<p>Sounds like a great feature for a SoHo switch or Linux based router firmware. You ought to mention it to the tomato firmware guys.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jun 5, 2011 3:14 PM, "David Hillman" <<a href="mailto:hillmands@gmail.com">hillmands@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution">> @Pat, Byron:<br>> <br>> My electric bill has been going up since last year. According to a few<br>
> articles that I have looked at, computers, in general, make up less than 10%<br>> of total household electric bill. Even though it is a small percentage, I<br>> still like the idea of replacing inefficient electronics with ones that are<br>
> more efficient and recycling the old boards. It gives me that warm and<br>> fuzzy feeling, especially for a machine that doesn't even use half of the<br>> processing power that is has. The only thing that will give me pause is if<br>
> I feel I am being taken for a ride. Take those Mini-ITX boards, for<br>> example. The economics feels wrong somehow. Mini-ITX boards are smaller,<br>> less powerful and yet they cost more way more than a more powerful full-size<br>
> board. Even the ones without CPUs cost more money for less stuff. Take the<br>> Zotac NF610i-K-E vs. MSI G41M-P33. They are both socket 775 1333 FSB. Both<br>> have SATA, audio and pretty much the same Realtek LAN chip. It's pointless<br>
> to compare the chipsets; G41 is a way better chipset. The MSI board also<br>> has more expansion ports, yet it costs $10 less than the Zotac. Seems like<br>> I'll be taken for a ride there. Bollocks.<br>
> <br>> Pat, I like your idea of only using the computer when you have to. I have<br>> been trying to figure out how to have my media server wake up only when I<br>> want to watch movies on the PS3 console and without doing much manual labor.<br>
> I am thinking it would a good idea to have a small device that acts as a<br>> delegate for much more powerful machines that actually provide the services.<br>> Whenever the PS3 asks for a movie file from the delegate, it'll relay a WOL<br>
> signal to the media server box (if it isn't awake yet). The delegate only<br>> has to understand the media sharing protocol, but it doesn't have to be<br>> powerful enough to crunch the numbers, etc. Once the media box comes up,<br>
> the delegate can transfer control directly to the media server box. The<br>> same sort of idea is used for web services. Is that too complicated for<br>> these types of network services? I haven't been able to find a way to way<br>
> get the PS3 to directly wake the cranky media box; it always just times out.<br>> The media box is old and takes forever to boot up.<br>> <br>> On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 1:19 PM, Pat Regan <<a href="mailto:thehead@patshead.com">thehead@patshead.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>>> On Sat, 4 Jun 2011 12:30:32 -0400<br>>> David Hillman <<a href="mailto:hillmands@gmail.com">hillmands@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>>><br>>> > more stuff than I need. Supermicro has a couple of dual Atom Mini-ITX<br>
>> > server boards, but they are pretty expensive. You get what you pay<br>>> > for with those boards, though.<br>>><br>>> I picked up a P3 Kill-A-Watt a couple of months ago and I had some fun<br>
>> measuring various devices around the house.<br>>><br>>> The thing I was most curious about was my home file server (aka my<br>>> arcade cabinet). It sits right behind me and the cpu and ps fans are<br>
>> fairly noisy (the guts I reused are getting pretty old), so I don't<br>>> leave it powered up all the time.<br>>><br>>> I was hoping that one of those nvidia ion motherboards (with the atom<br>
>> cpus) would be fast enough for the games I have on there. I was also<br>>> hoping that the power savings would be great enough to help offset the<br>>> cost of the "upgrade."<br>>><br>
>> The cabinet currently has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800, five 1 TB drives<br>>> (that are almost always spun down), and a very outdated nvidia card of<br>>> some sort.<br>>><br>>> When playing games it maxes out at about 135 watts. When all the<br>
>> drives are spun down and it is idling it uses a bit over 100 watts.<br>>> That's less than $100 per year, assuming I run it 24/7 (which I'm<br>>> not). If the replacement hardware magically used no power it would<br>
>> take more than 2 years to pay for the "upgrade."<br>>><br>>> I keep putting upgrade in quotes because the newer, lower powered<br>>> hardware isn't faster than what I already have. :)<br>
>><br>>> The internet leads me to believe that the best I can hope for is around<br>>> 20-30 watts at idle.<br>>><br>>> Pat<br>>> _______________________________________________<br>>> Ale mailing list<br>
>> <a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>>> <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>>> <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
>><br></div>