[mythtv-users] New system hardware suggestions - "thermal efficiency" is the new "turbo!"

[Brad Templeton]

On Sun, Jul 16, 2006 at 04:35:10PM -0700, dave johnson wrote:
> If you look at the Maxline II series (the last mass-available 300gb+ capacity 5400RPM drives that I 
> am even aware of in existance), you'll see the difference in power usage between them and the 
> current large capacity drives about 1.5w each.

Yup.  But that's only a small part of my message.  Some people think
they want the latest, fastest high performance drives in their
myth box.  I point out that not only does that gain you next to nothing
in performance as a video recorder, it actually costs you something.
The power's only one thing.   Noise and drive lifetime are even
more important.

My Tivo came with a 4500 rpm drive for many reasons.  Aside from power,
heat and noise, such drives were also cheaper.

Of course, they don't sell these drives retail any more and economies
of scale make the most popular drives the cheapest.

But it's worth knowing that getting a 10,000 rpm drive would be
a waste in a pure myth box, though it would be great for a machine
that will be i/o bound.

> other alternatives like the Goede and Crusoe for desktop systems.  Even so, the Core Duo is barely 
> 15% less power usage than the already huge reduction in power the Athlon 64 has over the Pentium 4 
> family.

The Geode is a nice low power chip but I don't think it could do HDTV
on its own, without xvmc.  Has anybody done that?   The Core duo looks
like it definitely could.
> In regard to fanless heat sinks, I found this somewhat interesting when I was checking the various 
> fan-free heatsinks out: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article118-page3.html
> 

Fanless is not the best choice, except in living room systems where you
want low noise.   These hot CPUs (like in the web page) are really not
likely to do well with a fanless heat sink.

I'm putting more and more fans in my  non-living-room systems.  However
my mission is to put in lots of _big_ fans.   Any new cases I get will
have slots for 12cm fans, or someday larger, as they are a lot quieter.

Alas, most graphics cards and CPU fans are smaller.

My main server has a drive bay filled with 2 9cm fans blowing full on.
Not super quiet, but without it, I would be seeing more drive failures,
I think.   Likewise I know buy external enclosures with large fans
if I plan to leave them on.