Benchmarks: Power, Temperature and Noise
The use of low-power hardware does have benefits. System-wide power consumption is excellent. Our review unit drew just six watts from the wall when idle, and that figure rose to only 20 watts with the CPU working flat out. Keeping temperature under control isn't a problem, and what's satisfying is that the fan keeps quiet at all times. You can barely hear it when idle, and given that the CPU doesn't get particularly hot under load, the fan emits only a gentle hum when the going gets tough. We'd be more than happy to have such a system running 24/7 in the living room.
