a 3600+X2 which is rated at the same, and I'm pretty sure that doesn't draw 45W even under loads which make it cough.

Really, you should take all the manufacturers specs with a big pinch of salt and read around more here for the systems that folks are running off picoPSUs. You'll be surprised

You could undervolt Athlon by yourself, which reduces power draw dramatically. I've undervolt my Athlon64 3000+ to 1G @ 0.85V, and I could return to 1.8G @ 1.1V when there's a need. Cheap, fast enough, and quiet (stock fan rotates at 350prm only! Wonderful Abit FanEQ of my board).

Mini-ITX typically draws a little more power comparing to a low-end & undervolt system, which was triggered by lacking of undervolting function in MB & CPU. The magic of Mini-ITX is ROOM for your housing.

Might also want to consider most power doing what.
Power at idle vs power at load.

Will the server be idle for long periods? - If so,
might want to also take into account what hardware does well at
sleeping/hibernating and waking up from sleep.
(Some systems seem to have more problems waking up than others.)

Sorry, I don't know how either of your suggested platforms fare in this department, but if it spends most of its time idle, hibernating (at a few watts) vs idling (at a few tens of watts) can be a reasonable power savings.