7 ms·

Old xeons are hot, and power hungry. My monthly electric bill decreased by nearly $10 after replacing my 2010 MacPro with a 2018 MacMini.

• howard941 7y ago
  That's cool that you can tell. $10 is 2% of my monthly electric bill. Do you turn your machine off or let it go into deep sleep? I tend to leave the stuff on all the time to minimize heating/cooling cycle stress . It's probably led to some premuturely dried out electrolytics (and maybe a little bit more on the electric bill) but I stopped losing spinning media and the only things that are failing in the old (>10 year) old boxes I have up are the fans. EDIT - FWIW my home office daily drive are dual 6 core Xeon 3104s at 1.7ghz from the Dell refurb site. Although it's my desktop system I also do a lot of parallel stuff on it
  • jdietrich 7y ago
    >$10 is 2% of my monthly electric bill You spend $6000 a year on electricity? Are you running an aluminium smelter in your back yard?
    • howard941 7y ago
      Man I wish - I'd get something in return for the wasted money. The neighborhood just feels like a big smelter.
    • InvaderFizz 7y ago
      Typical for a larger home in the south. Air Conditioning is not exactly optional when it's 95F and 85% humidity for half the year.
      • dublinben 7y ago
        With proper architecture [0], you can have a much more efficient house that requires little if any air conditioning. It'll look much nicer than the typical McMansion too.[1] [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X18304131 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X1... [1] https://www.buildnative.com/portfolio/peak-ridge/?portfolioCats=299 https://www.buildnative.com/portfolio/peak-ridge/?portfolioC...
        • deleted 7y ago
          [deleted]
        • sbov 7y ago
          A custom net zero home, which is what you've linked here, sounds pretty damn expensive. Unless money is no object, you're probably better off slapping some extra solar panels on your existing McMansion.
        • howard941 7y ago
          The science direct article content was excellent for new builds. Up until the early 70s, when draining Florida was still a thing, before depletion concerns, some neighboring homes had an air conditioning mode routing pumped shallow aquifer ground water through the air handler for cooling, and dumping the warmed water. I wonder if a heat exchanger to a deeper aquifer is a practical alternative.
      • usefulcat 7y ago
        I've lived in the southern US my whole life. An average bill of $500/month is a lot. The only way I could see that is if most or all of the following are true: very large house, very old A/C, using electricity for heat in the winter (not a heat pump), unusually high rate, setting thermostat below 70 all the time. My house is not huge, but it is nearly 70 years old and doesn't even have insulation in half the walls. My electric bill rarely gets above $200/month even when the high temp is 100 most days. My a/c is not particularly new either, I think it's approaching ~20 years.
        • howard941 7y ago
          I used to get one or two electric bills every year less than $200 back in the noughts but the weather's not been cooperating of late. 40 year old house, 2500 square ft under air or heat pump, summertime thermostat set at 79, located in an unusually arid part of s/w Florida. No insulation in the cinder block walls and very thin insulation in the attic. No shade foliage to the west or to the south. Tons of heat gain through the south facing side: Previous owner had to have equity in a sliding glass door company, the entire south side opens up with sliding glass doors. I have a solar powered attic ventilator on my must-buy list but I'm worried about puncturing the brand new roof's membrane. Copyedited
          • antisthenes 7y ago
            If you have poor insulation and drafty construction, the attic ventilator may be doing more harm than good. It can be pulling up cooled air from within the house into the attic, and then pumping it out of the house. No wonder your bills are enormous. In cases like yours, retrofitting insulation should more than pay for itself in just a couple of years.
            • howard941 7y ago
              The only attic ventilation now is passive through the soffits and ridge vents. Active ventilation was on my list but now I've struck it off based on your post. 3/4 of my attic space is vaulted -- I can't get flats up there, maybe it can be blown, but if it's blown how do they go about inspecting it for proper application? Or is it more like BGA assembly without X-ray inspection (spray and pray?)
  • sorenjan 7y ago
    https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emis...
• ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > Old xeons are hot, and power hungry. The other thing I'd worry about on a old, heavily used workstation is wear on the fan bearings. I've seen ones that got pretty loud after 5-6 years and replacement parts generally aren't available at that point.
  • Johnny555 7y ago
    Aren't most fans available as standard replacement parts? Or at least, something close enough? I once zip-tied (well, tied in with wire) a replacement CPU fan when the one I thought would fit didn't quite line up.
    • ThrowawayR2 7y ago
      Dell and HP are the two major workstation brands I'm familiar with and both of them use custom fan assemblies. Search for "Dell Precision workstation fans" on eBay if you'd like to see examples.
      • jandrese 7y ago
        On the other hand, ripping out the old case fan and replacing it with one held in place by sheet metal screws or glue is an option. When you are buying old hardware like this it's ok to bodge the repairs if necessary.
  • jotm 7y ago
    Bearings? You're not buying 20 year old machines. You're more likely to get maglev fans No parts? It's a bloody fan, ffs