On Wednesday, 30 August 2017 15:42:47 BST Ian Zimmerman wrote: > On 2017-08-30 09:32, Mick wrote: > > > Unfortunately this isn't a viable strategy because typically you > > > will, in a few months, if not a single month, spend more in > > > electricity costs than you would purchasing a new single board > > > computer. > > > > Perhaps in a commercial 24x7x365 high compute cycle application this > > would hold water, but in the case of a home PC running 14 hours a day > > at maximum power you might save enough to buy a small spinning SATA > > drive after a year, or a Raspberry Pi without peripherals, but not a > > new PC. Of course, if: > > > > 1. your PC is not running at full speed all the time; > > 2. it is not a PentiumD dual core (were they the most power hungry?); > > 3. you're not still running a CRT monitor; > > 4. you tend to suspend to RAM when not in front of it; > > 5. a new PC is not at least 50% more efficient; > > 6. the price of electricity is not exorbitant (I pay approximately > > £0.13/KWh + £0.29/day) > > > > then you will need other reasons to upgrade. When the PC you're using > > is a laptop, then the case for upgrading on grounds of savings on > > electricity costs alone is even more tenuous. > > Also: how long is the replacement going to last? Anything with flash as > the main storage will be back at the recycling station (ideally) within > a couple of years. This includes all the consumer routers I've ever > had, including the beloved blue Linksys.
With consumer grade router/modems I've found the capacitors are of a low rating and therefore within a few years (or sooner if your area experiences brown outs and power cuts/surges) they give up the ghost. Replacing the capacitors in their power supply and sometimes a couple of their internal capacitors with capacitors of a higher rating for just a few cents, by passes this built-in obsolescence and extends their useful life for quite a few more years. -- Regards, Mick
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