[K12OSN] disklessworkstations.com

[John Lucas]

On Friday 15 September 2006 12:00, k12osn-request at redhat.com wrote:
> My mistake, I meant to say power wattage. We have a small study room with
> eight new Dell Optiplex PC's that kicks out a lot of heat. As a result the
> room gets very hot with the PC's on. I suspect these workstations have very
> small power requirements which translate to less heat being exhausted and
> cooler rooms.
>
> Ray
>

I actually measured the power consumption of the LTSP150e by using "apcupsd" 
and an APC UPS.

In this sample case the PC is a 450Mhz Pentium II with 256MB of RAM and a 20GB 
HD with a 15" LCD monitor. The terminal was measured with the same 15" LCD 
monitor.
		Power Draw in VA (Volt-Amps) measured with "apcupsd"
        
	PC		120VA
        
	Terminal	60VA

Keep in mind that the PC was "idle". Consumption goes up when the drives are 
in use. This represent not only savings direct consumption, but also from 
power protection costs are halved and air-conditioning costs are marginally 
reduced.

I am convinced that using old PCs as terminals is best thought of as a 
short-term strategy; best used to demonstrate the versatility of LTSP, but 
long-term I definitely think that dedicated diskless terminals are the way to 
go. Another example is the DevonIT NTA 6020P, which is functionally similar 
the the LTSP150 but costs only $149. 

	http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php

I have one of each and they both work with USB Flashram Drives (USB v1.1) and 
Esound. Either one would make anyone administering LTSP very happy.

-- 
        "History doesn't repeat itself; at best it rhymes."
                        - Mark Twain

| John Lucas                          MrJohnLucas at gmail.com               |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802                http://mrjohnlucas.googlepages.com/ |
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