If I get the bug to build a new MythBox. The Asus M2A-VM motherboard coupled with the 45 Watt AMD Athlon X2 BE2350 would make a nice low-power combo. This report shows total system power of 59 W idle, and 87 W max. Not shabby considering the 2.8Ghz P4 system serving this very web page is cooking at 100W idle and 160 W when it’s cranking.
At 40 watts difference, 24×7 totals to 28.8KWH a month — cutting at most $6.33 from my power bill (assuming it’s all coming off the $0.22/KWH rate tier — which I rarely hit).
Tough to justify the $75 mobo, + $85 cpu + $70 memory.
Update: Silent PC review got 35W from their test system at idle using a notebook HD. That’s starting to look encouraging…
Update 2: Argh — mobo has an ATI graphics chip. Most likely will not run mythtv.
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