Thread: economical pc
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Old 11-12-2009, 01:47 AM   #10 (permalink)
NiHaoMike
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Something somehow appeals to have a really oversized power supply, like putting a 500HP turbocharged diesel engine in a compact. Yet it will not improve performance if it's not needed. And only large servers and workstations will stress a 500w power supply.

I have a 550W Antec Truepower Trio in my older PC, but that is because that's what I had. It actually gets great efficiency since it's 80 Plus.

I have the PC running 24/7 since that's the only one I have with me that is designed for continuous full load operation. I loaded it down more now that the weather is cooling down. It is actually keeping my bedroom nice and warm at night when it drops to as low as 50F outside while only using 60w at low load to 150w at full load. So during the day, I'm using it for its designed purpose and at night, it runs Folding@Home while keeping my bedroom warm enough to comfortably sleep in.

When the weather starts warming back up, I will use a low powered PC instead for most purposes. I have an old Pentium 4 laptop that is half broken (bad fan, cannot find a replacement), which I will fix later. in my situation, I am actually better off running old PCs for heat since they are just as efficient as resistance heaters and do some other useful work at once. (Maybe I should write a simple program to measure the room temperature using a 1-Wire sensor and adjust bulk CPU load to regulate temperature?)

Another trick is to angle the PCs so the fans blow to the side and hang wet laundry on a rack a short distance away. So now it also works as a clothes dryer for the winter.
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