3 ms·

Why old laptops instead of old desktops? Because of the power consumption?

kogepathic 11y ago
Yes. I am not aware of any recent desktop computers that can idle at 3W and provide close to the same peak performance as a used laptop does. Obviously Intel has been making good progress on this, I have heard that Sky Lake chips can idle at <10W, but those are still quite expensive. Also by buying a used laptop you get something which is already designed for low power use (e.g. 35W CPUs are pretty much the maximum) and has a built in UPS. Even if the battery is worn out, you're still likely to get 30-60 minutes of run time.
- ChrisDutrow 11y ago
  Thanks for posting this! The idling at 3w is a huge deal I think. What do you use these for? Is there a way to add an extra NIC card? What models do you find work best for this? Edit: This might be a really dumb question, but might it be possible to put a laptop CPU into a server motherboard? Not sure if the laptop i7's/i5's are LGA 2011 and if the motherboard architecture would be compatible? If this were the case you could use the server board dual NIC and out of band management.
  - kogepathic 11y ago
    > What do you use these for? VM hosts mostly. I bought a bunch of 8GB DDR3 SODIMMs for cheap. > Is there a way to add an extra NIC card? You can get ExpressCard gigabit NICs for a reasonable sum. I have also seen dual gigabit mini PCIe cards available for around $50. Me personally, I just use a managed switch which supports VLANs. None of the VMs I run are really network heavy (except when booting from a Zyxel NAS I turned into an iSCSI SAN), so having them share a 1GBit link isn't an issue. VLANs ensure appropriate separation. They're also great to replace the wireless card if you want to make a professional grade WiFi AP. You can buy 802.11ac cards for around $80 which work with Linux. So you end up with something far better than the ARM/MIPS they sell on Amazon for the same price. > What models do you find work best for this? Any Intel NIC is usually very reliable. I also haven't had any problems with RealTek cards. > but might it be possible to put a laptop CPU into a server motherboard? I believe this was possible with Mobile Pentium 4 chips. You could put them in socket 478 with an adapter. Nowadays though it's not possible. The architectures between desktop and mobile are too different (e.g. QPI speed, # of memory channels) > Not sure if the laptop i7's/i5's are LGA 2011 and if the motherboard architecture would be compatible? They're not. The Dell E6220/6230 use a BGA mounted CPU, so it can't be replaced. LGA2011 CPUs are special beasts. I was considering to buy one earlier this year because they're so cheap (compared to present day Xeons), but then you basically have to buy an eATX motherboard, server grade PSU, etc. You can just now buy an LGA2011-3 mini ITX board, but it's really not worth it. LGA2011 CPUs are designed for multi-socket severs. > If this were the case you could use the server board dual NIC and out of band management As per above, you can't do this. OOB management takes power too, and I doubt you could find a server board with these features that uses under 20W of power itself. These laptops do have Intel ME though. I think some kind of OOB management is possible. I haven't tried myself though.
    - ChrisDutrow 11y ago
      Thanks for posting this. This will definitely help a huge amount with the project I am working on (EnterpriseJazz.com) What models of laptops do you looks for. I recently bought an employee a used Lenovo T410. Is that a decent model, or are there other models of laptop that work better?

Yes. I am not aware of any recent desktop computers that can idle at 3W and provide close to the same peak performance as a used laptop does. Obviously Intel has been making good progress on this, I have heard that Sky Lake chips can idle at <10W, but those are still quite expensive. Also by buying a used laptop you get something which is already designed for low power use (e.g. 35W CPUs are pretty much the maximum) and has a built in UPS. Even if the battery is worn out, you're still likely to get 30-60 minutes of run time.

ChrisDutrow 11y ago
Thanks for posting this! The idling at 3w is a huge deal I think. What do you use these for? Is there a way to add an extra NIC card? What models do you find work best for this? Edit: This might be a really dumb question, but might it be possible to put a laptop CPU into a server motherboard? Not sure if the laptop i7's/i5's are LGA 2011 and if the motherboard architecture would be compatible? If this were the case you could use the server board dual NIC and out of band management.
- kogepathic 11y ago
  > What do you use these for? VM hosts mostly. I bought a bunch of 8GB DDR3 SODIMMs for cheap. > Is there a way to add an extra NIC card? You can get ExpressCard gigabit NICs for a reasonable sum. I have also seen dual gigabit mini PCIe cards available for around $50. Me personally, I just use a managed switch which supports VLANs. None of the VMs I run are really network heavy (except when booting from a Zyxel NAS I turned into an iSCSI SAN), so having them share a 1GBit link isn't an issue. VLANs ensure appropriate separation. They're also great to replace the wireless card if you want to make a professional grade WiFi AP. You can buy 802.11ac cards for around $80 which work with Linux. So you end up with something far better than the ARM/MIPS they sell on Amazon for the same price. > What models do you find work best for this? Any Intel NIC is usually very reliable. I also haven't had any problems with RealTek cards. > but might it be possible to put a laptop CPU into a server motherboard? I believe this was possible with Mobile Pentium 4 chips. You could put them in socket 478 with an adapter. Nowadays though it's not possible. The architectures between desktop and mobile are too different (e.g. QPI speed, # of memory channels) > Not sure if the laptop i7's/i5's are LGA 2011 and if the motherboard architecture would be compatible? They're not. The Dell E6220/6230 use a BGA mounted CPU, so it can't be replaced. LGA2011 CPUs are special beasts. I was considering to buy one earlier this year because they're so cheap (compared to present day Xeons), but then you basically have to buy an eATX motherboard, server grade PSU, etc. You can just now buy an LGA2011-3 mini ITX board, but it's really not worth it. LGA2011 CPUs are designed for multi-socket severs. > If this were the case you could use the server board dual NIC and out of band management As per above, you can't do this. OOB management takes power too, and I doubt you could find a server board with these features that uses under 20W of power itself. These laptops do have Intel ME though. I think some kind of OOB management is possible. I haven't tried myself though.
  - ChrisDutrow 11y ago
    Thanks for posting this. This will definitely help a huge amount with the project I am working on (EnterpriseJazz.com) What models of laptops do you looks for. I recently bought an employee a used Lenovo T410. Is that a decent model, or are there other models of laptop that work better?