[kwlug-disc] The sweet(?) smell of power supplies

L.D. Paniak ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com
Mon Apr 7 11:21:24 EDT 2014


OK.  What amount of disk capacity are we talking about? Anything up to
1TB can be done today for a reasonable amount of coin on SSD.
What are the interfaces for specialized hardware?  PCIe? Interface count?

I suspect you can build a remarkably fast system inside of 150W with a
bit of research.  Intel E3-series v3 Xeons/Haswell CPUs pack a pile of
performance into 60-80W - at a decent price.  Especially if the software
uses recent instruction extensions eg AVX.


On 04/07/2014 11:09 AM, Darcy Casselman wrote:
> I'd agree, but she wants to do video and audio rendering.  She needs
> multiple spinning platter harddrives and some specialist video capture
> and sound hardware.
>
> I was able to talk her down from needing a 750W+ power supply (she
> doesn't need 3D graphics at all), but yeah, something in the 500W
> neighbourhood is more reasonable.
>
> Darcy.
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 10:56 AM, L.D. Paniak
> <ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com <mailto:ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com>>
> wrote:
>
>     I agree.  I have been using pico-PSU/AC brick solutions on systems
>     up to
>     100W with great success.  For 95%+ of computing that more than
>     enough to
>     get the job done.
>
>     There are many "mini-systems" of this type available:
>     http://www.canadacomputers.com/search_result.php?checkVal0=0&subcat04=5&checkVal1=1&checkVal2=1&checkVal3=1&checkVal4=1&checkVal5=1&checkVal6=1&checkVal7=1&checkVal8=1&checkVal9=1&pagePos=0&keywords=&manu=0&search=1&ccid=1203&cPath=7_1203
>
>     Especially good are the Intel NUC series (if a little more expensive).
>
>     I recently bought a 430W Corsair ATX PSU and the smell of the fancy
>     paint finish nearly knocked me off my feet.  It took several days to
>     dissipate. I am not sure what the motivation is here.
>
>
>     On 04/07/2014 10:44 AM, Jason Locklin wrote:
>     > Just for fun, this would be approximately the best you can do while
>     > staying safely under 150Watts and staying reasonably priced:
>     >
>     >> PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3nyKO
>     >> Price breakdown by merchant:
>     http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3nyKO/by_merchant/
>     >> Benchmarks: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3nyKO/benchmarks/
>     >>
>     >> CPU: Intel Core i3-2120T 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($160.80 @
>     Amazon Canada)
>     >> Motherboard: MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
>      ($88.02 @ Amazon Canada)
>     >> Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($79.99 @
>     Canada Computers)
>     >> Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State
>     Disk  ($129.99 @ NCIX)
>     >>
>     >> Total: $458.80
>     >> Estimated Wattage: 109W
>     >>
>     >> Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
>     >> (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-07 10:33 EDT-0400)
>     > That would scream running Linux, but would be lacking for gaming. No
>     > idea what Windows needs nowadays though. That website is too
>     much fun.
>     > Now, back to work... right...
>     >
>     > -Jason
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     > On Mon 07 Apr 2014 10:02:49 AM EDT, Darcy Casselman wrote:
>     >> She has rather formidable power requirements, but we were
>     talking about
>     >> whether something like this was available. I'll pass it along.
>     Thanks.
>     >>
>     >> Darcy.
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Jason Locklin
>     <locklin.jason at gmail.com <mailto:locklin.jason at gmail.com>>wrote:
>     >>
>     >>> Have you thought of building a low-power system with something
>     like one
>     >>> of these:
>     http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104186
>     >>>
>     >>> Transformer is sealed in plastic, so no dust/smell from it.
>     Thinking
>     >>> about building a system like this with one of the low-power
>     Haswell
>     >>> chips and an SSD, myself (not for the smell, I just like
>     >>> power-efficient, quiet machines).
>     >>>
>     >>> -Jason
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> On 14-04-05 03:56 PM, Darcy Casselman wrote:
>     >>>> PC hardware question, not specific to Linux, but some of you
>     folks may
>     >>> have
>     >>>> ideas.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> My partner has some rather significant allergies and
>     sensitivities.  She
>     >>>> also needs to replace her 12-year-old desktop computer.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> In general electronics tend to be okay for her, but the power
>     supply
>     >>> seems
>     >>>> to be a stumbling block.  New power supplies smell really
>     bad, triggering
>     >>>> her sensitivities.  And they're blowing that bad air into her
>     living
>     >>> space.
>     >>>> Does anyone know of a retailer that sells power supplies that
>     she'd be
>     >>> able
>     >>>> to crack open a bunch and give them a sniff-test?
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Is there somewhere we can look at used power supplies,
>     preferably from
>     >>>> hopefully neutral office environments (rather than, say, the
>     homes of
>     >>>> smokers or pet owners)?
>     >>>>
>     >>>> We're not entirely sure what it is in the power supplies that is
>     >>> triggering
>     >>>> her.  We know that the PVC wiring is bad (I'm not holding out
>     much hope,
>     >>>> but if someone knows of a manufacturer that coats their wires in
>     >>> something
>     >>>> other than PVC, that would be very useful to know).  But
>     we've tried a
>     >>>> bunch and haven't come up with much luck.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Any suggestions would be helpful.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Thanks!
>     >>>> Darcy.
>     >>>>
>     >>>>
>     >>>>
>     >>>> _______________________________________________
>     >>>> kwlug-disc mailing list
>     >>>> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org <mailto:kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
>     >>>> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>     >>>>
>     >>>
>     >>> --
>     >>> -
>     >>> Jason Locklin
>     >>> http://artsweb.uwaterloo.ca/~jalockli
>     <http://artsweb.uwaterloo.ca/%7Ejalockli>
>     >>> PGP: 9551 BD8F BCCC 5763 9FD9 9C5E 99F2 DE4E 2972 C74D
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> _______________________________________________
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>     >>> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>     >>>
>     >>
>     >>
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>
>
>
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