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Do you feel bad when devices aren't utilized to the extreme? No. My devices are rarely utilizing over 40% CPU and tend to last for a very long time. I know i

Do you feel bad when devices aren't utilized to the extreme? No. My devices are rarely utilizing over 40% CPU and tend to last for a very long time. I know it isn't much but this helps keep some gear out of the landfill. I can always find a use for older hardware. This Linux PC I am writing this post on is coming up on 12 years old and is more than adequate for my purposes. I expect it to last at least another 10 years, though I may have to replace the spinning rust with an SSD at some point. I recently bought my first smart phone despite not really needing one. I have mixed thoughts on how long this will last since I do not control the firmware yet. These devices are designed to be difficult to service. I will probably turn it into a glorified MP3 player since it has a large battery and just get the Caterpillar flip phone. I think the smart phone would be a great home audio entertainment system. I can not find a logical reason to push it to the extreme.

thfuran 4y ago
You're still booting off HDD? That's pretty wild.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Yup, 7200 RPM no less smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep ^Model Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF) In the morning I flip the switch on my inverter, look out the front window, grab a caffeinated beverage and it's booted up. The only notable slow part is the first time I run BleachBit takes longer because I have it search for temp files and it has to build the inode cache. I suppose I could just add this to the boot sequence.
jcelerier 4y ago
> This Linux PC I am writing this post on is coming up on 12 years old and is more than adequate for my purposes it is very very likely wasting a ton of watts doing what a secondhand stick PC such as https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08G1CCWN5 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08G1CCWN5 can do in less than 10 watts, so no, it is very much not adequate from a global point of view
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  I get what you are saying but I enable a lot of power management controls specifically so that I can run on the inverter for a long time during power outages. This was a medium-to-low-end PC when it came out so it was already decent on power usage. When the day comes that I replace the HDD with a SSD I'm sure that number will drop even more.
  - jcelerier 4y ago
    even in low power mode, just your spinning HDD already consumes more than the whole stick computer, the very best 7200rpm can manage 8 watts from what I can find on the internet and the average is more like 20-25 watts
    - LinuxBender 4y ago
      even in low power mode, just your spinning HDD already consumes more than the whole stick computer That's why I spin down the drive and all cron jobs run to a ram disk. The actual power-pig on my computer is the video card. I could and probably should find a used video card that is less powerful as I barely use a tiny fraction of this GPU's capabilities. Either way I am happy with where I landed in this setup. When this rig gives out I may switch to a mini-pc or use one of my spare protectli firewalls as my daily driver.

thfuran 4y ago

You're still booting off HDD? That's pretty wild.

LinuxBender 4y ago
Yup, 7200 RPM no less smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep ^Model Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF) In the morning I flip the switch on my inverter, look out the front window, grab a caffeinated beverage and it's booted up. The only notable slow part is the first time I run BleachBit takes longer because I have it search for temp files and it has to build the inode cache. I suppose I could just add this to the boot sequence.

jcelerier 4y ago

> This Linux PC I am writing this post on is coming up on 12 years old and is more than adequate for my purposes it is very very likely wasting a ton of watts doing what a secondhand stick PC such as https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08G1CCWN5 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08G1CCWN5 can do in less than 10 watts, so no, it is very much not adequate from a global point of view

LinuxBender 4y ago
I get what you are saying but I enable a lot of power management controls specifically so that I can run on the inverter for a long time during power outages. This was a medium-to-low-end PC when it came out so it was already decent on power usage. When the day comes that I replace the HDD with a SSD I'm sure that number will drop even more.
- jcelerier 4y ago
  even in low power mode, just your spinning HDD already consumes more than the whole stick computer, the very best 7200rpm can manage 8 watts from what I can find on the internet and the average is more like 20-25 watts
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    even in low power mode, just your spinning HDD already consumes more than the whole stick computer That's why I spin down the drive and all cron jobs run to a ram disk. The actual power-pig on my computer is the video card. I could and probably should find a used video card that is less powerful as I barely use a tiny fraction of this GPU's capabilities. Either way I am happy with where I landed in this setup. When this rig gives out I may switch to a mini-pc or use one of my spare protectli firewalls as my daily driver.