I thought this video was rather interesting, because at 12:27, the presenter crunches the numbers to find out how many years it would take for a new computer purchase to be more environmentally friendly (in regards to total CO2 expended) compared to using a less efficient used model.

Depending on the specific use case, it could take as little as 3 years to breakeven in terms of CO2 if both systems were at max power draw forever, and as long as 30 if the systems are mostly at idle.

  • BackYardIncendiary@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    15·
    17 hours ago

    I use a 2011 ThinkPad X120e as an FTP/Syncthing server. It was underpowered as a laptop from day one, but still works fine as a lightweight server. The best thing about ThinkPads is that TLP allows you to set min/max charging thresholds, so that you can keep an old battery in good shape for … well, I’ll let you know. This one’s 14 years old and still has a four-hour run time.

    One thing I’d like to try is “Wake My Potato” for shutdown / automatic restart when a power outage occurs.

    Links:

    TLP - https://linrunner.de/tlp/index.html

    Wake My Potato - https://github.com/pablogila/WakeMyPotato

    • Jayb151@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 hours ago

      Does that TLP work with proxmox? I was thinking about trying pm with an old Dell latitude I have, but I’m worried about the battery exploding.

      • cecilkorik@piefed.caEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Assuming it’s compatible with the hardware at all, it should. You would have to install it on the Proxmox host itself, but Proxmox is basically just Fancy-Debian-for-Virtual-Machine-Hosting and it has Debian packages so that shouldn’t be a problem. Login to the Proxmox itself and install it there.

      • BackYardIncendiary@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        1·
        8 hours ago

        I’ve never used Proxmox, so I can’t say. But TLP is a utility that starts at boot. I’ve used it with virtualbox running, so if Proxmox runs atop a host operating system, I don’t imagine that it would interfere with TLP.

        As an additional note, I usually set the min/max thresholds at 40/80, so the battery will charge any time it’s plugged in and below 40% and stops charging when it reaches 80%.

    • Andres@social.ridetrans.it
      7·
      16 hours ago

      @BackYardIncendiary @ProdigalFrog If you have an old latitude, newer kernels also allow you to set min/max charging thresholds. My syncthing server (and NAS and a few other things) is an old 2013/2014 dell latitude e7240. It’s not the original battery, but I do keep it in decent shape via charging thresholds.