Leaving a server on all day

[Bill Moran]

Charles Swiger <cswiger at mac.com> wrote:

> On Jun 8, 2004, at 1:59 PM, Bill Moran wrote:
> >> Hopefully I'll get my flat screen back soon from repair.  I guess 
> >> those use
> >> less power, right?
> >
> > I remember having this conversation with someone not too long ago, and 
> > our
> > consensus was that flat screens used just as much power as tube 
> > monitors.  Don't
> > hold me to that, though, I don't seem to remember our testing 
> > technique as being
> > very ... uhm ... "scientific".
> 
> No need to guess, use an amp-meter.  :-)

What a crazy idea.

I seem to remember plugging monitors into a UPS in an attempt to use the cheesy
"load meter" lights to tell which was drawing more juice, when that didn't
show us any difference, we tried watching the power meter outside ... trying to
guess which monitor made it spin faster ...

> >>  Also, a 1.8GHz Athlon won't use any more power than
> >> necessary during idle time, right?
> >
> > Different processors are different.  Many newer CPUs will throttle 
> > their power
> > consumption while the machine is idle, but most older ones can't do 
> > this.
> > You'll need to research the specific CPU + motherboard to see if this 
> > is
> > available or not, but (as far as my lousy memory serves) Athlons in 
> > the 1.8G
> > range don't support reduced power during non-usage, and will consume 
> > just as
> > many watts while the system is idle as while it's doing a buildworld.
> 
> A 1.8GHz AMD is likely to be a Barton, or possibly a later-model 
> Thoroughbred.  The CPU should have AMD's PowerNow! capabilities if APCI 
> is enabled, and they should also significantly reduce power consumption 
> if the OS runs the HLT instruction in the idle loop.

Ahh ... didn't know the 1.8s had that in them.

> I have one machine with an AMD 1800+ (1.54 MHz T'bred-B), which runs at 
> perhaps 48 or 50 C if the system is idle.  If I run something like 
> SETI at Home for a day or so, the CPU will go up to around 56 or even 57 C 
> as a result of the load.  The difference in thermal output due to load 
> is very obvious.

But is thermal output a reliable indicator of power usage?  Logically, it seems
like it would be, but I'd hate to assume.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com