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

L.D. Paniak ldpaniak at fourpisolutions.com
Mon Apr 7 12:07:43 EDT 2014


If price was no obstacle, one could build a reasonably portable 8TB
system that ran on 150W or less.

If that is not the case, then the odor-free client + remote server route
probably makes for sense.  If you can route a length of 10GbE fiber
between the two, performance could be better than having everything in
one box.


On 04/07/2014 11:34 AM, CrankyOldBugger 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
> <mailto: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
>     <mailto: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
>>         <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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>>
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