Search found 331 matches
- Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:46 pm
- Forum: Notebook Systems
- Topic: low power netbook/notebook to use as server?
- Replies: 21
- Views: 24788
Re: low power netbook/notebook to use as server?
It would be more energy efficient to run it from AC, not using the battery. It is highly unlikely that the battery would be efficient enough to make up the difference in cost between night and day costs. (If significant savings were possible that way, then the power company would install big batteri...
- Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:00 pm
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: DIY air purifier?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 8649
Re: DIY air purifier?
To my experience as a seasonal allergic and relatively mild asthmatic it's the ionizing that makes the most difference in a typical air purifier. Get a vacuum cleaner with a good hepa filter since in that application the filter is really abused, but make sure whatever air purifier you buy has ioniz...
- Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:25 am
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: DIY air purifier?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 8649
Re: DIY air purifier?
The SPCR approach to noise is where possible avoid creating heat to start with, so you don't have to use fans/etc. to get rid of it. Have you fully explored applying that approach to your problem? i.e. before dealing with filters & fans - start by removing source(s) of dust. Somebody I know who has ...
- Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:22 am
- Forum: Power Supplies
- Topic: Question about improving AC/DC efficiency
- Replies: 10
- Views: 5161
Re: Question about improving AC/DC efficiency
Consider the economics - The IBM PC had a 65watt power supply. I don't know the efficiency of it, but just suppose it was 50% efficient (wasted up to 30watts maximum). Times the number of IBM PCs, times the cost of electricity. For a $2000 machine (in 198x dollars) . (There were an estimated 2 milli...
- Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:48 pm
- Forum: Cases and Damping
- Topic: Quiet case for dusty area
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5856
Re: Quiet case for dusty area
A notion I have wondered about is using an air cleaner for a case. Don't know how quiet it would be (air cleaners are generally annoyingly noisy), but seemed like it might be a start at a case for really dusty environments. (Would need to use a small motherboard, and lots of cables might be a proble...
- Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:25 am
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: Looking for an interesting 5.25 bay device
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7255
Re: Looking for an interesting 5.25 bay device
I haven't seen it, but what I thought somebody should devise is a drive bay charger/dock for PDAs, MP3 players, etc. (maybe compact cameras) i.e. one provide socket to insert the device(s) where they could be stored (out of dust), charged, and be connected to the computer. Each device might have its...
- Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:43 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 11904
Re: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
I was thinking a bit more about this - seems like a simple test would be to take a whole computer, run it in a room with low ambient temperature (e.g. unheated room at night in winter). Measure power draw a few times. Run same task inside heated room (maybe run temperature up a bit). Measure power d...
- Thu Dec 16, 2010 9:57 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 11904
Re: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
If we assume that an additional 4W can be saved at the CPU by reducing the CPU and CPU VRM temps by 10C then we're looking at almost 10W saving - pretty good. About £9 a year for a 24.7 system at present UK electricity prices, lol The next question (assuming the above holds) is does this saving con...
- Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:25 am
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 11904
Re: Reducing power consumption thru cooling?
Another area where you might look for data is power supply (PSU) reviews. In particular, the 80 PLUS certification has been criticized (both here and elsewhere) for using a fixed low ambient temperature for testing PSU efficiency. See for example: 80 Plus expands podium for Bronze, Silver & Gold htt...
- Sun Dec 05, 2010 1:54 am
- Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
- Topic: Zalman CPU & VGA Power Consumption Meter
- Replies: 9
- Views: 11147
Re: Zalman CPU & VGA Power Consumption Meter
Wonder how much power the meter uses itself. Not enough to be significant. Typically such devices pull at max maybe a watt. Reading the specs at Zalman I see that it only measures down to 10 watts, so I guess it isn't much use for measuring idle power on the more efficient CPUs. http://www.lostcirc...
- Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:02 pm
- Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
- Topic: Zalman CPU & VGA Power Consumption Meter
- Replies: 9
- Views: 11147
Re: Zalman CPU & VGA Power Consumption Meter
Wonder how much power the meter uses itself.
- Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:16 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Opinions and recommendations on two potential builds
- Replies: 7
- Views: 8059
Re: Opinions and recommendations on two potential builds
Consider using machines that don't have to be idle so much. Get ones that will operate with wake on LAN (for server, if usage is sporadic) or wake on timer (for PVR). i.e. turn it off rather than idling. Why do you need two always on machines? (One web server and one DVR). Could be more efficient to...
- Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:55 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Could you fill in this questionnaire please.
- Replies: 1
- Views: 4970
Re: Could you fill in this questionnaire please.
Your questionnaire is over-restrictive in the responses. Consider that many people have more than one machine (especially likely among readers of a computer interest board like SPCR). So Intel vs AMD should allow multiple responses. This question is another one with over-restrictive answers: If you ...
- Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:29 pm
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: Is there a SpeedFan compatible fan controller (not mobo)?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2974
Re: Is there a SpeedFan compatible fan controller (not mobo)
Have you tried asking the author of Speedfan? It seems like one should be able to add a fan controller to the SMBus (some motherboards even used to have headers for connecting to the SMBus). Then the problem would be getting speedfan to recognize your controller (since it wouldn't be what is expecte...
- Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:59 pm
- Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
- Topic: Low idle power motherboards and CPUs?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 8192
Re: Low idle power motherboards and CPUs?
Obvious contenders for low idle power: Mac Mini (<10W idle) - a laptop in desktop clothing (Core2Duo) http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=59331 OLPC XO-1 (laptop) - idle about 7-8 W, but if you shut off things like the screen backlight and the radio you can trim that by a watt ...
- Sun Oct 24, 2010 2:48 pm
- Forum: Site Feedback
- Topic: Ooooooh, shiny new forum!
- Replies: 59
- Views: 41138
Re: Ooooooh, shiny new forum!
The new layout is mostly a step backwards. Please: 1) Go back to the higher contrast color scheme - all the gray backgrounds and muted colored text make material harder to read. Especially for those with aging eyes or eyesight problems. Or perhaps give people a few color schemes to chose from - use ...
- Thu Oct 21, 2010 11:48 am
- Forum: Silent Storage
- Topic: 90TB home server
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1816
90TB home server
Given the recent article on SPCR for a quiet home server, I thought it might be apropos to mention this DIY approach with slightly more storage.
http://hackaday.com/2010/10/21/90-tb-dr ... age-needs/
Fans running at 9v to keep it quiet.
Wonder how they handle backup?
http://hackaday.com/2010/10/21/90-tb-dr ... age-needs/
Fans running at 9v to keep it quiet.
Wonder how they handle backup?
- Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:52 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Performance per watt (W)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17084
I found these references interesting on the relative efficiency of Atom vs ARM vs Lynfield (core2) http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/11/basics-of-physicalization.ars/3 http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/06/server-based-on-512-atom-cpus-to-take-on-xeon-in-datacenters.ars Which suggest ...
- Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:43 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: iFixit the free repair manual
- Replies: 3
- Views: 13593
In a similar area, I have found
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/
handy on several occasions for keeping printers operating.
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/
handy on several occasions for keeping printers operating.
- Sat Sep 11, 2010 1:40 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Spec me the cheapest PC for web-browsing
- Replies: 9
- Views: 4813
Whatever you can find second hand, or in a dumpster. (Then replace fans or components as necessary to make it quieter.) If want something new - could consider Celeron E3300 and motherboard based on Intel G31 or G41 (Many Gigabyte motherboards have reasonable undervolting potential). Circa $80 on sal...
- Sat Sep 11, 2010 1:16 am
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Performance per watt (W)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17084
To find the "greenest" CPU, first determine what you need to do. Then, find the processors capable of doing that task. Take the one that is capable of performing that task and that consumes the least power. It's wasteful to buy more CPU than you need, and it's wasteful to buy a CPU that can't do wh...
- Wed Sep 08, 2010 4:44 pm
- Forum: Notebook Systems
- Topic: Conductive material to put under laptop?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 7634
Long time ago I just stuck some stick-on feet on a laptop. Just having some air space under it (rather than sitting directly on table) helped with temperatures. (Of course that was a 486, but it didn't have a fan.) Laptops may be hotter now. If that wasn't enough, I would be tempted to use one of th...
- Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:12 pm
- Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
- Topic: Power effient Desktop/Workstation for Virtualization
- Replies: 5
- Views: 4028
If you figure to upgrade more often - why the particular concern about energy efficiency? (Much of the energy use in a computer is in production/recycling, as compared to actual use.) Seems like so far the energy efficiency benchmarks are mainly aimed at server CPUs (Opterons, Xeon's). Harder to fin...
- Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:12 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Performance per watt (W)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17084
Thanks for all the info. So let's start the seek of green CPU. With everything above in mind I try this one next, waiting for opinions / challengers: Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor i7-660UM Arrandale 1.33 GHz (Turbo 2.4 GHz) 2 cores, 4 threads. 64-bit cache 4 MB, 2.5 GT/s DMI bus TBT,VT-x,VT-d...
- Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:59 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Performance per watt (W)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17084
Hope my previous post wasn't unduely negative. I don't mean to discourage seeking efficiency. Performance per watt is interesting, and I would like to have some better information readily available to compare consumer grade computers. Just haven't found much in the lines of a simple metric that is r...
- Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:19 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Performance per watt (W)
- Replies: 15
- Views: 17084
[quote name=maalitehdas]Calculated clock speed (MHz) per TDP (W) for max 10W processors[/quote] The ratio of two almost meaningless numbers - the perfect benchmark. ;-) (The clock speed is primarily useful for comparing processors within one architecture. Have to be sure that things like number of c...
- Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:45 pm
- Forum: Silent Storage
- Topic: 5,25" docking station for a 3,5" hard disk: any si
- Replies: 2
- Views: 2582
No experience with the device in question. There are a lot of PATA 5 1/4" removable hard disk bays around. One might take a look at them to see if one could adapt them for use with your (presumably SATA drive). If there was enough space inside, one might be able to shoehorn in a PATA to SATA convert...
- Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:47 am
- Forum: Power Supplies
- Topic: 80Plus Platinum (115v) finally exists
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12783
Of course the big impediment to getting higher efficiencies is not engineering, but naming. :wink: As seen so often before, they started out naming these versions without a clear extension path. What comes after Platinum? Rhodium? (Circa $2,000/oz) Plutonium? (Said to be about $4,000/oz, but hard to...
- Tue Aug 31, 2010 1:45 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Best energy efficient monitor?
- Replies: 28
- Views: 47859
I bought an Acer 18.5" LED-backlit display for my laptop this year and was astonished it claims to only use about 10 watts in normal usage. Very cool and quiet too. This is almost as big an improvement as LCD was compared to CRT. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59923 (I know no...
- Mon Aug 30, 2010 11:47 am
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: Hard drive enclosure power consumption for backups
- Replies: 4
- Views: 6622
Would using an enclosure for 2.5" drives be an option? 2.5" drives use less power than 3.5" (but lower capacity, more expensive) Some of them are powered from USB (so they can't draw more than 2.5 to 5 watts). (Doesn't help with the turning it off when idle, but idle power on 2.5" might be less). Co...