Thu, 23 Jun 2016 16:49:20 -0700 Chris Cappuccio <ch...@nmedia.net> > li...@wrant.com [li...@wrant.com] wrote: > > > http://www.pcengines.ch provide machine using from 5W for alix to 12W > > > for APU. These number are value under full load, not idle. > > > > You know, these x86 machines in their space saving enclosures make the > > perfect quiet 24/7 home (office) tabletop gateway server system. Cool! > > Your other next best bet would be a mini-ITX quiet desk side disk cube. > > The APU is very powerful for its size and power consumption. With a decent > SSD it works as an NVR with UniFi video. It's a very fast router with > OpenBSD, 300-600Mbps depending on settings and usage with -current, or > 70kpps to 130kpps. I suspect that will go up as network stack modernization > continues. It's a great DHCP, DNS, NTP server for a network with 10,000+ > end devices. And future models (at similar power consumption) are > going to be faster. > > The APU2 is a 4 core system while the APU1 is 2 core. The APU1 is actually > marginally faster at "openssl speed", per-core. The APU2 has USB3, better > ethernet. It also has an integrated CPU/chipset, which practically translates > to lower heat.
This is very impressive field usage info. This by far outperforms most other SFF (small form factor) SBC (single board computers) SoC (systems on chip) offers available today on the market. Up to the Atom systems? What is more important is the level of engineering information available from the manufacturer (PC Engines) web site including tech specs, manual, BIOS updates, accessories, enclosures, diag boards and also: Schematics! This seems to be by far more friendly to both engineer & consumer users. PC Engines APU2 product line [http://www.pcengines.ch/apu2b2.htm] 1) How do the APU systems go as pricing to comparable systems from other similar (industrial class, desktop enclosure) manufacturers? 2) How is the OpenBSD experience on the APU systems, do they have serial RS232 console (serial BIOS), do they expose all the hardware to OpenBSD? Thank you for providing valuable technical feedback on these what appears to be the smarter choice over the other low power devices.
