From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1Huug4-0004Kd-CF for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:19:44 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l53IEwD0024531; Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:14:58 GMT Received: from rwcrmhc14.comcast.net (rwcrmhc14.comcast.net [204.127.192.84]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l53I4Na3010220 for ; Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:04:23 GMT Received: from spore.ath.cx ([24.245.14.14]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc14) with ESMTP id <20070603174921m1400fn46ce>; Sun, 3 Jun 2007 17:49:22 +0000 Received: from pascal.spore.ath.cx (pascal.spore.ath.cx [192.168.1.100]) by spore.ath.cx (Postfix) with ESMTP id 881892B3CA for ; Sun, 3 Jun 2007 12:49:21 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 12:49:21 -0500 From: Dan Farrell To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Linux becomes expensive ;) Message-ID: <20070603124921.257cb28a@pascal.spore.ath.cx> In-Reply-To: <200706031937.22522.f.philipp@addcom.de> References: <200706021955.27607.f.philipp@addcom.de> <200706031824.52213.f.philipp@addcom.de> <64e8d2f20706031006w4fcc6053u90163d6153208430@mail.gmail.com> <200706031937.22522.f.philipp@addcom.de> Organization: Spore, Ltd. X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.9.1 (GTK+ 2.10.6; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 144171d9-c783-4d25-81d4-1daf3c923716 X-Archives-Hash: f55d34a304eaf2638fbc5d5ce560c400 On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:37:19 +0200 Florian Philipp wrote: > Am Sonntag 03 Juni 2007 19:06 schrieb Ryan Sims: > > On 6/3/07, Florian Philipp wrote: > > > Am Sonntag 03 Juni 2007 18:03 schrieb Dan Farrell: > > > > On Sun, 3 Jun 2007 13:16:33 +0200 > > > > > > > > Florian Philipp wrote: > > > > > Am Samstag 02 Juni 2007 20:03 schrieb Jeff Horelick: > > > > > > Florian, > > > > > > > > > > > > That's not that big of a difference...Also, Gentoo/Linux > > > > > > does not have powersaving for every device like Windows > > > > > > XP...it's writing to the hard drive more often and it > > > > > > doesn't spin as much down when it's not in use to help > > > > > > performance. Also, if i was you, i'd be worried about your > > > > > > system using that LITTLE energy especially since you have a > > > > > > pretty hefty CPU, video card, motherboard, 2 hardrives and > > > > > > al the rest of your components. > > > > > > > > > > > > On 6/2/07, Florian Philipp wrote: > > > > > > > Hi guys! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I've just tested the energy consumption of my PC. > > > > > > > Aparently Gentoo consumes a > > > > > > > quiet a bit more than Windows XP: 213 W compared to 188 W > > > > > > > > > > > > > > PowerNow is activated and works on both cores (tested). > > > > > > > The same hardware is > > > > > > > plugged in and works. I'll attach the output of lspci, > > > > > > > lsmod and cpuinfo as > > > > > > > well as my world-file just in case it's related to some > > > > > > > software. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Is there anything I've forgotten? Where does my energy go? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > A short overview of my hardware: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ EE > > > > > > > Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe (WLAN should be deactivated) > > > > > > > 2048 MB DDR2 Corsair > > > > > > > SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS > > > > > > > ATI Radeon 1950 Pro (fglrx) > > > > > > > 2 SATA2 HDDs > > > > > > > 1 SATA1 DVD-RAM > > > > > > > Floppy > > > > > > > USB mouse, keyboard and printer > > > > > > > TFT screen (connected via DVI) > > > > > > > > > > Well, I've forgotten to mention that I didn't substract all > > > > > peripheral devices. My new calculations (idle, nothing but > > > > > the big black box under my desk): Linux 137W, Win 114W (20% > > > > > or 18EUR / 20$ p.a.). > > > > > > > > > > It seems I can't disable my onboard WLAN completely and while > > > > > Win deactivates it because I don't provide drivers, Linux > > > > > gives it some power although no software is accessing it. > > > > > > > > > > By the way: Maximum output while testing with 3DMark 2006: > > > > > 219W. I wonder why I had to buy a 400W power supply... > > > > > > > > Maybe you can power off the wlan with a wireless-utils program, > > > > or maybe by unloading the kernel module? > > > > > > > > Have you set up power management, powersave frequency > > > > governors? Have you set up your disk(s) to idle quickly? > > > > > > There is no kernel module. I'll play around with modules, configs > > > and tools later. It's not urgent, it was more like a mystery that > > > I wanted to solve. > > > > > > Yes, powermanagement (aka "PowerNow!") is activated. No, my disks > > > do not spin down and should not because of the attrition (I hope > > > that's the right word) that comes with spinning up. > > > > [somewhat OT]: > > Please read this: http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf > > The damage done to hard drives in spinup/spindown is in the same > > category of juju as ricer cflags and cloud seeding. Drive activity > > and such is *not* an indicator of failure, while there may be some > > mechanical stress on the disk, but it's not going to cause your > > drive to fail noticeably earlier. Spin them down, save the power, > > and don't listen to fearmongers.[/OT] > > > > -- > > Ryan W Sims > > Thanks! > > I've known that this report exists but have newer actually seen it > myself. I'm still a bit reluctant because I don't suspect that HDDs > in Google's server farm spind down as often as mine would. > Well, I'll just close my eyes and hope for the best when I hear my > darlings shutting down. ;) In my experience, a drive is quite a lot more likely to last a long time when you _do_ spin it down regularly. The only drive I ever killed before its time, was set to _not_ spin down accidentally, and was in a tiny slimline case, and by the time i got back from work and realized something was wrong, the outside surface of the drive was hot enough to cook eggs on (or so i'd guess). Now I make sure my drives are set to spin down after a few minutes. Don't think this is gonna save much for power though. I actually thought that's what you were referring to with 'attrition;' that is, it takes just as much power to spin up the drive as to keep it spinning for a few extra minutes. Thanks for the report, I found it very interesting. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list