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

Mon Apr 7 12:02:32 EDT 2014

The primary use case she's building for is for render jobs that take 3+
days on her current (admittedly 12-year-old) machine.  She's not looking
for a low-power machine.

Darcy.

On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 11:34 AM, CrankyOldBugger
<crankyoldbugger at gmail.com>wrote:

> What if she mounted shares on a NAS box instead of local HDDs?
>
>
>
> On 7 April 2014 11:32, Darcy Casselman <dscassel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 1TB isn't nearly enough.
>>
>> More like 8.
>>
>> Darcy.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 11:21 AM, L.D. Paniak <
>> ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com> wrote:
>>
>>>  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> 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>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
>>>> >>>> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>>>> >>>>
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> --
>>>> >>> -
>>>> >>> Jason Locklin
>>>> >>> http://artsweb.uwaterloo.ca/~jalockli
>>>> >>> 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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