SOHO router or comp? The issue of energy consumption and economics
Probably, all habrayuzers are aware of the possibility of making a router for a home network from an old computer, and some may very well apply this knowledge in practice. In this article, I would like to consider the issue of energy consumption of such systems, and as a result, the question of the advisability of using a computer as a router.
As, probably, it is already clear, the main task of the considered systems is to work as an “Internet distributor”. Of course, to drive any computer as an exclusively router is irrational, therefore such systems are very quickly hung up with torrents, file cleaners, print servers, and anything else you like. The advantages are obvious: virtually unlimited possibilities for “weighting”, high performance allows you to forget about the brakes at high speeds / volumes of traffic and look at the problems of SOHO routers with firmware and settings down.
The minus about the physical size is obvious and does not need comments.
We turn to the topic, that is, to issues of energy consumption.
The following materials were used as materials and equipment:
Power cable “Rosette-BP” with one cut wire
Power cable "UPS-BP" as an extension cord
Tester (multimeter).
A few photos: The tester measures the average current value, which is multiplied by the voltage. In parallel with another tester, the voltage in the outlet is measured to exclude possible errors. Glory to Chubais, during all tests the voltage was 220 volts with insignificant errors.
Since I myself am not so happy owner of the comporter, I measured its power consumption. In the future, it will be presented under the proud name of "Stationary Computer".
Prots: AMD Duron 750mhz, SocketA
Mother: CHAINTECH CT-7KJD
HDD: 500GB Sata 7200.11
4 network cards
1 PCI-SATA controller from StLab
300 Watt noname.
Plus, the Tp-link WA601G WiFi access point is an add-on to this system. Point, because The “server” was molded from what was at hand. If possible, of course I would take a PCI WiFi adapter.
Further, the measurement was carried out with a small system based on a mini ITX format motherboard with the following performance characteristics:
VIA C7 CPU 1.0 GHz.
Chipset and processor cooling are passive.
Video, sound, LAN - integrated. 1GB memory
Connectors:
2 SATAII, 2 IDE, 2 x ps / 2, 1 x VGA, 1 x COM, 1 x LPT, 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN 10/100, 1 x sound (hp, linein, lineout)
To it It was hitched exactly the same 500 GB hard drive and loaded exactly the same system.
The disadvantage of this solution was the need for a switch and an access point for the normal execution of all the assigned functions, which ultimately reduced utility to a minimum. As the total power consumption of the switch and the access point, a value of 15 watts was taken.
I will not name the router model in the article, so as not to be considered advertising. But its power consumption is 12 watts at its peak, there is wifi and ethernet, it is possible to install openwrt and connect the media via USB. To buy such a router is really at a price of 1000r.
When calculating the cost, it was assumed that the system works 24/7.
So, the results of measurements:
Well, the picture is quite expected. Now let's see how this affects the economic component. For 1 kW, I pay now 2p 95k.
It turns out that driving a regular desktop computer as a router, every month I overpay almost 110 rubles. Thus, the router fully pays for itself in terms of energy costs in about 1 year, while the functions, given the capabilities of openwrt, are not so much inferior to the computer.
Based on a recent post, a computer is needed only when there are tasks that the router cannot handle. In terms of energy consumption, we have already seen that he completely loses to the router in this matter. Specifically, my routers should cope with my tasks (distributing the Internet and possibly torrent downloads), so in the near future I plan to abandon the computer and buy a router, although I like to have a live Linux server for pumpkins, Wishlist and Lulz.
As a bonus, I’ll bring the power consumption of my computer. The configuration is as follows:
UPS APC 500
MB Gigabyte Ma770T-UD3
AMD Phenom B45 (Athlon 2 x 445 with unlocked 4th core)
WD Caviar Black 1TB
Galaxy geforce 8600GTS 256MB
2GB RAM
PSU Inwin 450w
Samsung SyncMaster 204b monitor.
CPU and GPU loading was carried out by OCCT.
The price calculation is certainly incorrect, because it takes into account constant work, but still:
As a conclusion, I want to modestly note that playing mafia2 for 24/7 months on average settings, you can not only fly out of work, earn rheumatism, osteochondrosis, gastritis and hemorrhoids, but also burn electricity for 352 rubles.
Part 1. Tasks and solution methods.
As, probably, it is already clear, the main task of the considered systems is to work as an “Internet distributor”. Of course, to drive any computer as an exclusively router is irrational, therefore such systems are very quickly hung up with torrents, file cleaners, print servers, and anything else you like. The advantages are obvious: virtually unlimited possibilities for “weighting”, high performance allows you to forget about the brakes at high speeds / volumes of traffic and look at the problems of SOHO routers with firmware and settings down.
The minus about the physical size is obvious and does not need comments.
We turn to the topic, that is, to issues of energy consumption.
The following materials were used as materials and equipment:
Power cable “Rosette-BP” with one cut wire
Power cable "UPS-BP" as an extension cord
Tester (multimeter).
A few photos: The tester measures the average current value, which is multiplied by the voltage. In parallel with another tester, the voltage in the outlet is measured to exclude possible errors. Glory to Chubais, during all tests the voltage was 220 volts with insignificant errors.
Part 2. Configuration.
Since I myself am not so happy owner of the comporter, I measured its power consumption. In the future, it will be presented under the proud name of "Stationary Computer".
Prots: AMD Duron 750mhz, SocketA
Mother: CHAINTECH CT-7KJD
HDD: 500GB Sata 7200.11
4 network cards
1 PCI-SATA controller from StLab
300 Watt noname.
Plus, the Tp-link WA601G WiFi access point is an add-on to this system. Point, because The “server” was molded from what was at hand. If possible, of course I would take a PCI WiFi adapter.
Further, the measurement was carried out with a small system based on a mini ITX format motherboard with the following performance characteristics:
VIA C7 CPU 1.0 GHz.
Chipset and processor cooling are passive.
Video, sound, LAN - integrated. 1GB memory
Connectors:
2 SATAII, 2 IDE, 2 x ps / 2, 1 x VGA, 1 x COM, 1 x LPT, 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN 10/100, 1 x sound (hp, linein, lineout)
To it It was hitched exactly the same 500 GB hard drive and loaded exactly the same system.
The disadvantage of this solution was the need for a switch and an access point for the normal execution of all the assigned functions, which ultimately reduced utility to a minimum. As the total power consumption of the switch and the access point, a value of 15 watts was taken.
I will not name the router model in the article, so as not to be considered advertising. But its power consumption is 12 watts at its peak, there is wifi and ethernet, it is possible to install openwrt and connect the media via USB. To buy such a router is really at a price of 1000r.
Part 3. Measurements.
When calculating the cost, it was assumed that the system works 24/7.
So, the results of measurements:
Well, the picture is quite expected. Now let's see how this affects the economic component. For 1 kW, I pay now 2p 95k.
It turns out that driving a regular desktop computer as a router, every month I overpay almost 110 rubles. Thus, the router fully pays for itself in terms of energy costs in about 1 year, while the functions, given the capabilities of openwrt, are not so much inferior to the computer.
Part 4. Conclusion.
Based on a recent post, a computer is needed only when there are tasks that the router cannot handle. In terms of energy consumption, we have already seen that he completely loses to the router in this matter. Specifically, my routers should cope with my tasks (distributing the Internet and possibly torrent downloads), so in the near future I plan to abandon the computer and buy a router, although I like to have a live Linux server for pumpkins, Wishlist and Lulz.
Bonus
As a bonus, I’ll bring the power consumption of my computer. The configuration is as follows:
UPS APC 500
MB Gigabyte Ma770T-UD3
AMD Phenom B45 (Athlon 2 x 445 with unlocked 4th core)
WD Caviar Black 1TB
Galaxy geforce 8600GTS 256MB
2GB RAM
PSU Inwin 450w
Samsung SyncMaster 204b monitor.
CPU and GPU loading was carried out by OCCT.
The price calculation is certainly incorrect, because it takes into account constant work, but still:
As a conclusion, I want to modestly note that playing mafia2 for 24/7 months on average settings, you can not only fly out of work, earn rheumatism, osteochondrosis, gastritis and hemorrhoids, but also burn electricity for 352 rubles.
