• brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Depends.

      Toss the GPU/wifi, disable audio, throttle the processor a ton, and set the OS to power saving, and old PCs can be shockingly efficient.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 hours ago

        You can slow the RAM down too. You don’t need XMP enabled if you’re just using the PC as a NAS. It can be quite power hungry.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Eh, older RAM doesn’t use much. If it runs close to stock voltage, maybe just set it at stock voltage and bump the speed down a notch, then you get a nice task energy gain from the performance boost.

          • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 hours ago

            There was a post a while back of someone trying to eek every single watt out of their computer. Disabling XMP and running the ram at the slowest speed possible saved like 3 watts I think. An impressive savings, but at the cost of HORRIBLE CPU performance. But you do actually need at least a little bit of grunt for a nas.

            At work we have some of those atom based NASes and the combination of lack of CPU, and horrendous single channel ram speeds makes them absolutely crawl. One HDD on its own performs the same as this raid 10 array.

    • ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com
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      5 hours ago

      I’m still running a 480 that doubles as a space heater (I’m not even joking; I increase the load based on ambient temps during winter)

      • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        I am assuming that’s a GTX 480 and not an RX 480; if so - kudos for not having that thing melt the solder off the heatsink by now! 😅

        • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 hours ago

          The GTX 480 is efficient by modern standards. If Nvidia could make a cooler that could handle 600 watts in 2010 you can bet your sweet ass that GPU would have used a lot more power.

          Well that and if 1000 watt power supplies were common back then.