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The comments here are strange. So many people making claims that power utilization doesn't matter. Perhaps not to them, but it does for many. Energy prices ar
by redundantly 3y ago
The comments here are strange.
So many people making claims that power utilization doesn't matter. Perhaps not to them, but it does for many.
Energy prices are getting higher and higher in many parts of the country, heck in the world.
Devices that consume more power generate more heat. So now one is likely using more electricity to keep their home or office cool and comfortable.
Noise matters for many people using workstations. Running a system at full tilt can be irritating, distracting, because of the active cooling.
Some people are just simply conscious of how much electricity they use and want to have a lower environmental impact.
And then there's the large scale matter. One workstation might not be a big deal in terms of energy usage, but millions of them absolutely is.
Saying no one cares how much power a workstation uses is disingenuous.
- ksec 3y agoBecause Workstation, by a lot of people's definition, are suppose to be the power hungry in exchange for absolute performance?
- redundantly 3y agoYou're doing it too. You're assuming how someone would define a workstation, you're assuming that definition includes it being power hungry. A workstation can be a single core, 256MB RAM, 1 watt SBC. It can be a 96 core, 2TB RAM, 1 kw beast. It can be anything in between or even outside of that range. I'm not saying everyone cares about power consumption, but several people here seem to be saying that no one does, and that's simply not true.
- ksec 3y ago-Deleted-, Thx @wtallis
- wtallis 3y ago"Workstation" in this context refers to a specific target market and product segment that by industry consensus (and in some cases codified by regulators) carries specific connotations about a machine's capabilities and intended use. Your attempts to use the word in the broadest possible meaning are not helpful; you're deliberately communicating badly.
- NotYourLawyer 3y ago> A workstation can be a single core, 256MB RAM, 1 watt SBC. No. Words have meanings. Workstation does not mean that.
- theshrike79 3y agoWhat does ”Workstation” mean then? What kind of ”work” is it meant for? Accounting? Writing? Programming? Video editing?
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workstation
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- veidr 3y agoThe term does have a generally recognized meaning, which is something like "computer that is designed for computationally expensive tasks". That's a relative thing, so "workstation" has continued to mean "computer that is on the upper end of the computing power spectrum". So not writing, probably not accounting. Programming, sure, if the builds being done are computationally expensive. Video editing definitely, if you are going to be doing a lot of it, you will want the most powerful workstation your budget allows for.
- capableweb 3y ago> A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workstation Generally, 1 low performance core with 256RAM is not enough for technical or scientific applications. Not many professions you could get away with those kind of specs really.
- golem14 3y agoWell, this wikipedia article mentions thin clients as lower end workstations. I would not call a computer with a single low performance core and 256 MB RAM a workstation either, but for a 4GB/8GB RPi 4, that term seems applicable.
- pshc 3y agoWhen I hear "workstation" what comes to mind is a daily driver for business purposes, so rock-solid reliability is utmost. Redundant components, ECC ram, rated to run 24/7 with ample cooling. Performance per watt is also up there. Whereas raw performance specs are typically high but ultimately dependent on use case.
- wildrhythms 3y ago>business purposes I can show you a company of 10,000+ people using Chromebooks and Macbooks for 'business purposes' with little regard for performance per watt.
- unusualmonkey 3y agoIf power utilization matters, then a more 'efficient' device, that takes longer might actually use more power overall - esp. when you factor in the lighting, Aircon etc that might be needed by the human operator who is waiting for the workstation to finish computation.
- croes 3y agoHow much electricity can you pay for the price of a computer with an M2 Ultra?
- dijit 3y agoPedantically, sysadmins always counted the power consumption (or, compute density) when upgrading servers, and would even do early upgrades as a cost saving measure. Power costs (in datacenters at least) were high enough that buying the €10,000 server that sucked 200w more was worth less than the €15,000 machine that didnt suck that extra 200w. So electricity prices can be more than a negligible amount on the total. Where that line is depends on your personal situation. I live in southern sweden and they hide the total price of power here, but aggregated my cost per watt is 5sek/kWh (roughly €0.45). So a worst case for me at 200w with 24hrs of usage is about €800/y
- Affric 3y agoBig part of me building a decent gaming PC will be buying a house and installing solar panels (and maybe a battery considering market conditions and government incentives). At this point we are seeing the globalised fossil fuel market endgame in this country.
- alpaca128 3y agoWhere I live the electricity prices are about to rise by 90%. It's not the first significant price increase in recent years.
- markhahn 3y agoTask energy is a more reasonable argument than whinging about how some people care so much about power. Everyone cares about power, at a fairly similar level - maybe 2-4x differences, but not 10x. And most of the ones who care underestimate how rarely their machine is actually fully busy. Idle power is probably more interesting than even task power, for anything other than an unusually busy server or cloud hypervisor.