Building a hot weather PC

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Sail

I need to build a new pc, but this time one that will be used in an
unheated and uncooled environment where the upper temps will be up in
the 90's, and probably often with thick humidity. I can trade off
processor speed for less heat generated, and prefer to have the lowest
possible power requirements as I will often be powering from 12volts
through an inverter to AC.

Haven't built a system for 3-4 years, so need some advice on the current
crop of components.

Some questions:

Is the AMD Sempron a low-power cpu?

From Intel, the Pentium M is also the Centrino? And it and Celeron M are
low-power cpu's?

I am thinking I will have as many components on the mobo as possible.
Which on-board video processors are the best? Do they all use system
memory?

The Shuttle-X case and mobo series look promising. Any thoughts on those
for my build?

Any info, thoughts, leads greatly appreciated.

Dan
 
I need to build a new pc, but this time one that will be used in an
unheated and uncooled environment where the upper temps will be up in
the 90's, and probably often with thick humidity. I can trade off
processor speed for less heat generated, and prefer to have the lowest
possible power requirements as I will often be powering from 12volts
through an inverter to AC.

Haven't built a system for 3-4 years, so need some advice on the current
crop of components.

Some questions:

Is the AMD Sempron a low-power cpu?

From Intel, the Pentium M is also the Centrino? And it and Celeron M are
low-power cpu's?

I am thinking I will have as many components on the mobo as possible.
Which on-board video processors are the best? Do they all use system
memory?

The Shuttle-X case and mobo series look promising. Any thoughts on those
for my build?

Any info, thoughts, leads greatly appreciated.

Dan
Click to expand...
Dan,

If you are truly willing to sacrifice speed and expansion capability for
extended temperature operation, you might take a look at some of the processors
targeted at embedded applications. You won't get gigabit clock rates, multiple
pci slots and 4GB of memory, but boards are available that have passive CPU
heatsinks and ambient temp specs higher than those of motherboards targeted at
the desktop market.
 
I need to build a new pc, but this time one that will be used in an
unheated and uncooled environment where the upper temps will be up in
the 90's, and probably often with thick humidity. I can trade off
processor speed for less heat generated, and prefer to have the lowest
possible power requirements as I will often be powering from 12volts
through an inverter to AC.

Haven't built a system for 3-4 years, so need some advice on the current
crop of components.

Some questions:

Is the AMD Sempron a low-power cpu?

From Intel, the Pentium M is also the Centrino? And it and Celeron M are
low-power cpu's?

I am thinking I will have as many components on the mobo as possible.
Which on-board video processors are the best? Do they all use system
memory?

The Shuttle-X case and mobo series look promising. Any thoughts on those
for my build?

Any info, thoughts, leads greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Just an idea, but the Athlon XP mobiles a pretty cool, and are even
unlocked, so they can be underclocked to run even cooler. I believe
they are socket A processors, but maybe somebody else knows more.
 
Just an idea, but the Athlon XP mobiles a pretty cool, and are even
unlocked, so they can be underclocked to run even cooler. I believe
they are socket A processors, but maybe somebody else knows more.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts.

Looks like the "Sempron" is available in desktop and mobile forms, with
the latter apparently drawing less power and generating less heat.

I remember a test where the fans were taken off a pentium and an AMD a
few years ago. When the Pentium reached a critical heat it shut off,
while the AMD melted down. Does anyone know if AMD ever built in a heat
shutoff for the cpu? This appeared to be a cpu function rather than a
mobo, though certainly a mobo could be set to do this.
 
Go with a laptop system. <

I have reasons not to use a laptop for this situation. But thanks for
the link to AMD's cpu.
 
I would suggest using something like the Aopen i855GMEm-LFS Motherboard
with a Pentium M CPU.

The Integrated Graphics are no good if you want to play Doom 3 but will do
normal work tasks, Video Work just fine.

With a normal 3.5 inch HD the total power consumption of this set up will
be approx 60w which adding 30-40w for a LCD Screen is well within the range
of cheap and small Inverters.

FYI adding a Pentium 4 CPU to the same mix will add about 80-100 w to the
total power draw. Adding a high end Graphics Card will add about 10-20w.

I am talking about power draw from the mains socket here not the PSU.

Added advantage of the above MB/CPU combo is it is almost completely
silent.

One downside is the Pentium M CPU is about double the price of the 4.

Hope this helps

Andy
 
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