Low power consumption mainboard - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Bondguy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:13:28 am
content: Can anyone suggest a mainboard( ITX or simiilar) that has about 15W ( or less) consumption when idles?I plan it to use it with Linux as a very light webserver( low traffic).And would you recommend SSD or a standard hardisk?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:25:18 am
content: It'll largely come down to how much you want to spend. I've used theVia Mini-ITXboards before and they are quite good. Otherwise I can also highly recommend one of theIntel NUCs.I would normally recommend SSD's for most applications but spend the little extra and get yourself a MLC flash type (not TLC or the new "3D NAND flash") for data longevity. If you have money to burn, then go SLC flash, it's the most reliable but comes at a severe price premium and capacity limitations. If you're doing a lot of write-intensive operations, stick with traditional magnetic media (at least for now).The M.2 SSD drives you can get are very nice indeed.Perhaps if you give us a rough target price, we can make more specific recommendations.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:34:09 am
content: Buy a laptop.

author: djococaud
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 01:08:41 pm
content: Buy a raspberry pi (if low traffic)...

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 03:46:29 pm
content: Buy a motherboard with a cpu soldered to it and optionally capable of running from DC In jack.For example Asrock has a motherboard with an A4-5400 cpu soldered to it (it's basically an AMD 5350 downclocked), just add a ddr3 stick and a ssd on sata (for very low idle power consumption) :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157616There's also an Intel alternative for this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513Or another Intel based solution (with a quad core cpu) :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157619Both have about the same performance, and should average at less than 25 watts. The intel processors have slightly lower tdp but the graphics are generally worse. For web serving you wouldn't care.You can also buy AM1 based motherboards, for example Asrock sells a board with DC In jack which allows you to power everything from a 18-19v 65w laptop adapter :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157491Add a AM1 processor like the 5350 :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113364, if you want add a passive cooler to it (about 10$, the box heatsink has a smaller heatsink helped by a fan, you can shave 1w or so the fan uses by going with a beefier passive cooler) , add a 64-128 GB SSD and the whole system should idle at around 10w.If you want to be super low power you could even try to save a couple of watts by disabling the onboard audio and maybe even the extra sata controller (2 native sata ports, 2 ports from extra sata controller) and the extra usb 3 controllerIt's more expensive buying mb+cpu+optional cooler but on the other hand it allows you to use laptop adapter which is passively cooled and more efficient at such low wattage (a 65w laptop adapter will be 90%+ efficient throughout most of the output range, let's say 10w to 65w ...A 400-500w atx psu may only be about 70-80% efficient at less than 50w output. For example, a 80+ bronze rated power supply only has to be 80% efficient from 20% of it's output ... so the 20% threshold of a 400w is at around 80w.. below that output, it can be lower efficiency and still be called 80+ bronze.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:04:19 pm
content: Quote from: djococaud on December 08, 2016, 01:08:41 pmWith prices of hydro it sometimes crosses my mind to replace my servers with a bunch of RPIs.They are nice little computers for their cost and power consumption.It is my experience that Xeons based systems with proper server mainboard really are more efficient than desktops though. Any desktop I've built idles at a few hundred watts while the Xeon machines I've built idle below 100.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2016, 10:48:10 am
content: Some optionshttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/139108638/lattepanda-a-45-win10-computer-for-everythinghttps://pt.aliexpress.com/item/I5-4200u-fanless-mini-itx-with-Intel-Core-i5-4200U-1-6Ghz-CPU-Haswell-Architecture-Intel/2040651072.html?spm=2114.30010508.3.11.aKZYFN&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3_10065_10068_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10037_10054_10059_10032_10099_10078_10079_10077_426_10103_10073_10102_10096_10052_10050_10051,searchweb201603_2&btsid=d0b6f1d8-4d80-478e-b269-2504297b8fb0https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/Origianl-VOYO-V3-MINI-PC-Windows10-PC-Intel-Cherry-Trail-X7-Z8700-4G-128G-2-4G/32643602679.html?spm=2114.30010508.3.29.FyVPrj&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3_10065_10068_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10037_10054_10059_10032_10099_10078_10079_10077_426_10103_10073_10102_10096_10052_10050_10051,searchweb201603_2&btsid=daf4b516-83f6-46c9-8012-07682afcab31