On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:55:23 +0100, Paul Mobbs <
mobbsey@gn.apc.org> wrote:
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> On Tuesday 25 August 2009 12:19:10 Philip Armstrong wrote:
>> But do bear in mind that that old PC will cost you approx a pound / W
>> / year on your electricity bill, plus the attendant emissions if that
>> concerns you.
>
> Not if you only turn it on when required -- it doesn't run 24/7. My
> broadband
> router keeps up the network and the boxes just serve files. You only need
> to
> keep it up all the time if you run DNS, NIS, web proxy or other services
> that
> are required for the normal operation of the network.
>
> In any case, the components in most consumer PCs don't have the service
> life
> designed into them to run 24/7, and doing so would make failure more
likely
>
> (although saying that I had an old '486 box that died a few years ago
after
>
> about three years almost continuous running -- service life is often
> dependent
> on the manufacturer's spec.).
>
I've got a cunning plan to minimise the electricity usage of the file
server (and other gratuitous machines) in the house I'm moving into next
month...it involves wake-on-lan, a router capable of waking devices at set
times (i.e. one with custom firmware) and a scheduled shutdown...I'll see
how much oomph it actually saves using m'digital power meter and let you
all know if it works + is worth it.
--
David North |
http://www.dnorth.net
(text/plain)