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Do you find that it's more power efficient to run a custom built machine like that? I would think that using a laptop as your daily driver would stretch your ba

Do you find that it's more power efficient to run a custom built machine like that? I would think that using a laptop as your daily driver would stretch your battery bank further, since it's designed from the ground up for battery power. I lived off solar power for a while, and that was my thinking. I never did the math to verify it though.

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
I haven't done any measurements. What I will say is that the machine I used to use in the van lost its video output (the perils of onboard graphics), and I've found it impossible to source a reasonable replacement mobo. As a result, I've switched back to using a laptop (lenovo Y700) in the van. What I notice as a potential improvement is that it effectively lets me store an extra X hours of power for computing, because I'm adding the laptop battery to the overall storage. Compared to my "house batteries", the laptop batteries are of course very small. But getting (say) 3 hours of work time stored up in the laptop does seem like a plus, especially on cloudier days.
- mntmoss 7y ago
  The trends definitely favor a mobile-first approach going forward, if simply because of the additional systems integration work that goes into tuning laptops. Battery life aside, the laws of physics dictate that you're more likely to have a reliable experience with a low-power, low-heat, low-vibration machine than a screamer desktop, and those things are definitely qualities that the manufactuers optimize for in mobile devices. It's also increasingly common to see single-board SFF desktops that are essentially laptop parts with different I/O. I suspect that those are less heavily tuned, though.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
    problem for me: i need a screamer desktop. i'm not online or running JS in the browser, i'm developing and building software that used to take 9 minutes to compile from scratch on those 12VDC systems. Over and over again. at home now i have a 16 core ryzen, which is extremely quiet and very, very much faster than those systems. but i don't think it would be possible to host this on a 12VDC PSU, and even if it was, the mobo form factor is inappropriate for the space i built in the van :( to be fair, the lenovo Y700 was/is essentially as fast as the 12VDC systems, which is quite impressive.

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago

I haven't done any measurements. What I will say is that the machine I used to use in the van lost its video output (the perils of onboard graphics), and I've found it impossible to source a reasonable replacement mobo. As a result, I've switched back to using a laptop (lenovo Y700) in the van. What I notice as a potential improvement is that it effectively lets me store an extra X hours of power for computing, because I'm adding the laptop battery to the overall storage. Compared to my "house batteries", the laptop batteries are of course very small. But getting (say) 3 hours of work time stored up in the laptop does seem like a plus, especially on cloudier days.

mntmoss 7y ago
The trends definitely favor a mobile-first approach going forward, if simply because of the additional systems integration work that goes into tuning laptops. Battery life aside, the laws of physics dictate that you're more likely to have a reliable experience with a low-power, low-heat, low-vibration machine than a screamer desktop, and those things are definitely qualities that the manufactuers optimize for in mobile devices. It's also increasingly common to see single-board SFF desktops that are essentially laptop parts with different I/O. I suspect that those are less heavily tuned, though.
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
  problem for me: i need a screamer desktop. i'm not online or running JS in the browser, i'm developing and building software that used to take 9 minutes to compile from scratch on those 12VDC systems. Over and over again. at home now i have a 16 core ryzen, which is extremely quiet and very, very much faster than those systems. but i don't think it would be possible to host this on a 12VDC PSU, and even if it was, the mobo form factor is inappropriate for the space i built in the van :( to be fair, the lenovo Y700 was/is essentially as fast as the 12VDC systems, which is quite impressive.