Energy-hogging Linux, what to do?

[nbodley at speakeasy.net (Nicholas Bodley)]

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 12:24:07 -0400, Tom Metro <blu at vl.com> wrote:

> I suppose you might gain something by investing in one high quality  
> (with power factor correction), high power (500 W) supply, and using it  
> to run 2 or 3 machines. Newer power supply designs with modular  
> harnesses might even make that reasonably easy to do.

A lifetime as an electronic tech tells me that you'd want to be careful if  
you do that. Basically, it might be a good idea, but long leads are not a  
good idea. The chassis should be as close together as you can make them,  
I'd say, and the power leads (wires) as short as reasonably possible.  
Furthermore, connect ("bond") the chassis together with good, large cable  
or tinned-copper braid straps.

I hope there's no misunderstanding; computer power supplies are very  
efficient, and do not draw much more power from the AC line than they  
deliver to the computer. If you have a 500-W supply, and connect it to an  
older mo.bo. that draws, say, 200 W., you are probably drawing only about  
250 W, maybe, (or more like 220W?) from the AC line.

My, that's a disappointment to learn that the 3-V outputs are not powering  
the CPU.

  ===

Dell warning!

I hope everybody knows that (pretty sure!) Dells have/had non-standard  
wiring, but a mechanically-standard connector for the supply to the  
motherboard. They are quite nasty; afaik, connecting a Dell P.S. to a  
non-Dell mo. bo. is said to destroy the mo.bo., and the other way, too, I  
believe, non-Dell P.S. with a Dell mo. bo. also destroys the mo. bo.

If you know what you're doing and have a contact removal tool ("pin  
popper"), you *probably* can re-wire a Dell power supply connector for a  
non-Dell mo. bo., or the other way around.

My reference is _PC Hardware In A Nutshell_, O'Reilly, by the Thompsons,  
3rd Ed., P. 754, trap icon.
<http://www.hardwareguys.com/dellwarn.html> tells of a date range:  
"apparently from September 1998 until April 2002."

Regards,

-- 
Nicholas Bodley  /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
The curious hermit -- autodidact and polymath
Happiness is a full Quabbin.