[aklug] Re: OLD MACHINES & linux

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 6:23 PM, <bryanm@acsalaska.net> wrote:
> On Sat, February 14, 2015 5:18 pm, Jeremy Austin wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:23 AM, Royce Williams <royce@tycho.org> wrote:
>>> Buy a Kill-A-Watt and measure the power consumption. You might get as much
>>> usefulness out of a small-form-factor machine or even a Pi, for $15 less per
>>> month - would pay for itself in three.
>>
>> I've got to second Royce's point here. Old machines are great for
>> learning/experimenting with, but don't underestimate how quickly
>> wasted power adds up. Same thing happened with the switch from CRT
>> monitors to LCDs.
>
> I agree that power consumption is an important thing to look at.
> (Though I haven't really measured much, so I agree more in principle.)
>
> Direct measurement, though, would mean buying n machines, installing,
> configuring, and using them, then measuring the power usage and returning
> the n-1 machines that don't make the cut. What's the better (practical)
> way of finding low-consumption options?

Folks on a budget probably don't have a lot of leeway of which
hardware they get to use. Back-of-the-napkin estimation, coupled with
a good sense of what your use case is, should go a long way.

We can (mostly) assume that hardware trends towards more power control
(ACPI, etc.) and efficiency over time. It's also likely that specs
for many systems about max power draw can be easily researched (to
establish an upper bound).

What will the box need to do, and how long/often will it be on? If
it's on 24x7, running at full tilt, and needs lots of processing power
... that's very different from a box that will only see light duty.

- Bastion server that only terminates interactive SSH and an
occasional file transfer? Use a Pi.

- Workstation that you want to leave up and ready most of the time,
including active SSH sessions elsewhere? Configure the box to sleep
after X idle minutes, and use screen/tmux/mosh/etc to keep sessions
alive.

- Just using the box(es) for experimentation? You're probably better
off finding a box capable of virtualization. More variety possible,
and great for trying things that you'd never do to a production system
without the safety net of snapshots. If your budget is low enough
that VM-capable hardware isn't practical, buy a couple of Pis.

- Or get NICs that support Wake-on-LAN, keep your systems asleep until
you want to play with them, and configure them to sleep once you
wander away for long enough.

- Also consider discarded laptops. Low power consumption, quiet
(especially if underclocked), the included power control usually
pretty advanced, and full console if you need it.

In other words: don't think about it too hard ... but do think about it. :-)

Royce
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Received on Sat Feb 14 21:16:50 2015