I have been keeping an ETH node on a low powered computer (HDD setup) since March of last year and Ethereum has accomplished something truly astonishing with its new Geth 1.7.0. What once took me an entire month to sync a shorter blockchain before the DAO fork in the 1.4 Geth series, took me less than 24 hours on an IBM Thinkcentre with 8GB RAM and an HDD drive.
The Geth 1.6 series was a large improvement for me, I was able to do a sync in 48-60 hours of a very large blockchain. Staying synced was another matter if I had to shut my ETH ode down for more than a couple days. I installed Geth 1.7.0 last night, and now, I am fully synced in less than half the time it took me with the 1.6 Geth series. The Geth developers have optimized the client so that it syncs the chain and chain structure side by side, and I am LOVING it.
If you saw my report last night, you will know that Geth has accomplished something I didn't believe possible for the Ethereum blockchain. A Turing Complete system (look it up), has previously only been possible with a centralized computer like Watson. Watson, meet Geth 1.7.0.
If you like my updates on different altcoins, I would not object to some appreciation in the form of ETH love.
0x4b6De2b6C83786f09081385F1545b957d756C2D4
As always, Happy Trading & Many Prosperous Returns