low power computers
a few weeks ago I go a OLPC XO laptop in the mail, the One Laptop Per Child computer for devolping countries to use in school, they did a fund raiser by making them avalible to the public by a donation to the compeny.
Anyway, seeing as how this is a online forum about efficentcy, I thougth it fitting to bring this up, I've had a chance to plug it in to the kill-a-watt meter, it draws 20 watts for two hours to full charge the battery from 98% discharge, and once the battery is charge it draws 6-7 watts thru the charger to keep it running with a program running, and If you are outside, or in a well lit room you can turn the backlight off and the moniter goes to black and grey, drawing about 1 watt less. As far as a laptop goes, this is very basic, web browser, word prosessing program, paint program, some games, in theory it can be used for music, video, photos, but I have not found an easy way to do these things. It only has 1 gig of storage and 250mb of ram, and the only time so far that I had a problem with that was when loading a 500mb PDF file, it spent 20 minutes trying to load it, but never finished. really, the only complante I have about it is the size of the key board, I have large finters, and the key board is 7 3/4" acrose, of course it was designed for kids, but it sounds like a large number of these were sold to adults, my other complante is the instructions for how to connect to a wireless network are online, and it's not obviuse as to how it works. I figure at some point I'll get tired of the lack of avalible programs, and get something like the Asus Eee. |
Hey Im finally posting on this forum... not just trolling for ideas :-)
I saw a podcast a while back by "system" talking about power consumption of household electronics and they covered computers and laptops. They had tested a macbook pro which had pretty impressive numbers especially compared to desktops. I have been meaning to pick up a killawatt to search the house for unnecessary power loss and am really curious about what my computers are pulling. The numbers on that XO laptop are really impressive. |
belivie it or not wal-mart sells a really low power lunix compter for $199. I don't think I would buy it because it doesn't even come with a cd drive.
blog post: https://ecotality.com/life/2007/11/16...-and-low-cost/ Wal-mart link: https://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7754614 |
Wow that Walmart tower is a deal and I build systems.
Ryland - that Linux laptop is pretty cool but as with any NON-Windows OS there will be compatibility issues the first being additional software. That was designed to talk to other laptops like itself and I think it would need a non-encripted wifi network to get on the internet and it may connect to others like it directly. Should be pretty easy but I have not seen one. Opening a 500meg PDF would have crashed most PC's - that is BIG! |
Ryland -
Pretty cool. I was looking at that offer of give one/get one, but I was also worried about compatibility issues. Does it work well in a coffee shop (aka free wifi environment)? That would be it's most portable/useful purpose for me to get one. If it proliferates, I am guessing over time that it might become a stealth-standard because there will be so many people wanting to enhance it's functionality. Here's are the specs : Software Specifications https://laptop.org/laptop/software/specs.shtml Quote:
https://laptop.org/laptop/hardware/specs.shtml Code:
Physical dimensions: |
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landspeed -
Quote:
https://eeepc.asus.com/global/ CarloSW2 |
check out zonbu.com too much for me to explain about the product, but if i wasn't happy with my current system I would definitely purchase this one next, well the desktop neways.
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My laptop (Dell Inspiron 9300) sips power. It uses 25 watts while closed (kept running with torrents and other things), and 35 watts when actively being used while open. That is pretty good if you ask me. It also has a decent video card that allows me to play first person shooters. Not that I play FPSs anymore, but still, I could if I wanted to.
What to watch for is the new wave of Intel processors. Can't remember exactly which ones they were, but they use about 2 or 3 watts at idle. THAT is amazing! I personally realized that I do need a desktop, as even though my laptop has a DVD-R and a 17" monitor, it still can't do everything that I want it to. So... I plan on getting a new desktop within a year or so... and it will probably use about the same amount of electricity as the laptop I am currently using! Sorry for the thread-jack. I just couldn't help myself. |
I'm in a coffee shop right now with my XO, and it works great, other then the small key board, being able to use it for things like googlemaps is nice too, the other day I needed driving directions, so I pulled in to a parking lot, flipped up the antena ears, found a wireless network, found the dirrections and a map, turned the screen so I could fold it flat, and with the backlight off I could read my directions just fine, saving a it of paper and ink.
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