Via EPIA Mini-ITX motherboard

[Don Lewis]

On 16 May, Ed Hall wrote:

> Like Matt says, you'd only get such a system if power, noise, or size
> is a strong factor.  Power here in PG&E-land is a significant cost --
> I figure that my ~40W system will pay for itself in a couple of years
> compared to the average 200W drawn by most 2GHz+ boxes out there.
> But it's only a bit faster than my old 333MHz P-II -- fast enough for
> surfing, modest development, and as a front-end to other networked
> systems.

Speaking of power consumption, my firewall box uses a standard Socket
370 motherboard and one of the newer Celerons, which I underclocked. The
disk is an IBM 2.5 inch 10 GB drive.  I think the power supply is the
standard ATX form factor, but I think it's only rated at 90W.  According
to my handy Radio Shack watt meter, it draws 39 W.

I went this route because I wanted an affordable low-power machine that
could use ECC RAM.

It's also the quietest machine in the house, though probably not nearly
as good as the EPIA.