Date: Sun, 3 Dec 95 19:48 WET From: uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com (Frank Durda IV) To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: No Thumbs??? Message-ID: <m0tMQ10-000CJhC@nemesis.lonestar.org>
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While we are talking about power supplies, always avoid buying computers with the EPA Energy Star (US Markets mainly) if you plan to run any UNIX-like operating system on the machine. Units with the Energy Star mark have a very small power supply, plus must have the ability to go into a low-power state when the system is idle, this reducing power consumption to less than 30 watts. The "on" power for these systems is usually below 70 watts, so there isn't much to work with. Expansion is something the vendors assume you will not do. You can easily blow 70 watts if you have a lot of cards, lots of RAM, many serial I/O ports, perhaps a tape or CD-ROM drive and big disks. Plus the drives these systems come with are usually configured to spin down after 20 or 30 seconds of inactivity, which is pretty goofy for systems running "update"... Some of these power supplies are installed in such a way that they can't be replaced with a larger supply, so putting a bigger supply in may not be an option. These Energy Star power supplies are showing up in mid and mini-tower configurations, not just the low-profile pizza-box PCs and are mainly in brand name computers. Just beware. Frank Durda IV <uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org>|"The Knights who say "LETNi" or uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com (Fastest Route)| demand... A SEGMENT REGISTER!!!" ...letni!rwsys!nemesis!uhclem |"A what?" ...decvax!fw.ast.com!nemesis!uhclem |"LETNi! LETNi! LETNi!" - 1983
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