From a power perspective the GreenHive is a real miser and to test this we ran a four-user system from a single five-socket block running through our in-line power meter. The monitors provided for the test are rated at 20W apiece and with all systems switched off and only the monitors on we confirmed a total power draw of 80W. With the system fired up and all four stations running in idle we saw an average power draw of only 145W for the whole setup. To generate a heavy load we installed SiSoft Sandra on the central system, opened it up on all four stations and ran its CPU benchmark. With the AMD processor pushed to 100% utilisation our power meter never went above 185W.
Typically, the GreenHive is aimed at environments such as small businesses and educational establishments – places where cost and support are big issues but a standard thin client solution would be too costly to implement and manage. Other competition comes from Cranberry’s Smart Client SC20 which consumes a mere 9W – the same as the GreenHive clients – and has enough grunt to run Windows XP embedded and low-demand applications locally. However, not only is the GreenHive environmentally friendly it’s also a winner on price as, unlike the Cranberry SC20, the cost of the four- or seven-client packages includes everything – even high-quality 19in LG monitors.
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