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Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by trollbridge on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @02:09PM (#46125231)
I used (relatively) ancient servers (5-10 years in age) because their performance is completely adequate; they just use slightly more power. As a plus it's easy to buy spare parts, and they run on DDR3, so I'm not paying the current "RAM tax". I generally get such a server, max out its RAM, max out its CPUs and put it to work.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by taneq on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @07:07PM (#46128669)
Same, the bang for buck on a 5yo server is insane. I got an old Dell a year ago (to replace our 15yo one that finally died) and it was $1200 AUD for a maxed out recently-retired server with 72TB of hard drives and something like 292GB of RAM.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by PunchyHamster on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @07:11PM (#46128697)
Just not too old. Easy to get into "power usage makes it not worth it" for any use case when it runs 24/7
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by monster_truck on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @07:46PM (#46128940)
Seriously. 24/7 adds up faster than most realize!

The idle wattage per module has shrunk from 2.5-3W down to 1-1.2 between DDR3 & DDR5. Assuming a 1.3W difference (so 10.4W for 8760 hours), a DDR3 machine with 8 sticks would increase your yearly power consumption by almost 1% (assuming avg 10,500kWh/yr household)

That's only a couple dollars in most cases but the gap is only larger in every other instance. When I upgraded from Zen 2 to Zen 3 it was able to complete the same workload just as fast with half as many cores while pulling over 100W less. Sustained 100% utilization barely even heats a room effectively anymore!

Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by nish__ on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @09:54PM (#46129771)
Wake on LAN?
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by darkwater on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @02:23AM (#46131203)
Then you cannot enjoy some very useful and used home server functions like home automation or NVR.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by blackenedgem on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @03:46AM (#46131923)
The one thing to be careful with Zen 2 onwards is that if your server is going to be idling most of the time then the majority of your power usage comes from the IO die. Quite a few times you'd be better off with the "less efficient" Intel chips because they save 10-20 Watts when doing nothing.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by ThatPlayer on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @07:14AM (#46133627)
A similar one I just ran into: my Framework Desktop was idling @ 5W more than other reported numbers. Issue turned out to be the 10 year old ATX PSU I was using.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by dpe82 on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @07:23PM (#46128783)
Maybe? The price difference on newer hardware can buy a lot of electricity, and if you aren't running stuff at 100% all the time the calculation changes again. Idle power draw on a brand new server isn't significantly different from one that's 5 years old.
Re:IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data center... by taneq on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @02:49AM (#46131381)
To be clear, this server is very lightly loaded, it's just running our internal network services (file server, VPN/DNS, various web apps, SVN etc.) so it's not like we're flogging a room full of GeForce 1080Ti cards instead of buying a new 4090Ti or whatever. Also it's at work so it doesn't impact the home power bill. :D