[mythtv-users] Lower power usage ideas? (for backend)

[Nicholas McCoy]

Whats wrong with P3 Slot CPUs?  I've got a 500 Mhz one running in my
Myth box.  The only problem is the fan.  There is only room to mount a
40mm fan and its old, so it is noisy.


On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:41:35 -0500, Alexander Varakin
<avarakin at optonline.net> wrote:
> It is a good  idea  to use older hardware, e.g.   P3 667 or Celeron 533 are
> very good. They were designed before gigahertz wars and they
> consume very little power, about 15W. Just add PVR250 and you will get a very
> nice backend which consumes about 30W in total. Also get a cheap 300W PS and
> replace fan by low speed fan (or maybe without fan at all) and you will get
> almost silent server which can
> run 24x7.   CPU plus mobo can be found for around $40 on ebay or for free
> in friend's basement.
> Be very careful with CPU selection though: P3 slot type  CPUs are very bad,
> you
> need socket 370 type CPUs with Coppermine core if I remember correctly.
> P3 667 has enough power for playback so it can be used for low noise  backend
> and frontend.
> I think this setup will also work as HDTV backend.
> 
> You can see CPU power consumption here:
> http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm
> 
> 
> On Monday 14 March 2005 23:33, Justin Hunt wrote:
> >
> > Your idea of using a pentium M is a good idea, my laptop draws about
> > 25 watts max with a lcd screen (1.4ghz) and if you clock it down it
> > drops to about 15ish, although the a/c adaptor draws quite a big load
> > to charge at about 40watts (says 1.5 amps at 120v) but if u used a
> > laptop based on p-M you wouldnt need to have continuous power to run
> > it, and if u get a system with decent sized battery can run for 10
> > hours on a charge the ibm t40 (i think) does this nicely, i wouldnt
> > recommend the dell inspiron 600m for battery life i have 3 batteries
> > (1 main and 2 cdrom) and i can get about 5 hours out of it on a good
> > day.
> >
> > Hopefully that helps a bit?
> > Justin
> >
> > On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:19:07, colliepon <colliepon at webport.veris.org> wrote:
> > > Just curious both what other people are doing, and feature discussion
> > > (not b*tching :) on other methods of reducing the power use of a myth box
> > > since it can build up over awhile. (and my next move may very well be off
> > > grid - satellite TV, running off solar or wind, so power use is critical
> > > but i'd prefer an alternative to the VCR) A few examples i'm thinking of:
> > >
> > > Could you schedule an expected time-on and time off to work with a normal
> > > block of programming?  By shut down time I mean to properly suspend all
> > > tasks like commercial flagging without screwing up data or not doing them
> > > during the week at all.  This would let you use a standard analog or
> > > digital wall timer to turn on the computer and satellite receiver for a
> > > given block of time (for instance 6:30pm to 10pm if you mostly like the
> > > evening block, or 11pm to about 3am if you like Adult Swim) since I don't
> > > know any other way to tell a computer to turn on at a given time.  :)
> > > (though if someone knows of a computer-programmable wakeup solution
> > > please tell me!)
> > >
> > > Or perhaps having a C3 machine with a PVR500 for 24hr recording which can
> > > wake up a P4 with another card for overflow during peak hours, and also
> > > to do things like commercial flagging or recompression. (which also might
> > > need to schedule file moves, for instance a 120gig drive on the C3 and
> > > 500gig on the P4 as primary storage)
> > >
> > > Or maybe speed throttling certain cpu's might work - some of the new
> > > Centrino motherboards for desktop use
> > > http://www17.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20041224/index.html, laptops
> > > with a USB grabber, or even the underclocked Athlon XP
> > > http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041001/index.html - does anyone use
> > > anything like this? (or have any experience/insights worth sharing?)
> > > I've no clue how/if throttling is supported in linux, or mythTV or
> > > anything else, but it would be nice to let the cpu idle during daily
> > > recording and to speed up for flagging and transcoding.
> > >
> > > Is anyone else using a lower power design or strategy with Myth?
> > >
> > >
> > > Colliepon
> > >
> > >
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