Re: Hints on kernel config for a dula pII/450 system anyone?

[Oliver Fromme <check+j5sj3k00rshgtubp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Justin C. Sherrill wrote:
 > Oliver Fromme wrote:
 > > By the way, my main server at home was a Pentium-75 until
 > > recently.  I replaced it with a low-power EPIA board (with
 > > VIA C3 processor), mainly because the Pentium-75 couldn't
 > > be upgraded beyond 128 MB RAM, and I needed more RAM
 > > because the Squid proxy caused paging sometimes.  Other
 > > than that, the Pentium-75 was perfect and even ran fanless
 > > (with a huge self-made heatsink) at ~ 30 °C.
 > 
 > I've been curious to figure out what the CPU power/electrical power 'sweet
 > spot' is for a home server; the C3 CPUs sound not bad.

Actually the Pentium-M has a very good performance-per-watt
ratio, and the new Core-Duo supposedly too.

However, when making a decision for a low-power box, I think
it makes sense to first decide how much processing power you
need, and then look for hardware providing that power with
the least power consumption (and also considering other
contraints, of course).

For example, I have a small SBC board with 233 MHz Geode
processor (it's built into my stand-alone hifi mp3 player).
The whole box consumes 9 W (not a theoretical value, but
measured at the wall plug).  That's less than a Pentium-M
machine, even though the Pentium-M's performance-per-watt
ratio is better, because it is much faster.  But the point
is, if you don't need that much performance, then the Geode
is better.

(That's just an example ...  The VIA C3 performs better
than the Geode, but also consumes more power.)

Best regards
   Oliver

PS:  Once nice thing about the C3 is that it accelerates
/dev/random and AES (for IPSEC and OpenSSH) in hardware.

-- 
Oliver Fromme,  secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing
Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd

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