[primis]

A decade ago was 2013, the pentium 4 is at least 13 years old now, but entered production 23 years ago. There's still a lot of utility to be had from a 10 year old machine. My daily driver laptop os a lenovo t420 which came out in 2011. Sure it can't play games but it'll do fine with youtube, programming, etc.

My server box is also a 2012 era machine, it's a 3770k build. It's perfectly fine for what I use it for. Yeah it takes a bit more power than a modern intel chip, but it sure beats the alternative of throwing it in a landfill to save a few watts at idle.

[horsawlarway]

If you have a need and you already own it - knock yourself out.

But comparing spending 40 bucks on craigslist or ebay for an old pentium/core 2 duo, vs getting an rpi... You're probably better off with the Pi (assuming you can source it, which is not a given atm).

I don't even buy most of mine used, I just get hand-me-downs from friends/family because they want to get rid of the machine and ask me to wipe the drive in exchange for the hardware, but even at an upfront cost of free, a machine using 100 watts over a year is 80 bucks in my region, and my power is right around the US average.

Plus power in my region is tiered, so the first 650kwh per month are cheap, the next 350 are avg, and the rest are expensive. So adding machines at this point is actually closer to ~$130 a year at 100 watts idle (paying for t3 rates).

Personally, it's just not worth it to me to take a freebie that runs me $100+ in costs a year. Not even accounting for the knock-on costs, like the extra AC needed because 100 watts is a small heater.

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So sure - lots of older machines do just fine (the end of the core 2 duo line is quite reasonable, and most laptops are actually fine) but it's really probably worth measuring the power draw.

The five year cost of operating that rpi is ~$30, the five year cost of operating a 100 watt machine are ~$450. And I can run a LOT more low power machines and stay in my t1/t2 pricing for power.

[jkepler]

Helpful thought process, as I've defaulted for a while to older machines I have around, but now I question how much power they're drawing. I've never really considered power more than how long do my laptop batteries last.

Do you have any pointers what sort of equipment to use to measure the power draw? Are you simply measuring it from a UPS?

[kbutler]

You can use a device like the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption: https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Mo...

[NovaPenguin]

These are always handy to have around. The first day with one is like the first day with a label maker. You test everything!

Some figures from around my house.

Lenovo Tkinkpad T400 - 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo Laptop idles at about 10 Watts and peaks at just over 30 watts.

Lenovo Thinkpad T420 - 2nd Gen i5 is about the same.

Lenovo Mini 10 - 1.66Ghz Atom doesn't seem to know how to idle its power regardless of OS. Runs at a constant 10.5 Watts - 15 watts if using a Hard Drive installed instead of SSD.

Core 2 Duo Mac Mini - 8 watts idle - 24 watts peak.

Sony Bluray player - 0.5 Watts idle. 5 Watts during Bluray. 3 Watts during DVD.

Desktop PC - 2nd Gen i7 + Geforce 1650. Idle 61 Watts - Peak in game 95-101 Watts.

Sony AM/FM Radio - 0.5 Watts. That one was actually really neat to know just how lower power it takes to run.

[jack_pp]

I'm curious how you manage to use 650kw+ per month. I don't go over 300 even in the summer with the AC on.

Also why would you just keep running extra machines all the time? I understand a personal machine and a server but more than that.. for what?

[horsawlarway]

The short answer - Live somewhere very hot and humid. In my case - Atlanta.

Add an old house on top and throw in working from home, and usage can creep up on you very quickly. We average around 1000kwh a month, but summer months where it's 95+ and near 100% humidity means the AC reasonably needs to be on.

Jun/Jul are the worst, we hit 2200kwh over those months last year.

As for the machines - like I mentioned, they run a k8s cluster I host numerous services on. I run seafile/bookstack/jellyfin/keycloak/homeassistant/email/dns/mealie/snipeit/etc on them. Most idle around 5watts and aren't a big deal. I recycle the machines that would end up costing me real money in power usage.

---

I'll add - my next personal project is going to be moving the entire cluster over to a dedicated solar system. As long as I don't do any grid-tie, I can do it without permits. Just waiting to find a decent deal on inverters at this point. Since I already have a pallet of used panels.

[ipcress_file]

Correct. You need to go back another 10 years to get to the Pentium 4. I bought my P4-M laptop new in early 2003.

[NL807]

> it's a 3770k build

I have an i7 3770 and it's still ok for gaming even.