"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
:

"Richard Ferryman" wrote in message
...
I have a new computer which is about half the hight of a mini tower,
ideal for mounting below the chart table. This has two serial ports
which is an advantage over my laptop, so can connect GPS and my radio
comms, and has
all
the other ports and slots I would need but is supplied without
processor, ram or hard disk etc. The board has a socket 478 for a
Pentium 4. The question is which P4 to optimise power consumption.
I suspect that power dissipation/processor speed is a non linear
function and there will
be
an optimum processor
speed for both processor power dissipation and cooling fan power
consumption
above which energy is consumed at an exorbitant rate.
My old tower system at home would loaf along at about 60W, twice what
the laptop takes, and I suspect the new one will consume about the
same when relatively idle. Naturally I want to keep the power down
as it will run whenever at sea with ust solar panel and wind
generator to top up the battery.

Also does anyone know if any of the 15" LCD displays can run on 12V
or
will
that have to run off the inverter too?

Richard
G4BBH = G4BBH/MM

Since none of the applications you will be running at sea will need
much processing power, I would opt for a 1GHZ P4 or less. 15" TFT flat
panel monitors usually have a 12 volt DC connection, but you would be
advised to check this out before purchase.

--
Remove "nospam" from return address.




Did they make a 1Ghz P4? P4 423 pin started about 1.4ghz I think and the
P4 478 pin where 1.6Ghz... again, I think..

If low power is a real issue then a 478 isn't a great starting point, but
still better than P3 and AMD. The low end P4's are going down in price too.
The 400mhz bus P4's all use about 28 watts, there's very little difference
between 1.6 and 2.0Ghz unless you're manually upping the voltages to over
clock. The power requirements of the cooling fan(s) and the hd would be as
significant. The newest video cards can draw more than the CPU too....