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Low energy use always on pc -- what's better, a laptop or a mini (htpc) pc?
JavaJones:
Ok. And do you want it to run Windows, or would Linux, etc. be fine?
- Oshyan
mouser:
I have not yet decided what OS to run; but i dont want to purchase something that locks me into one or another OS.
JavaJones:
Ok, so you don't have a specific enough idea of the use to be comfortable getting anything less than a fully flexible system? i.e. you don't want some kind of embedded, purpose-built, or otherwise non-standard system?
- Oshyan
mouser:
right, i want to use a general purpose pc using a standard OS, with standard usb/keyboard/etc.
f0dder:
Go for an Atom-based board - that's probably going to be the most flexible choice. It packs a fair amount of punch, but still has very low power consumption, and can be run passively cooled. There's plenty of options for casing (you don't really get that with a laptop), et cetera.
Be careful about the edition you choose, though - some (of the earlier?) models have extremely inefficient chipsets (compared to the CPU), and this end up drawing a fair amount of power in total. I think the ION ones are supposed to be decent, and iirc that chipset adds the power to decode HD video, in case you decide to do that later on :)
Too bad the Atom CPUs don't have AES acceleration, that would make them very interesting to me.
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