Re: [tlug] Power Consumption Reduction (was Power Consumption Cost)

["Birkir A. Barkarson" <birkirb@example.com>]

Jim wrote:
> Find a laptop that is old enough to not run XP well. 
> I think most of those are in the 20 to 40 Watt range. 
> That will be a small enough amount of power to be affordable 
> at home, even at 25 Yen/kWh. 

I use a Dell laptop (whose screen is off it's hinges and thus not good 
for normal use) as a home server open to the web.

> Laptops tend to be rather warm inside, and laptop drives don't 
> last as long anyway, so if I was running a laptop 24/7, 
> I would likely add an external fan to help lower the temperature 
> of the harddrive. 

Mine runs 24/7 and is OK for normal use, however if the processor runs 
near 100% for a good while it tends to get very hot, and has locked up 
on occasion due to the heat.

> Better yet, remove the internal laptop hard drive and use an 
> external (USB) hard drive instead that is much easier to cool, 
> and much easier to get in big capacities for much less Yen 
> than laptop hard drives. 

I think this is good advice, as long as the processor itself is not 
expected to run hot for extended periods.

> > Since I don't use too much computing power, ... 
>
> an old laptop will have enough balls. 

Second that, assuming sparse usage.

BAB