On 08/30/2017 07:42 AM, Ian Zimmerman wrote: > On 2017-08-30 09:32, Mick wrote: > >>> Unfortunately this isn't a viable strategy because typically you >>> will, in a few months, if not a single month, spend more in >>> electricity costs than you would purchasing a new single board >>> computer. > >> Perhaps in a commercial 24x7x365 high compute cycle application this >> would hold water, but in the case of a home PC running 14 hours a day >> at maximum power you might save enough to buy a small spinning SATA >> drive after a year, or a Raspberry Pi without peripherals, but not a >> new PC. Of course, if: >> >> 1. your PC is not running at full speed all the time; >> 2. it is not a PentiumD dual core (were they the most power hungry?); >> 3. you're not still running a CRT monitor; >> 4. you tend to suspend to RAM when not in front of it; >> 5. a new PC is not at least 50% more efficient; >> 6. the price of electricity is not exorbitant (I pay approximately >> £0.13/KWh + £0.29/day) >> >> then you will need other reasons to upgrade. When the PC you're using >> is a laptop, then the case for upgrading on grounds of savings on >> electricity costs alone is even more tenuous. > > Also: how long is the replacement going to last? Anything with flash as > the main storage will be back at the recycling station (ideally) within > a couple of years. This includes all the consumer routers I've ever > had, including the beloved blue Linksys. >
This is the reason I was looking into a UBNT router for my home - if you pop the cover off it has a USB port with a stick plugged in. Stick fails, insert a new one and do a recovery. There's several threads on their forums where this has happened and users successfully replaced the USB thumb drive and were back up and running. That it can route at near gigabit speeds doesn't hurt its chances either. Dan
