[ale] [OT] Laptop Battery Worth It?

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Wed, 2011-07-13 at 22:44 -0400, David Tomaschik wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 8:47 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> > On Wed, 2011-07-13 at 17:02 -0400, david w. millians wrote:
> >> But I'm weird, and don't really have to have that much umph anymore in
> >> a laptop. It's not like I'm going to edit video on it, or compile the
> >> OS from scratch. :)
> >
> > I primarily do development of various types, so beefy (to a sane
> > upper-limit) is good.  My desktop, OTOH, can compile the entire linux
> > kernel version 3.0.0 (make allmodconfig) in just over 13 minutes.
> > That's what I do the majority of my heavy lifting with.  I cannot
> > _stand_ to wait for compilation to take place.
> >
> >        --- Mike
> 
> What kind of hardware are you running on your desktop?

I have an AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor, a 2.8 GHz (safely
overclockable to 3.33 GHz) 6-core CPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM running on a
870A-G54 mainboard.  I have a single 750 GB HDD, two monitors, a BD-R(E)
burner, and a DVD burner in this system as well.  Here is the system's
lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RX780/RX790 Chipset Host Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port A)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD790 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port F)
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller (rev 40)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a0
00:15.1 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a1
00:16.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc NI Caicos [AMD RADEON HD 6450]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device aa98
02:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 03)
03:06.0 Communication controller: NetMos Technology PCI 9815 Multi-I/O Controller (rev 01)
04:00.0 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB368 IDE controller
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

The old video card (which was also an ATI) experienced fan death
followed by overheating, and the old RAM (from a place called Patriot)
all went bad but for a single stick (I had 4x2GB sticks in here before,
and three of the four went bad, leaving me with only 2 GB of RAM).  I
easily dip into swap at 2 GB, and occasionally at 4GB.  Today, I have
2x4GB Kingston memory (part number 9905403-189.A00LF) installed.  Funny
thing is that my board claims a max of 8 GB possible RAM, but I still
have two slots free.  I haven't acquired another 8 GB to see if it'll
take 16 GB, but then again at the moment I don't have any need to go
beyond 8 GB, so it doesn't matter much.

> I'm in a place where I'm torn between the multiple-computer world, my
> technology desires, and my budget (and desire to reduce my
> eco-footprint).

I use my desktop for pretty much everything: development, testing, and
experimentation in virtual machines.  I regularly draw load on this
system.  :)

> I like to keep the "primary" copy of all my important work on my
> desktop, and my laptop just checks data in and out, if you will.  This
> means running my desktop 24/7, which is not exactly the most budget-
> or eco-friendly.

I think that what I would like to do eventually is have a few servers,
for example at Linode, that work together cooperatively to provide all
of the services that we require that do not need to be on the LAN.  This
would include some things like my non-FOSS DVCS trees and the like;
basically data and services that need to be available from wherever I
am, no matter what system I am on.  That way I am less tied to the
desktop.

That said, I don't know if that means I'll use my desktop any less.  It
is one of the few things that I am slightly irrational about:  I am
_way_ more comfortable working on this system than any other.  In part
because I have two monitors, in part because it's 100% snappy 100% of
the time.  (Make that 98% of the time: "make -j12" in the kernel tree
does tend to make it slightly jerky for a few minutes...)

Also, the network connection is much better, being that it is gigabit
wired.  I use this system both for work and for personal use, so it
does, well, everything.

> Additionally, I'd also like to have an environment where I can host a
> number of VMs for testing/experimentation.

If you can replicate my system, I'll tell you this:  It's _amazing_ for
that.  Of course, to run it to full potential, you'll want a 64-bit
operating system on it.

> Too many things going on at once...

Story of many of our lives, I suspect.

	--- Mike