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My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

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Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#82

I just realized that his tiny screen consumes 120W when turned on. Does any of you have a recommendation for a screen that doesn't consume so much energy?

Your comment made me check my own (LG Ultrafine 5k) and it’s 140W… That’s crazy. I love this monitor, but am interested in a high quality, lower power option if anyone knows of one.

Crazy? At 20 cents/kWh, running it for 12 hours a day costs 34 cents per day or $123/year.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#83
post #18

Something I've learned from discussing computer hardware informally online over the years is that people have vastly different standards for what it means for fans to be "silent" in use. So much so that it's hardly worth discussing, because someone will insist that such and such fan or actively-cooled device is silent, and then you buy it and it sounds like crap. I suspect it's "Cloth Ears" in many cases.

This happens with eyeballs as well as ears. Witness people who don't notice screen tearing in X11, or people who don't mind (or even prefer!) Windows font rendering.

Windows font rendering is fine as long as you don't use scaling, right?

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#84
I enjoy reading posts like this, which delve into personal setups and the intentions behind them. However, I found this a bit puzzling:

> While not an absolute requirement, integrated speakers would be a nice option on the monitor so I wouldn't have to buy separate ones and find a place for them on my desk.

For such a methodically constructed workspace, especially one that goes out of its way to avoid fan noise, I'd assume the OP would have wanted at least middling audio quality. I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile, yet I've never used a computer monitor's onboard speakers by choice. Almost any other solution would likely be superior to whatever microscopic "speakers" are crammed into that 21.5" monitor...

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#85

I just realized that his tiny screen consumes 120W when turned on. Does any of you have a recommendation for a screen that doesn't consume so much energy?

Your comment made me check my own (LG Ultrafine 5k) and it’s 140W… That’s crazy. I love this monitor, but am interested in a high quality, lower power option if anyone knows of one.

Did you really measure these 140 W or does the power brick says 140 W?

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#86
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens with eyeballs as well as ears. Witness people who don't notice screen tearing in X11, or people who don't mind (or even prefer!) Windows font rendering.

Windows font rendering is fine as long as you don't use scaling, right?

Maybe my perceptions are out of date, but cleartype, while technically allowing higher font dpi, had a rainbow/screen door effect that stood out like a sore thumb for many of us.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#87

OP wonders if there’s a version of the Thinkpad keyboard with a metal case. The Tex Kodachi has the Thinkpad layout in an aluminum case, but it’s unfortunately out of stock on the manufacturer’s website: https://tex.com.tw/collections/keyboard/products/kodachi The Tex Shinobi isn’t metal, so no help there, but it might have a little more rigidity and still has that Thinkpad layout: https://tex.com.tw/collections/keyb…

From experience, the Shinobi is definitely more solid than the lenovo keyboard he was using, but definitely not creak-free.

The guy behind these keyboards is making a new 60% with a trackpoint that can be ordered with an aluminum chassis.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#88
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows font rendering is fine as long as you don't use scaling, right?

Maybe my perceptions are out of date, but cleartype, while technically allowing higher font dpi, had a rainbow/screen door effect that stood out like a sore thumb for many of us.

The effect depends on the screen technology you use. Windows guesses the pixel layout, but you can tweak ClearType to fit your screen better. You can open a wizard that takes you through six steps and asks you to select the rectangle with the best text (out of six rectangles) to tweak it to your liking.

When the subpixels don't align, ClearType can be ugly as hell, but for me the default guesses always worked out.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#89
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or people who argued that “the eye can’t see more than 60fps”

Or people who argued that "4k is pointless, you can't see the different with 2k anw".

This really depends on the size of the screen. For most laptops, I'd argue that 4k is useless; 1440p is high-res enough that you get perfect clarity anyway.

For 83" TVs you obviously need more pixels to get a good viewing experience because you don't position yourself several meters in front of the screen to make the pixels unnoticable.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#90

> Since the LG UltraFine exposes a USB HID device to control its brightness, I wrote a driver to attach to it and expose the brightness adjustment through wsconsctl display.brightness. Wow, that is impressive both from the device _and_ from the author. I wonder how many displays support controls over USB? Personally, I hate having to manually adjust my display's brightness in the evening. Edit: This got me curious an…

I'm surprised more people don't know about ddc (which works over displayport). Been using it with this gnome extension on Fedora for a while now.

https://github.com/daitj/gnome-display-brightness-ddcutil

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