Page 4 of 7 FirstFirst ... 23456 ... LastLast
Results 31 to 40 of 61

Thread: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Land of fire and drought
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    Quote Originally Posted by Calmatory View Post
    I didn't read the whole thread, but given the hardware addict I am, all I can say is that keeping this kind of a thing up to date, with good bang for the buck and low power parts WILL be possibly an impossible task.

    Good luck trying though.
    Hehe, know what you're saying. I figure I might update when I do a build (usually two or three times a year). That is when I generally spend way too much time researching what is current. I have a build coming up soon.

    It might also be interesting, in these times of rapid and accelerating technological change, to post a build once a year. A bit of a time capsule of technological advancement, evolving energy efficiency and methods of dealing with computer waste/obsolete technology (we hope).

    Let's call this one 'Energy Efficient Build #1: 2009!'

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Beans
    5,078
    Distro
    Xubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    The CPU is no longer available in North America. AMD has a single-processor 45 w unit, or up to a quad at 65 w.

    A dual-processor Atom with the Ion video seems like the natural next configuration.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Land of fire and drought
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    Quote Originally Posted by gordintoronto View Post
    The CPU is no longer available in North America. AMD has a single-processor 45 w unit, or up to a quad at 65 w.

    A dual-processor Atom with the Ion video seems like the natural next configuration.
    Bring on the ARM I say!!

    Thanks for the info and input.

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Toronto
    Beans
    76

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu computer

    Quote Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT View Post
    Thanks again. I almost pulled the trigger on the buy. Back to the drawing board for me. Might just get an ink-jet instead as we don't do much colour printing (mostly the occasional map/profile for the report).
    Just an update. I ended up buying a CP1215. Your best bet is to install is via the CUPS web interface. I had network printing via a print server set up within 5min on the first machine while I didn't know what I was doing and under 2min on the second machine. All that was needed was to specify the printer and the IP.
    Compare that to the 2 ******* boxes (XP and Vista).. Took me a few hours to figure out how it's done and another 60-90min to figure out that a reboot was necessary (printed the test page but no documents before the reboot).
    Environmentally, a cheap laser printer might be your best bet if you only print occasionally. You won't be throwing out your cartridges as the toner will never go bad. If you leave it in there for years, all you need to do is to shake it up and it's good to go again.

  5. #35
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    /Ubuntu
    Beans
    187
    Distro
    Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu computer

    Sorry to seemingly go off topic, but even Mac OS 9 has had a utiliuty to stop the hard drive platters from spinning, included in the OS. I put in a standard hard drive and I can choose to stop the platters when the hard drive is not doing anything. Is there not a utility to do the same in Ubuntu? And what are your opinions on this? Because some may argue that it actually uses more power in constantly having to stop and start the hard drive...
    James (Registered Ubuntu User #19236)

    iMac G3 350Mhz Summer 2000, running Debian Squeeze
    Compaq Presario
    M2000 running Ubuntu Jaunty


  6. #36
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Leeds, UK
    Beans
    1,634
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu computer

    I have an option to spin down hard drives in Power Management. I'm running karmic but I'm pretty sure it was in jaunty as well.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    /Ubuntu
    Beans
    187
    Distro
    Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu computer

    I'll eat my words then!
    James (Registered Ubuntu User #19236)

    iMac G3 350Mhz Summer 2000, running Debian Squeeze
    Compaq Presario
    M2000 running Ubuntu Jaunty


  8. #38
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Brisbane
    Beans
    3,779

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    Quote Originally Posted by gordintoronto View Post
    The CPU is no longer available in North America. AMD has a single-processor 45 w unit, or up to a quad at 65 w.

    A dual-processor Atom with the Ion video seems like the natural next configuration.
    Theres a new 45w TDP dual, triple and quad-core AMDs out now-

    Athlon II X4 600e/Athlon II X4 605e (quad) Athlon II X3 400e/Athlon II X3 405e (triple) and Athlon II X2 235e/Athlon II X2 240e (dual). They only got released in the last few days (20th October 2009) so I'm not sure how avaible they are now, but they should be around soon if they arent already.

    I'm not sure about how the newer 'e' series CPUs would compare to the Atom, but I would guess that the Atom would use less if it was always at idle, and AMD would be better if you had much load. Thats just a guess though....

  9. #39
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Leeds, UK
    Beans
    1,634
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    The atoms only use about 5W at max load, I think...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_A...r_requirements

  10. #40
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Beans
    93
    Distro
    Xubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

    Re: HOWTO: Build an energy-efficient Ubuntu box

    While choosing efficient hardware is very important, a lot can be done with *existing* systems -- in fact, you're likely to save more net energy by deferring your purchase of new components and sticking with an existing system.

    Whatever you choose to do, you can eke out savings by monitoring how your software choices affect power consumption. A program like powertop (which I believe works on all platforms, even though the its website is Intel-centric) can help you figure out what potentially extraneous processes are causing power consumption. If you find something is unnecessary, you can uninstall it and save a little.

    http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/

Page 4 of 7 FirstFirst ... 23456 ... LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •