[nick0garvey]

You say "don't suggest to buy some old Dell Optiplex from eBay" but I did exactly this.

I spent $43.97 (which included shipping) for the Optiplex, added a 2 port NIC for $16.37, and it's been running my house great since then.

[alias_neo]

This really isn't viable in somewhere like the UK.

At our current electricity prices, if that machine ran at 100W, you'd be spending the equivalent of what you paid for it EVERY month in electricity.

I've always seen Americans, who typically have more space and cheaper energy and fuel suggest people grab 1U servers for $40 etc, and respond just like you did when people ask them _not_ to.

My car also does 50mpg, and I still pay more pay mile for fuel.

In Europe, we need to spend more to buy efficient tech because the running costs require it.

[stonogo]

It's perfectly viable in the UK. The Optiplex 7050 is available for under a hundred pounds and the PSU tops out at 65W. It idles under eight watts. This is comparable with any other router capable of handling gigabit traffic.

I think the misunderstanding is the assumption about form factor. The 7050 series is available in a case the size of a paperback book.

[alias_neo]

I'm willing to accept your point if you or they, can confirm that they are in fact talking about an optiplex that idles at 8W, which I doubt, for 43 dollars.

Despite DELLs willingness to slap the same series number on everything from an ATX tower to a "paperback book", they are far from the same thing.

I'm willing to accept I may be wrong, so let's see.

[stonogo]

Here you go. https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-She...

First page, the one on the right. I don't see why you'd doubt an 8-watt idle, since it's basically a laptop processor and chipset. Please note that these models are available with both 35W and 65W TDP processors; I'm talking about the (generally cheaper) 35W models, of course.

[alias_neo]

I hear you. But we're crossing wires here.

I doubt the original poster is talking about the small "book" sides micro form factor at ~$40.

I expect that one to cost at least double, if not more (a quick eBay search outs the micro form factor at closer to a £200 average), and the tower form factor, with it's 240W PSU is likely to be drawing much more than ~8W in a typical configuration.

My point stands; if you want to spend £35 on an x86 machine, youll pay in electricity costs, spend ~£200+ and overall youll likely save money overall if it lasts a decent period.

[abwizz]

power consumption is a strong point. there are a lot of old desktops that idle >10W but there also are some (not as old typically) that go below.

if you want to be sure, use an old (skylake and above) laptop and give it a usb3-eth plug. my latitude e7470 idles at around 3W (powertop)

[ccmcarey]

Where do you see those being available for under 100gbp!?

[stonogo]

Available in plenty of second hand computer vendors: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225601831181

[vladvasiliu]

It probably doesn't run at 100W, although I'd be quite curious to know whether someone actually measured the consumption, since I have the HP version of this.

The reason why I don't expect it to draw as much is because I have an 8-core xeon with 2x10k RPM + 4*7200 RPM drives, a dedicated raid card, integrated BMC, and it reports ~100W power draw when booting up. When sitting around doing nothing but with the drives spinning, it reports a draw of about 80W.

edit: The BMC alone draws 11W, judging by the reported power consumption when the server is off, but plugged in.

[hotpotamus]

The main issue I see with that option is space and power, the micro-form factor (NUC-sized) clone systems that people are discussing in here are quite nice for that. Functionally an old Dell tower should be fine.

[vladvasiliu]

Sure, but those tend to be much more expensive, so depending on the actual cost of electricity in your area, it may take a long time for you to break even.

However, if you want to have a really small appliance-like pc, then yeah, the NUC-sized ones are much better.

[KennyBlanken]

The low-power AMD based systems everyone recommended a couple years ago were indeed great, until the ebay resellers realized what was going on and started slapping "opnsense pfsense AES-NI" etc on their listings and doubled their prices. The systems went from selling at $40-50 to over $100.

Also, the AMD processor in those systems is getting extremely long in the tooth.