[time-nuts] Modern motherboard with RS232 port

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Sun Aug 19 17:06:27 UTC 2012


This sounds like a newer version of the board I use.   The thing to check
is if the CPU heat sink has a fan or not.  Having no fan indicates that the
CPU is not using much power.  It also removes a common failure point.

To reduce power even more.  On an NTP server you can unplug the keyboard,
mouse and monitor and if you have other servers on the LAN configure one as
a "boot server" and have it run TFTP then your NTP server does not need a
disk drive.  It can run off a "RAM disk".  This makes it very fast, even
faster than a SSD and it saves some cash.  Makes backup easy too as there
is nothing to backup if there is no local storage.  If you don't have a
TFTP server use a small notebook size disk drive. Even a 80GB drive is
overkill.  You can also boot from a USB thumb drive and run a RAM disk.

It is worth it to look at your electric bill to find how much you pay for
power.  Here I'm at $0.21 per KWH.  A full size PC server can use 250W or
more.  There are 8760 hours in a year so you get $460 per year to run that
250W PC.  The little Atom will pay for itself in just a few months.  The
first time I did that calculation, my "power hogs" where given away.




On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Stan, W1LE <stanw1le at verizon.net> wrote:

> Hello The Net,
>
> For your consideration:
>
> The INTEL model DN2800mt ITX mother board uses a ATOM CPU and
> draws about 11 watts of AC power when configured as:
> (I have not measured DC power yet.)
>
> 30 GB OCZ Nocti mSATA solid state drive,
> WIN7 pro, 64 bit, USB keyboard and mouse
> APEX MI-0008 case.
>
> Also has:
> parallel port available on mother board, you extend to a connector
> RS232 serial port available on mother board, you extend to a connector
> a single DC power supply from 11 to 19 V DC.
> 1 each PCIe expansion port, I will use with a premium 4 channel sound card
> SATA ports available for HDD/SDD,
> USB ports are available,
> Motherboard sound, and Gigalan.
>
> I have not played with NTP, (yet), but it sounds like a decent time nut
> technical challenge.
>
> My application is for a remote site with only 13V DC power available from
> PV/batteries.
> Then use fiber ethernet to get off site.
>
> The INTEL website would have further details.
>
> Stan, W1LE    Cape Cod   FN41sr
>
>
>
>
> ZZZZz
>
>
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California


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