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An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

symplepc.com

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Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#131

Post by yuhong »

polshaw wrote: post #104
happycube wrote: post #91

IMO the cutoff needs to be Core 2 Duo tech (even Celeron versions) or any AMD64 chip. Pentium 4 Prescotts, which their spec implies could be used, are awful and inefficient chips. (Heck, I told people not to buy them when they were new !)

Agreed, the late P4's check the box when it comes to performance, but they are right at the worst point possible in terms of power consumption, the next gen (I would include CoreDuo, or P4 era A64) are vastly more appealing because of that. I'm sure there are many of those CPUs involved in some of these PCs; why not offer a CD+ (or even 'no P4') guarantee for +$10 or so?

Or at least Cedar Mill/Presler, which is an easy drop-in replacement in most LGA775 motherboards. It is unfortunate that Conroe is not.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#132

Post by notatoad »

sjs382 wrote: post #45

At what point is it more planet-friendly to manufacture a new energy-efficient underpowered low-end PC, rather than repurpose an old power-hungry low-end PC?

I don't know about more planet friendly, but just in terms of dollars, if you're paying for your own electricity getting a modern desktop for $200 is more economical after a couple months.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#133

Post by vacri »

narrator wrote: post #88
jkot wrote: post #27

I am concerned with energy consumption of this device. Pentium 4 class computer consumes 40 watts while idle. ARM cpu would work just as fine (Ubuntu). I think this devices should not be called green, unless they disclose power efficiency rating.

40 watts while idle = 28.8 kwh a month so 13.5 cents per kwh = $3.88 / month to run. Rasberry Pi B+ uses 1.21 watts while idle so about 11 cents /month. So a Rasberry Pi will pay for itself in about 10 months.

... assuming the target audience of schools, non-profits, and call-centers leave them on 24/7.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#134

Post by vacri »

Karunamon wrote: post #114
melling wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People never stop making excuses. VGA is dead. http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#videoVGA

End of life according to who? That's not how it works, one company doesn't just declare something EOL and everyone else stops using it out of obligation. VGA will stop being used when it stops fitting most use cases out there, and not before. The connector standard is capable of 2048x1536 at 85hz, which, making an educated guess here, is probably a higher resolution than the monitor you're using right now. Most monit…

VGA is terrible. The specs you just rattled off don't account for the innate fuzziness of the analog signal. I've reduced a lot of eyestrain from various people by confiscating their VGA cables and telling them they're forbidden from using 'the cable with the blue ends'.

Yes, VGA still has to be used for devices that only accept VGA (like a lot of projectors, very few of which can handle those specs), but apart from that, it should be avoided because the image quality is just that bad.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#135

Post by tbob22 »

egd wrote: post #24

They're cheap enough that my first thought was to pick up a couple and figure out what I'd do with them later, but the disadvantage here is that they're older boxes, which means they're going to be energy hogs (for the performance point, at least). That's what makes the eco pitch interesting - they're reducing e-waste, which is good, but energy efficiency on newer boxes (especially if you just need minimal performanc…

Core 2 Duos and Pentium Dual Cores under 3ghz are fairly energy efficient chips (~65w) and they use Speedstep, etc to keep power consumption low at idle.

Of course newer dual cores and more modern chipsets will use less power overall, although for less demanding uses (web, word processing) I'm not sure if there would be a huge difference.

P4's on the other hand...

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#136

Post by tbob22 »

jkot wrote: post #27

I am concerned with energy consumption of this device. Pentium 4 class computer consumes 40 watts while idle. ARM cpu would work just as fine (Ubuntu). I think this devices should not be called green, unless they disclose power efficiency rating.

I'm not sure why they even considered P4's, the pre-prescott P4's don't even have Speedstep. That means they run full voltage/speed all the time which is terribly inefficient.

Core 2 Duos are much more energy efficient, they are not in short supply by any means and cost about the same used ($2-3).

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#137

Post by tbob22 »

patcheudor wrote: post #124
Shank wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but tampering with firmware on motherboards, hard drives, and network cards to breach privacy sounds more like NSA/EquationGroup/TAO, not parts recycling centers. Unless you're implying that we should be checking every component for NSA tampering, I'd need some solid statistics to back up the idea that firmware backdoors are suddenly commonplace from refurbished/recycled computer parts.

NSA/EquationGroup is just in the news right now. There have been growing concerns about UEFI for years as well as a lack of reporting. Note this from Dick Wilkins UEFI report: "Examples come from Intel, Microsoft, Mitre, NIST, Linux distros and others. Some are public and some are available only under NDA via direct communications with the involved companies." Is it likely to be seen in the wild often? Likely not, bu…

Any time I buy a used board I check the board carefully for any kind of modification or odd looking solder joints and re-flash the bios/uefi with the latest version.

Of course something could still be modified, but so could a board direct from amazon or newegg I suppose.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#138

Post by keithpeter »

proveanegative wrote: post #31
zerohm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try getting all those old parts to a facility, test them, assemble a consistent product, and get it out the door. Their efficiency in doing that is their value proposition.

Just to be clear, I didn't mean the price point of the parts if you bought them separately and assembled them yourself. (My bet is they'd cost you more that way, if only because of the shipping/gas expenses.) What I meant was the price you'd pay when buying a P4-era PC whole when it is sold as working by the previous owner or a small reseller. I agree with you on the testing; if it's rigorous enough that will likely…

I take the point, but suppose you were a school after 30 boxes to run in a computer drop in room in the café?

One quote from the company and a definite (back to base) guarantee would be more acceptable to accountant than lots of small transactions on ebay/local suppliers.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#139

Post by CalRobert »

egd wrote: post #24

They're cheap enough that my first thought was to pick up a couple and figure out what I'd do with them later, but the disadvantage here is that they're older boxes, which means they're going to be energy hogs (for the performance point, at least). That's what makes the eco pitch interesting - they're reducing e-waste, which is good, but energy efficiency on newer boxes (especially if you just need minimal performanc…

Heh, where they might make sense is in old apartments in northern Europe. My ancient building in Dublin uses resistive electric heat (about the worst kind of heating you can have unless you have abundant renewable energy). Really, I suppose I might as well be very slowly mining bitcoins or running servers instead of just getting no work at all for the heat I'm making.

Re: An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation

#140

Post by kbart »

q2 wrote: post #58

Focus on environment friendliness is laudable and required. But it seems this is similar to other vendors such as Dell for example. recycling: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/dell-environment-rec... Packaging: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/dell-environment-pac... >>> Symple PC runs the open source Ubuntu Linux operating system and doesn't require you to give your data to a company you may or may not…

"Symple PC runs the open source Ubuntu Linux operating system and doesn't require you to give your data to a company you may or may not trust."

So did they disable Ubuntu's shopping lens[1] that's enabled by default and callbacks to a server every time you enter something in dash?

1. https://www.unixmen.com/disable-unity-online-search-feature-...

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