[kwlug-disc] [OT] linux server power

[William Park]

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 08:08:34PM -0500, Insurance Squared Inc. wrote:
> OK, I slid the linux part in there :).
> 
> My wife just brought in an electrician to tell us why our electricity 
> costs at home are so high.  He came up with a bunch of different things, 
> but one of the potential culprits are the two computers running in the 
> basement.  One's an old Dell tower server that runs our Voip phones.  
> The other is a web/database/backup server running on an older HP 
> workstation.

Harddisks are around 10W.  No video.  So, what's the spec on 
    - power supply -- old ones are notorious for efficiency.
    - cpu -- 45W is better than 125W.

> 
> A quick back of the napkin estimate from the electrician indicated the 
> two machines might be costing me 30+ bucks a month in hydro alone.
> 
> Step one is I think to replace both machines with something newer and 
> more efficient (hopefully without losing speed).

You can consolidate them into one.

> 
> Are there any tricks/suggestions for lowering power costs on hardware, 
> and on linux servers specifically? i.e. my voip server needs to be live 
> 8 to 8, but outside that could probably be dormant except if triggered 
> by an incoming call.  A wake on incoming phone call might help.

-- 
William