# It's not the hardware or the OS: it's the user.



## sossego (Jun 3, 2012)

If you can build a working system from what people throw away....


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## hitest (Jun 3, 2012)

sossego said:
			
		

> If you can build a working system from what people throw away....



I also have a great fondness for obsolete hardware.  The right DE/WM can extend the life of an aging box.


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## sossego (Jun 3, 2012)

Obsolete and limited hardware is a good way of improving your understanding of a system.


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## hitest (Jun 3, 2012)

sossego said:
			
		

> Obsolete and limited hardware is a good way of improving your understanding of a system.



Agreed!


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## UNIXgod (Jun 3, 2012)

Yeah just set up a system from a pentium 4 with a 34GB SCSI and 1.5GB RAM. Nice and fast.


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## sossego (Jun 3, 2012)

So you picked up a Dell Dimension someone chucked into the trash?


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## Bobbla (Jun 4, 2012)

I find that old hardware can be a problem, you see I throw away nothing (well almost nothing and yes it can be a problem). I even have a bag with faulty SATA cables, and I cry when I go to the toilet.

So when I start to use old hardware and the likes, I know that there is a possibility that something can go wrong. It's quite logical actually; as time goes towards infinite (and past warranty period) chance of failure goes towards 1 (one).

:\


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## SirDice (Jun 4, 2012)

My old P2-350MHz is still running along fine. Granted, it's only used as a firewall now but it still works :e


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## wblock@ (Jun 4, 2012)

Have you put put a power meter on that?  Sometimes old hardware takes enough power that replacement is justified by energy cost alone.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jun 4, 2012)

I have not bought hardware since 2001. I get all my computers from other Windows users who "upgrade" their systems and give their "old" boxes to me for free. 

I have two servers that are PIIIs while my newest are Core2Duos that I do all my dev work on. I have a storage room with four monitors, too.

However, I might break down and put together a brand new multi-core multi-GB multi-monitor system cause how I work has gotten so big, requiring several VMs running at the same time, it would be convenient to keep it all on one system.


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## Uniballer (Jun 4, 2012)

I have a 100 Mhz Pentium (i.e. P54C) running an environmental control application for my kennel.
Works fine, although it is a bit slow when I ask it for graphs.

This is the oldest computer I have since I got rid of my PDP-11.


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## roddierod (Jun 4, 2012)

The newest box I have is from 2005, dual processor/dual core AMD Opterons. I guess it's a sign of being old and crusty that when someone says P4, I think that's not old. :\


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## Beeblebrox (Jun 4, 2012)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Have you put put a power meter on that?  Sometimes old hardware takes enough power that replacement is justified by energy cost alone.



It depends on how you are using it. The "doc" howardfine being an IEEE is a better authority, but as a member of the engineering guild I'll venture my opinion:

If you have a low-to-medium load box (such as @SirDice's home gateway) you can:

remove the HDD (trading speed for power) and use instead a flash drive with a separate writeable partition (saves about 30W).
nderclock the CPU and limit it to 70%. saves about (40W).
If you know where to look, get an efficient, fanless powersupply and swap out the old one. (saves about 15-20W, depending on old power-sup specs).
Remove or disable in the BIOS all extra hardware (graphics card, unused ports, whatever).
Case fans use about 3W - 4W not very significant, unless you want to be hard-core about it. If you under-clock the CPU, you could also remove the fan on the CPU radiator and would thus have a "silent server".

Now you have a box which should consume around 40W -60W (a low-power lightbulb).
I would rather use something like this (and further trim it down if required) instead of that $120 crap-on-the-wall which is called the "plugpc".

Final Thoughts: Atom CPUs, which most low-power devices use, are just crippled 386'es. As Confucius said: You can easily decrease capacity but dificultly increase capacity.


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## xibo (Jun 4, 2012)

... And some Xeon e3 or Core i3 systems can run with less power then Atoms, while outperforming them 5:1 at least. Also, I think running 40W of decade old HDDs (around 600GB in total I'd guess) for another decade should be cheaper th*a*n buying replacement SSDs.


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## wblock@ (Jun 4, 2012)

But you can do all the power-saving gymnastics on a newer system, too, and it starts with a lower power usage.  Up until recently, power supply efficiency wasn't rated, and now they are typically 80%, but only if loaded to at least 15-20% of total capacity.  Old ones are probably 50%.

(I think your numbers are a little high.  Recent disks are 5-10W each, and saving 40W from underclocking seems generous.  I have an E5200 dual-core server that only takes 60W now, and it's running a two-disk mirror [actually, I should shut it down and check that; that may have been before adding the second drive].)

Anyway: I like saving and reusing old hardware, too.  Just check the power usage.  The "Killawatt" meters are cheap.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jun 5, 2012)

I'm using a Dell Dimension 4600 with a 2.8GHz P4 my BIL gave me that he had taken the HD out of and had sitting in the basement. I put in a 80GB HD from an old GateWay PC I had, bought 3GB DDR RAM for it, installed FreeBSD 9.0 and it's become my main computer. 

He also gave me a Dell Dimension 2400 with a 2.6GHz P4 without a HD. I installed the 13.6GB HD from the GateWay I had replaced with the 80GB HD, bought 1GB DDR RAM for it, threw in a 256MB stick of RAM I already had with it, and it's my new pfSense firewall box.

Total out of pocket for the both of them was approximately $100 for the RAM I bought.


I just bought a new 20" ACER LED monitor and Logitech Illuminated keyboard for the 4600 and it is really sweet now.  

Got the monitor on sale for $89 too.


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