RE: What bedside clock for a HA-er?

["Mark McCall" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's tiny - photo here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ottomate/Tech/photo#4994757255235633170

> Hmm... what OS & application software do you run on it?
> I can't imagine being satisfied with the speed of XP on anything that
isn't fairly
> powerful

Bedside PC Mk1 was a 500Mhz VIA which was painful.  The Mk2 is a 1.2 GHz
VIA Nehemiah with 512meg and runs XP Pro fine.  I just use it with a
wireless keyboard and mouse and It's fast enough to playback DivX/Xvid etc
too.

> It also wasn't silent, since that chip / board does require a fan,
> and the HDD also made a bit of noise.

It has no fans at all so the only sound is from the 80Gig 2.5"
harddrive,
which is almost inperceptable.

> ridiculous power bills! And I reckon a PC that's man enough to run a
modern OS
> acceptably fast with a decent GUI on it, is going to be a significant
drain if it's
> on 24/7/365

Mine isn't on 24/7.

> but if I'm late for work even once because the darn thing froze in the
night then
> that is once too often, since a £9.99 clock from Argos wouldn't
have
this problem...

My Vario2 wakes me in the morning ;)

> What screen do you have on it? - one of those little touchscreens?

Just a little 14" TFT, although I have a 7" LinITX.com
touchscreen thats
still in the "to do" pile :)  The flexibility of a PC is
unbeatable, and I
find myself watching lots of TV on it too these days.  It fits the bill
for my job, but your requirements may be different.  Just wanted to say
that a bedside PC is a practical thing to have.

M.





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