Is five computers too many?

[mainegreen]

Because I just bought my fifth one. I really didn't need it either. No idea where I'm going to put it either. I'll probably stick it in a corner and run folding@home on it and use it as a fileserver backup. Did I mention my wife is very understanding? I don't think she realized that she'd be living in a home with cat5 cable snaking across the bedroom floor.

This is the last computer though. Seriously.

Maybe.

[datasuspect]

1. honestly

yes.

the energy cost to create one processor equals the manpower needed to seed and plow about 7000 acres of grain.

or something like that. i pulled that figure out of my ass, but it is loosely based on fact, i'm too lazy to look up the actual stat.

[mainegreen]

4. Well, this last one is used so that's sorta recycling, right?

:D

[Akoto]

30. Misplaced post.

[skygazer]

2. Yes

At least it sounds like it, since you admit you don't even need it. But who am I to talk? I have about 30 pairs of shoes, several of which are still in boxes and have never been worn. :rofl:

We all have our addictions.

[tigereye]

3. I think we have 4 or more now. Plus all the old ones in the basement, etc....

so, I guess I would say no! ;)

[SKKY]

5. When I lived in Washington, and was close to the Boeing Surplus Store...

...I had, at one time 7 computers. I wanted to build a Mosix Cluster. What can I say. I'm a geek.

[mainegreen]

6. Did you ever get your cluster up and running?

A friend of mine managed a distributed grid of 500+ solaris boxes. It was pretty sweet. You would not believe the insane things that grid could do. Like organize his mp3 collection! :rofl:
Nothing like using immense computing power for silly stuff.

[SKKY]

37. Actually, yes, but I kept having issues with it, and it became...

...too much of a pain in the ass. It was just a "That sounds cool, lets try it." I'm willing to bet it would be
much easier today. I was using Red Hat 6.2 at the time.

[Little Wing]

7. Sounds expensive for the power bills

Folding@Home or less CO2

hmmm

[mainegreen]

8. Well, there's no monitor, so thats something.

Still, I think computers do comprise about half our power bill. Unfortunately I think the other half is the fridge. Stupid fridge.

[Left Is Write]

9. We have four. One for me, one for Mr. LIW, and one for each child.

The third child is grown up and moved out, or we'd probably have five.

[mainegreen]

15. I have one for the wife, one for baby, one for the cat, one for me and one for....

.... um,
the palm tree?

[Left Is Write]

35. Well, palm trees are people too. Right?

:crazy:

[m_welby]

10. Only if you aren't using them

We have 3 in the house at the moment (4 if you count the work machine). We had 6, but one child moved out and took his 2 (old laptop and a desktop), and the other is away at school. Oddly enough we have more TV's than computers now, and only use 1 of them at a time usually.

[dolo amber]

11. I'm thinking of starting a computer rescue

so if any of those little guys ever need a good home...

:D

[mainegreen]

12. I'm actually 'rescuing' mine from the local university:

http://www.usm.maine.edu/bus/property/#com

The nice price!

[fudge stripe cookays]

13. Ha. I think we wre like that a couple months ago.

But we finally dumped 2 old ones and we're down to 3 now. A laptop and a desktop for me, and a laptop for reprehensor.

But I need two. Lots of genealogy stuff on the home one for my book, then another one for traveling, scanning new pictures in, etc.

Then I bring everything home and store it at home base.

[hunter]

14. My wife set a limit of twelve.

Most I ever had set up and running was seven, three or four of those continuously. Then I figured out how much electricity they were using.

My current system uses about sixty watts running, and eleven watts on standby. All the cables I strung through the house are unused, except for one. My wife and kids' computers are wireless and always shut down when they are not in use.

Oh yeah, I love my LCD monitor!

[mainegreen]

16. 12! Wow. You have a *very* understanding wife!

:D

[hunter]

17. I've had more.

But there are some, like my custom modified Atari 800XL that I can't give up. I also have the second computer I ever built, not counting all the childhood projects which I still have bits and pieces of. I'd probably have kept that first computer too, but I stripped it of parts to build the second. I probably have the logic diagrams I drew for it too, somewhere in my mess. I started sketching it out in high school whenever I was sitting through a boring class. (Yikes! More than thirty years ago!)

[Taverner]

18. Nope. But if you feel that way, try virtualizing

Using either VMware or MS Virtual Server

[SteelPenguin]

19. Honestly yes it is. Get help.

Why five? Unless you're doing serious backward compatibility testing or high level video editing where you need raid arrays or something, it's really energy inefficient and bad for the environment.

First of all, I hope all five have high efficiency power supplies that you installed yourself. Not just the very wastefull ones that come inbuilt with Dell's and whatnot. If you have it running all the time, a high efficiency power supply can make a difference of around $30-50 in electricty depending on it's usage. That's alot of coal being burned into the air for you to have five boxes to stick in the corner as a file server.

Unless you have really specific needs for that many, you should condense some of them into a single hi efficiency tower or array simply for environmental reasons.

[mainegreen]

22. Only one is a power hog.

The rest are low-power models. Three don't even have separate video cards!
They all have different OS's, which I actually use for testing the apps I develop.
One's a DB/Web server, one's a file server, one's the wife's (I'm not really allowed to touch that one as I tend to install and uninstall a lot of stuff), one's the game rig (power hog/usually off), and the new one's my new mac toy: second hand and it's going to allow me to explore using and developing on and for macs.

[grasswire]

20. we have five computers and five cats

It really is kind of sad to have everyone in the family plugged in at their electronic station.

[mainegreen]

25. But if you still have five monitors instead of five lcds, you can have a cat wamer for every machine

:D

[qnr]

21. No, it's a decent start :) n/t

[mainegreen]

24. I was wondering when you would show up on this thread!

:rofl:
:hi:
The new one's a used mac. Mac's are new for me so I'm rather excited!
I may just blow away the OS though and put on the new Ubuntu. :D

[qnr]

26. Hmm, that sounds interesting. I've never gotten around to trying any PPC machines

:hi:

[bleedingheart]

23. sounds like our house....but all the equipment is in the home office.

[LSK]

27. i dont even want to say how many I have

But its a lot more than you have. I work in IT and I sometimes take outdated servers and PCs from work that would otherwise be thrown away.

[mainegreen]

28. I'd probably have more if our department ever had spares.

But we're the IT department that always has a chronic computer shortage.

Lucky!

[lildreamer316]

29. We have three...

but on the cheap for the last one...and i kinda cheated and bought the desktop on our state's no tax day. Ha ha.

[Akoto]

31. You're lucky! I wish I could afford just one!

My computer is now so outdated that I can't put in new parts until I replace my motherboard, which means that I'll also have to replace all of the old parts. I've yet to find a motherboard that would be compatible with both the old and new components.

With a heart attack in the family recently, and me not working due to my health, there's no money left. Trying to save up, though, for school!

[mainegreen]

33. The 'newest' one is actually a used mac from the local university:

http://www.usm.maine.edu/bus/property/#com
No way I could afford a new PC right now!

[Book Lover]

32. Sounds like a good start to me! (nm)

on edit: aw shoot; someone beat me to the punchline....

[smedwed]

34. no its fine

My brother has 7 now I think,
its just that whenever he upgrades one theres enough spare parts for another.
FOlding at home is a good thing to do anyway. And you'll find it hard to sleep with out that background hummmm lol

[Q3JR4]

36. Nah, not nearly enough... n/t.

[RoyGBiv]

38. Absolutely not ...

Lesse ...

Firewall, file server, desktop for the living room, for the bedroom, one to run Windoze for when it is necessary ... that's five, and I could think about half a dozen other reasons to have more.

MORE!!!!!

[mainegreen]

41. And a dumb terminal in the bathroom.

An IT friend of mine had a full rack w/about 15 sparc boxes in the living room with a dumb terminal next to the toilet.
That was too many computers.

But it was cool.

[liberalpress]

39. Here's what ou said:

This is the last computer though. Seriously.


Speaking as someone in the same boat, (a two person household four computers) I say, su-u-u-u-re it is.

[mainegreen]

40. ....

:7

Yup!