<html><head></head><body>I never mix investment payoff with geek appeal or security. If the budget is too tight to run the hardware, I need to be doing other things. AC, dryer, fridge = big power. My stack of gear in the basement is worth every W in my happiness (until something breaks then it's all just a pile of garbage to be replaced asap).<br>
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I will be using that rack to provide crawlspace heating this winter:-). The floor in my den is usually quite cold.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On September 23, 2017 3:04:47 PM EDT, Steve Litt <slitt@troubleshooters.com> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<pre class="k9mail">On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 00:31:54 -0700<br />Alex Carver <agcarver+ale@acarver.net> wrote:<br /><br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;"> On 2017-09-22 15:59, Joey Kelly wrote:<br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #ad7fa8; padding-left: 1ex;"> On Friday 22 September 2017 12:53:34 DJ-Pfulio wrote: <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"> The newer APU2 CPUs handle 750+Mbps on their GigE connections<br /> thanks to Intel NICs. These aren't the old Alix boards. <br /></blockquote> <br /> I'm about to get a few of these for my lab. I'm working on a<br /> perpetual dev project and had wanted to use Soekris, but they just<br /> pulled out of the US. I started looking for a replacement and found<br /> these, the apparent Alix successor. These things are beefier and<br /> way cheaper, so it's a win.<br /> <br /> On a side note, there's lots of little router-style boxes out of<br /> there, but most of them are from Red China. I shudder to think what<br /> lurks in the firmware.<br /> <br /> --Joey<br /> <br /></blockquote> <br /> I've been looking at one of these though I haven't pulled the trigger<br /> yet since they're not cheap. Not necessarily direct from China<br /> (though one office is in Taiwan).<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.logicsupply.com/ml400g-12">https://www.logicsupply.com/ml400g-12</a>/<br /></blockquote><br />Not cheap is an understatement. At 15 cents/kw-hr, I spend about<br />$0.40/day running my guestimate 100 watt ancient box. So that's in the<br />neighborhood of $150/year. It would take me 4.4 years running the<br />recommended low power computer to break even. Would the $662 computer<br />last that long and still be relevant to start saving? It's a<br />reasonable question, although I have a feeling the answer would be<br />"yes".<br /><br />In this calculation I assumed the low power unit uses 0 watts, because<br />my round figure of 100w for my old commodity box is probably low too.<br /><br />For those of us living in warm climates, a factor in favor of the low<br />power machine is that my 100 watts creates heat which must be<br />removed via the rather inefficient method of air conditioning,<br />effectively raising the wattage I pay for due to this one computer.<br /><br />I'd feel much better about this investment if it were $300.00. An<br />investment that pays for itself in 2 years is a no brainer, as long as<br />there's a reasonable expectation the equipment will last longer than<br />that.<br /><br />Whether you buy one of these or not, it's essential to have a second<br />computer, probably an old commodity box, at the ready in case this one<br />screws up. You should also have an up to date copy of pfSense or ipCop<br />or OpenBSD or whatever you're using to firewall.<br /><br />I love the fact that, as configured, this computer has no wifi. I<br />really want my wifi separate from my firewall.<br /><br />SteveT<br /><br />Steve Litt<br />September 2017 featured book: Manager's Guide to Technical<br />Troubleshooting Brand new, second edition<br /><a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/mgr">http://www.troubleshooters.com/mgr</a><br /><hr /><br />Ale mailing list<br />Ale@ale.org<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 /></pre></blockquote></div><br>
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