[geeks] New Intel Atom-based barebones system

[Mark]

On 15 Aug 2008, at 05:54, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Aug 2008, Joshua Boyd wrote:
>
>> I wish I could convince more people to get stuff like this instead  
>> of Pentium-D monstrosities.

There are other SFF, power efficient machines out there that would  
splat an Atom based rig with a big stick, an they aren't *that*  
expensive. At $work we bought 3 Lenovo ThinkCentre machines with Dual  
Core AMD64 X2s that are aboutt he size of a latter day compact VCR,  
use an external brick and probably consume a little more power than a  
17" laptop (not allowing for the separate screen). With 3GB of RAM and  
the stock HDD and DVD-RW (both SATA) they motor along really nicely  
for office and browser-based work. They were about 200 GBP + tax each  
and they are dead silent and barely run warm most of the time.

Personally I am holding off for a Dual Core Atom. I think once it goes  
Duo it'll pack enough punch for decoding HD media on the fly, which  
will make it a much more viable possibility for a second machine on my  
desk. If Intel launch a new mini-board with the Dual Core on it then  
I'l be there faster than a speeding Duracell bunny. I even have a  
desktop case to put it in when I get it now :)

Roll on the next chip cycle :)


-- 
Mark Benson

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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."