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

Thu Mar 17 03:33:52 UTC 2005

According to http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm, P3 OLGA (aka secc2 aka 
slot 1)  500 MHz consumes 28 W whereas P3 FCPGA (aka socket 370) 500MHz 
consumes 13.2 W.  I am not an expert in CPUs, so I might be wrong.
On the other hand, I have a 2GHz athlon box and it takes 150W from mains and I 
have P3 667MHz Socket 370 and it takes just 30W (I measured this using clamp 
amp meter).   5 times difference !!!

On Wednesday 16 March 2005 08:52, Nicholas McCoy wrote:
> 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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> >
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