On 2009/06/16 20:07 (GMT+0200) Per Jessen composed:
Felix, like I said, YMMV - you're clearly talking about office/home
A point of the thread is YMMV, so it went and goes without saying.
desktops and workstations, whereas I'm talking about servers in racks in a datacentre. Our servers have at least two power supplies, multiple hot-plug redundant fans etc etc. We tend to be quite conservative wrt upgrading hardware, but our recent upgrades have reduced both electricity and airconditioning costs.
I would expect a single quad core system replacing a quad CPU system could save overall, but that's not a majority upgrade scenario. Quad CPU systems were never big sellers. Home and office desktops far outnumber servers. Average power consumption on the desktop is up, even though efficiency is up too. RAM often now requires heatsink cooling, another sign of increased power consumption, on top of generally increased RAM requirements of newer software. Motherboard chipset coolers, like gfxchip coolers non-existent in 440BX days, are mandatory on current systems. Gfxcards often need so much current they require a dedicated power connector instead of making do with power from the motherboard bus. Giant hard drives installed in plastic rails instead of heat-conductive metal cages are too hot to touch and often die quickly. Typical power supply output power growth from sub-200 yesteryear to 300+ today sums up the story. Power consumption should figure into the equation whether to take equipment out of service, not just whether kernels still support old hardware (thread topic). To ignore power consumption is an ecologically bankrupt attitude to have. It must be taken into account in responsible hardware retirement & support decisions. -- "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." Proverbs 23:5 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org