Making the case for choosing a lower-power microprocessor

For years, microprocessors have grown faster – as well as bigger, hotter and more voracious in their appetite for electricity. I can remember my trusty old 486 that managed without a cooling fan on the CPU – try that today and you’d probably melt a hole in your motherboard, if not your desktop.

There is, however, one company, VIA, that is bucking the trend with microprocessors and motherboards that are slower, smaller, cooler and more energy-efficient than the usual AMD and Intel wares. As such, this processor family, the little known C3, warrants a once-over if you’re interested in small PCs, like the ones we discussed last week, and quiet PCs, which we’ll be looking at in the future.