22 Jan
2009
22 Jan
'09
10:41 a.m.
On Wednesday 21 January 2009 02:42:35 pm Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ wrote:
On Wed, 2009-01-21 at 19:13 +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
Err, historical accuracy? The PSU is as much a part of the system design
as the CPU (OK, maybe I exagerate, but not by very much). I know that if
I owned a large adn rare machine (large VAX, PDP10, etc), I'd want to
keep it as original as possile.
That's all very well, but if it costs you three times as much to run
because of the huge inefficient power supply then it all starts to seem
less practical. That's the sort of thing that makes the difference
between a viable system that you can actually use and enjoy, and a bulky
ornament.
I guess that's the difference between wanting something so you can _have_ it
vs. wanting something so you can _use_ it.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
Umm. No. That transformer is a ferro-resonant
transformer. It
*needs* 3-phase to work! It supplies the basic 12v DC that are then
used to by the linear regulators. It's those that burn the power as
heat. Replacing the linear regulators with switchers will reduce the
consumed power by a lot.
Since extremely high current switchers are relatively cheap (at least
compared to getting three-phase installed, and massive aircon systems),
is there any reason why you *wouldn't* go down this route?
Particularly for a machine that's going to be on a lot?