Fit PC runs Linux and draws only 5W of power
There are power efficient computers and then there are power efficient computers. Enter the Fit PC, a small, self-contained, fanless computer that draws 3W to 5W when it is on.
It’s no power house but for its size and what it is designed to do, it is quite impressive. It features an AMD Geode LX800 processor running at 500MHz, integrated 256MB of DDR memory which cannot be upgraded, 40GB IDE hard drive, dual 100Mbps Ethernet, SXGA graphics controller supporting resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 and comes preinstalled with Gentoo Linux though it is capable of running Windows XP.
Those wishing to install Windows XP would be able to do so through a USB optical drive and Windows XP drivers are available from the Fit PC downloads section.
Other less notable features include an all aluminum case with a black finish and is splash and dust resistant with an operating temperature from 0C to 70C (for those of you in the US that is 32F to 158F).
ExtremeTech did a review of the system and noted several things, “After we had six windows (and six apps) running, the system definitely became sluggish—this is not a strong multitasking system.”
It is summed up nicely by this final thought, “If you need anything that requires even moderately demanding CPU or graphics horsepower, the fit-PC isn’t the right solution. Performance is not the point of this system—form factor and cost are the main factors.”
The Fit PC will cost you $285 and for that price you may just want to consider the EEEPC, while not as power efficient, I promise you it is at least twice as powerful.
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October 16th, 2007
Do people use these as X-terminals?
Also, what is the UK price?
And if low wattage is a consideration, why does the unit use an IDE disk drive instead of SATA?
October 16th, 2007
You know, I was wondering the same things, I can’t say in any certain terms what the price for the UK market would be…
I know they’re being used as Firewalls… I don’t see any reason that it couldn’t be used as an X-Terminal but I might be missing something.
SATA vs. IDE, well, I can’t answer that question because I really don’t know but I do agree that SATA would have been a better choice, perhaps it was a limitation of the motherboard that was used.
March 30th, 2008
I can see from the photo that this is a pretty small box, but it seems bigger than the motherboards I’ve seen with the same specs. It also costs over twice as much. You can just buy a Geode LX800 ALIX board and put it in a box and get this for only about $150. Those take “~5W” too. And I think the OEM board comes with a CF adapter onboard. I’m sure that saves a lot of power.
I have also seen Mini-ITX boards with only 10-20W consumption with specs 4-5 times better than this. Nobody really needs to cut down on power as much as this thing does.