[rescue] Useful stuff for small spaces

[Peter Corlett]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 09:48:43AM +0200, Angel Martin Alganza wrote:
[...]
> What about power saving? Doesn't it pay off for the difference in price?
> This is something I've been wondering about for some time now. The same
> goes for other components such as TFTs vs. CRTs or the use of one item
> instead of two (memory sticks, HDDs, optical drives, etc.).

At present, the marginal cost of a watt-year of power is about a pound. A
24/7 box will also typically hang around for about 2-3 years until it wears
out or becomes unfashionable. Given that, if I have to spend more than a
couple of pounds per watt of power saved, it's not worth it. For kit that's
not running 24/7, it becomes even harder to break-even.

> What should you do if you want to go for a very little consuming box?

Consider whether you can eliminate the box completely. That way you save the
power costs *and* initial purchase price.