Energy-hogging Linux, what to do?

[Nicholas Bodley]

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:00:23 -0400, Mark J. Dulcey <mark at buttery.org>  
wrote:

> Nicholas Bodley wrote:
>>  Wondering: Are the critical factors cooling, and HD platter bearing  
>> life? Anything else? Seems that my suggestion to use a laptop 24/7 was  
>> not a good idea; I'll readily accept that it was probably bad advice. I  
>> try to arrange fans to cool off hot spots.
>
> Yes, those tend to be the most critical ones. (And don't forget fan  
> bearing life! [...]

Oh, gosh, yes! Of course. Thanks much. Ball bearings, or (probably) fluid  
hydrodynamic bearings...

> Though hard disk bearings seem to last quite a while, especially if the  
> drive runs continuously;

> starting and stopping the drive frequently is likely to actually be  
> worse. (The typical desktop pattern of on 8-10 hours and off for the  
> rest of the day is less of a  problem.)

"likely to actually be worse": New to me; good, and helpful, to know.

> On a typical server, you'll never get that extended period of inactivity.

Of course; servers are an important part of this thread.

Fwiw, my current HD is a Maxtor 40-GB Romulus (iirc); has worked  
beautifully for a good while. Haven't memorized the model no., although  
hardware-probe results fields look very familiar.

> If nothing else, you'll have spam attempts coming in often enough to  
> activate your email server; even if the spam is discarded, you'll get an  
> entry in your email log, and that means disk activity.

<chat>
I power down my machine between sessions, and sometimes, I see somebody  
(or a bunch of them) "poking" at my DSL bridge. Ethernet between the  
machine and the DSL bridge shuts down, but I have a fixed IP.
</kitty> (French pun)

Thanks much!

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