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Author Topic: What the F***!  (Read 59008 times)

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Offline Belial6

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Re: What the F***!
« on: January 12, 2011, 05:57:34 AM »
Quote from: dammy;605922
Hate to break it to you, but WTTM is not Leo, wrong part of the world.


Well, the new thing on Amiga.org is to accuse anyone that doesn't join the mob of being one of the evil ones.
 

Offline Belial6

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Re: What the F***!
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2011, 06:39:52 AM »
I never understood the pride of using old PC hardware.  Get yourself a Kill-A-Watt, and measure how much it costs you to run those beasts.  My Core 2's have completely paid for themselves with electricity savings over their predecessors, while running way faster.  Heck, my the Core 2 and Atom HTPCs I replaced my satellite receivers with last April are just about to hit the payoff point.
 

Offline Belial6

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Re: What the F***!
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2011, 07:30:18 AM »
My Athlon X2 with an nVidia video card drew 190 watts peak and idled at 160 watts.  My quad core Core 2 with Intel X4500 peaks at 60 watts and idles at 40.  My Revo media PC with nVidia Ion peaks at 20 watts and idles at 5.

Sleep didn't really work well with the Athlon, so it basically ran 24/7.  That put it's power usage at ~115kwh/month.  At the California rate of $.037/kwh, it cost ~$43/month to run.  Sleep works much better on my Core 2, so it run ~16 hours a day.  That put's it's power usage at ~24kwh/month costing ~$9.  That gives me a savings of $34/month.  Everything in the machine is faster, including the video, and the system cost only $500.  That means replacing the machine took 14 months to pay for itself.  Now, I realize that some place pay a third for electricity than we do, but even then a P4 would easily pay for it's own replacement.  It would just take a few years instead of 1.

The Revo's atom is as fast as a P4, and the video is better than anything that came in a P4.   Even if your in one of those amazing places that sell you electricity at $0.10/kwh, it would take in the range of a year to replace the P4.

My wife's brand new laptop with an i5 draws 30-50 watts, and only cost $700.  I have no idea where you spend $2k on computers.  Even most Macs don't cost $2k.

Edit:
OK, I reread your post.  Your comparing apples to oranges.  You don't replace a P4 with a high end PC.  You replace a P4 with a $200 net top.  You will get equal performance, and a massive drop in electric usage.  Why would you feel the need to buy a high end computer if a P4 is even usable?  A $500 PC will give you massive speed ups over a P4.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2011, 07:33:53 AM by Belial6 »
 

Offline Belial6

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Re: What the F***!
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2011, 08:37:17 AM »
I get that faster machines are not necessarily going to give you more, but modern machines will give you equal performance at a fraction of the power envelope, and thus paying for themselves.  It is not uncommon to see Pentium 4s with power draws over 200 watts.  That compared to an equivalent Atom running at 20 watts.  It's not a matter of getting more processing power, it is a question of TCO.