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> Linux power management is pretty good > defaults favor desktop and server performance Desktops are in S3 half the day consuming ~0 power. During use, electr

by NavinF 2y ago

> Linux power management is pretty good > defaults favor desktop and server performance Desktops are in S3 half the day consuming ~0 power. During use, electricity costs are so much lower than hardware costs that approximately nobody cares about or even measures the former. Servers have background tasks running at idle priority all day so the power consumption is effectively constant. Laptop and phone are the only platforms where the concept of "Linux power management" makes any sense.

rollcat 2y ago
My Mac mini (M1) sips ~6W idle and is completely inaudible. It acts as a desktop whenever I need it to, and as a server 24/7. I only power up my NAS (WoL) for daily backups. The rest of the homelab is for fun and experiments, but mostly gone. "Idle" x86-64 SOHO servers still eat ~30W with carefully selected parts and when correctly tuned, >60W if you just put together random junk. "Cloud" works because of economies of scale. If there's a future where people own their stuff, minimising power draw is a key step.
- PhilipRoman 2y ago
  The low power draw is definitely not exclusive to Macs, a similar x86 mini PC with Linux will also draw around 5W idle.
  - rollcat 2y ago
    Does the mini PC go from zero to eleven though? Can I play BG3, Factorio, or Minecraft on the same hardware? Can I saturate a TB3 port? Transcode video? Run an LLM or text2img? Any of that while remaining responsive, having a video call? If I already need a powerful machine for a desktop, why would I need a second one just so it can stay up 24/7 to run Miniflux or Syncthing? Less is more.
    - hedora 2y ago
      Yes; for about $1000. Eg: https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-ser9-ai-9-hx-370 https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-ser9-ai-9-hx-370 I have the ser-8 model, and can confirm everything works under Linux. This one has an 80 TOPS AI thing, since you asked about llms.
      - rollcat 2y ago
        Huh, pretty cool. Would you mind submitting your scores to Geekbench? Can you also test idle power? Genuinely interested.

by NavinF 2y ago

rollcat 2y ago

My Mac mini (M1) sips ~6W idle and is completely inaudible. It acts as a desktop whenever I need it to, and as a server 24/7. I only power up my NAS (WoL) for daily backups. The rest of the homelab is for fun and experiments, but mostly gone. "Idle" x86-64 SOHO servers still eat ~30W with carefully selected parts and when correctly tuned, >60W if you just put together random junk. "Cloud" works because of economies of scale. If there's a future where people own their stuff, minimising power draw is a key step.

PhilipRoman 2y ago
The low power draw is definitely not exclusive to Macs, a similar x86 mini PC with Linux will also draw around 5W idle.
- rollcat 2y ago
  Does the mini PC go from zero to eleven though? Can I play BG3, Factorio, or Minecraft on the same hardware? Can I saturate a TB3 port? Transcode video? Run an LLM or text2img? Any of that while remaining responsive, having a video call? If I already need a powerful machine for a desktop, why would I need a second one just so it can stay up 24/7 to run Miniflux or Syncthing? Less is more.
  - hedora 2y ago
    Yes; for about $1000. Eg: https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-ser9-ai-9-hx-370 https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-ser9-ai-9-hx-370 I have the ser-8 model, and can confirm everything works under Linux. This one has an 80 TOPS AI thing, since you asked about llms.
    - rollcat 2y ago
      Huh, pretty cool. Would you mind submitting your scores to Geekbench? Can you also test idle power? Genuinely interested.