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Re: Increasing minimum 'i386' processor



On Tue, 22 Nov 2011, Patrick Schoenfeld <schoenfeld@debian.org> wrote:
> > If you have tasks which require little CPU power (such as a DNS server)
> > and the system is idle most of the time then comparing the idle power
> > use is the most important thing.
> 
> Uhm.. yes, its the "most important thing" for you to decide weither the
> system is over-sized for a job that could eventually be very well be done
> by a atom system or even some low performance embedded system.
> 
> However it does not qualify for a *general* assesment weither modern
> systems have become better at power-saving or, because its still not
> comparable. If you really do not need the extra power, you are still
> able to buy a modern but less powerful system, like lets say an Atom.
> You can compare that machines to draw a usefull assesment.

People save power to save money, to save cooling, or to save the environment.  
Buying new hardware isn't the way to save money, power is cheap enough in most 
places that the cost of a new Atom system would cover 4+ years of running a 
P3.  Cooling can be an issue, but usually only in a DC where computational 
density is the most important issue and therefore multi-core 64bit CPUs win.  
For saving the environment it's a really good thing to avoid buying new 
systems.

> The point is not weither you can change the PSU of a P3 with the PSU of
> an Pentium-D or newer. The point is weither a Pentium D with a better
> Pentium D-suitable PSU would have given different results.
> (or same vice versa)
> Because, today you can chose between PSUs which (usually) vary between 70%
> and 90% efficiency. Dunno what efficiency previous PSUs had.
> So if your P3 might happen to have a PSU with an efficiency of 90%,
> while your Pentium-D has an efficiency of 70%, this *will* result in a
> significant difference in comparibility of the two values.

The difference in recorded power use between my Pentium-D system and one of 
the more efficient P3 systems is a factor of 3.  A 70%-90% PSU efficiency 
difference will not impact that.
 
> Well, while that is your expectation, you did not back it with facts and
> therefore we need to assume that this expectation is false.

So far I've been the only person in this discussion to supply any facts about 
power use of various systems.

Feel free to provide reference to facts that you think are relevant.

-- 
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