In terms of computing power per watt, a newer box may very well outperform an old one, but in terms of absolute watts of power used, an old box may be lower consumption. A slow CPU and a primitive video card (maybe even without its own fan) might not draw that much compared to today's chips. Even the HDD, if spinning at a pokey rate, might draw less power. Where a newer box might shine is having better power management hardware? Don't forget the additional Air Conditioning load of the newer box. If the old box, running flat out as a server or firewall, does the job, I have a gut feeling that it might draw less power than a newer box to get the same job done. Maybe. Has anyone actually done comparisons like this and gotten some hard numbers?
John Mort wrote: > In the interest of cheapness, you might want to look at the power > supply and consider what exactly you can do with this box and how much > it will cost you to run it in the long run in terms of energy use. > _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jun 4 - Sqeak! and eToys Jul 2 - KVM (Tenative) Aug 6 - Zenos Sep 3 - TBD
