> Tried it once with a c650, the ethernet port gets smothered at around 200kpsmediummaking it less than useful for cable. A cheap beige powermac doesn't suffer this limit and also provides a goodfor connecting 68k macs as well as latter macs. A router is also a goodidea.
Worth considering. I bought an independent "nat" router that runs on 9 watts, but may want greater security and configurability in the future.
100 watts, run all day long, costs about $57 a year (based on 6.5 cents/KWH, may be higher in your region). In 5 years that's about $285, just for the POWER. If the unit should take 200 wats, the power costs double, over $500. Unless one really needs the configurability or extra computation capability, this may not be a cost effective solution over years of use.
That's why I was interested in a unit that would run for 30 Wats or less. There are reasons to use a program-onself router/firewall, but saving money is not one of them. A low power relatively modern "green" computer could save its own cost over a few years, so using these older machines is not necessarily cost effective in continuous operation.
I haven't measured the power of any Energy Saver models but I'm not sure they would save much. A lot of what makes a computer Energy Saver is it's ability to power down parts of it (display and disk mostly) and the whole computer too. Powering down the display saves a lot but we can do that with most models already. The harddisk saves a little but not a lot. Powering down the computer itself saves quite a bit but is of questionable value for a router. Some computers can be waken up on LAN activity but that might not be desirable for a router as it will likely cause timeouts.
That is why I was asking if anyone has measured the power usages of these machines, the documentation I found was inconsistent and also doesn't really represent the actual in-use power usage. If anybody has power use figures that include any "green" PC's, as compared to the Quadras/ and Power Mac's, that would be an interesting comparison.
I'll have to measure some Energy Saver models and add them to my list. I can check on a couple of models of iMac and a G4 tower.
With a disk that shuts down, and sufficient RAM that it does not need to page, the computer could be running in low power mode most of the time and use little power. There is of course no need for power hungry peripherals, except for the nic cards. That is a reason the floppy boot would also be useful -- it can't page, wasting power on a hard disk.
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