ECX 2000 vs Atom 2000

It’s not to often that it’s really worth looking at the bottom end of any category of goods. This includes microservers. They typically aren’t up to the task, and likely to cause more headaches then their worth.

This apparently was the case with the last Atom and ECX microserver chips put out. They were underwhelming at best, and the low end Xeon processors would really do a better job. That is slowly being turn around and the new ECX 2000 and Atom 2000 processors prove that although they aren’t extremely fast, they are worth the price.

Both of the processors offer an extremely low power draw (about 8-9W TDP), and prove to be decent performers when it comes to running light webservers.  This could be great for small companies such as uDream, or people looking to offer up decent webservers for themselves or a small office.

Anandtech ran the numbers, pop over and take a look!

The All-In-One PC

I am in the market to get a new computer sooner rather then later. I admittedly been intrigued by the All-In-One computers that seem to have popped up lately. Some of them are pretty slick looking, and a lot of them pack a decent amount of punch too.

This recently got me too thinking about how future proof these machines really are. I have not really ever been able to get my hands dirty with any of these machines as far as part swapping and such go. So I may just be talking dumb here. But it seems that they have the upgrade ability of a laptop. Ram/HDD’s would typically be easy enough to swap out, but try and change CPU/Heatsink/Fans… Forget about it!

That basically means if you want to future proof, you can invest a large amount now in a high end All-In One and then you have to hope we do not have a dramatic pick-up again in how quick platforms change. Maybe it is just the power user in me, but this seems a bit backwards. Is it not possible to just have components more easily accessible so that power users can switch items out easier?

It’s a dilemma any power user who also needs something realtively simple to use. The All-In-Ones seem to be a pretty good value, with decent products…. But the tinkerer in me wants an All-In-One we can play around with more!