What is the lowest power x86 compatible desktop PC you can build?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Agree with jamesqf... If you've been able to transport a display plus printer before without destroying them, the laptop would do fine. Regardless if you get a desktop-style system with an external monitor or a laptop with an external monitor, you still have to schlepp around an external monitor. Benefit of the laptop is that you don't always have to connect that external monitor if you want to do a quick check on your system or have some data to input or want to show a customer something real quick or ... etc.

Experience says no, My computer that is in there now and printer are used to support other stuff in our brick of stuff, we use the computer as a structural
component so to say.

I have broken laptop screens in the past, laptop hinges among other things even while taking greater care transporting them so they don't get smashed or fall.

I also have found laptops (for me at least) simply do not last very long without developing bugs or hardware issues, the last one the keyboard internally started flaking out not long after purchase and then the external would do the same shortly after.

Lets just say I have not had good luck with new laptops, antiques yes, new not so much.

[dcb]

thing is a laptop with a parallel port (that is a requirement for those that don't know, as well as being able to run windows 98) is cheap (occasionally free) and fairly low power in many cases. Build a wooden box around it with plenty of cushioning and lots of room for cooling and access to the keyboard/printer/mouse/vga ports and bobs your uncle, for like $50. It's the most cost effective option as well as being a reuse opportunity.

[NachtRitter]

Originally Posted by dcb

... Build a wooden box around it with plenty of cushioning and lots of room for cooling and access to the keyboard/printer/mouse/vga ports and bobs your uncle, for like $50. It's the most cost effective option as well as being a reuse opportunity.

Box can then be your "structural component", custom built for the "brick of stuff"...

[Mara]

If you are considering building a PC, you may consider buying an integrated motherboard with Via Nano CPU. It uses less power than Atom while it is significantly faster. Cost of the 1GHz model is also cheap, <$50 when I checked Newegg.

[leftlink]

The original netbook, the ASUS EEE PC, has a solid state drive and tiny 7 inch screen... almost indestructible fat hinges also. It uses only 8 watts and has an external video port.

I know u don't want a laptop but the SSD is a way to go if you want power savings.

Along those lines, what about an iPad? No keyboard to get dirt into... and you can run windows 95 on it. see:

Apple iPad Gets Windows 95 Love With X86 Emulator

[DamageX]

Some of the newer systems people are mentioning aren`t going to have win98 drivers available which could be problematic. I have a mini-ITX Pentium-M board with i855GM chipset and it would not boot win98 at all. I`m not sure why, may have been a BIOS issue, and this hardware is not even new (probably 6 years old or more).

I think an old Pentium-MMX laptop or a desktop system with a socket 7 motherboard and possibly an underclocked CPU would do the job just fine. Use a low-end video card, 2.5" HDD or CF card, and the monitor and printer will be the only things left to think about.

While it`s true that older parts use higher voltages and were manufactured with a larger process size, they also contain vastly fewer transistors on the die. In addition to that, die shrinks have yielded diminishing returns ever since the 90nm node because of leakage current. So if you don`t need all the features of the new stuff then older stuff isn`t out of the question.

The laptop I`m using right now has:
ULV Pentium M (1.1w idle, 5.5w tdp)
855PM chipset (1.8w tdp)
Mobility Radeon 7500 a.k.a. M7-CSP32 (1.6W idle, 5.3W tdp)

which is out of date but still looks pretty good compared to any atom/i945 combo