>In article <200411231913.iANJDVKU002300@onyx.spiritone.com>,
> "Zane H. Healy" writes:
>>> The system will be running 24/7 as I'll be accessing it from work a lot of
>>> the time. (via serial line from my Sun machine)
>>
>> Have you factored in the cost of running a PDP-11 24/7? That is a
>> significant amount of electricity you are talking about using. Thereis also
>> all the heat generated to be taken into consideration.
>
>I guess it depends on the model, but most Qbus PDP-11's draw less power
>than the amount wasted by a wife or kids. Ever look at how much a
>curling iron draws? Ever add up how many watts all those lights your
>kids leave on total up to? And none of my Qbus systems generate as much
>heat as much heat as a 17" monitor. I believe this is what is called
>a red herring. :-)

It also depends on what steps you've take to reduce power usage.
I've found that just turning off one computer has a definite effect
on our power bill. As for the light issue, that's what compact
fluorescent's are for.

The big thing to consider is this, the /23 he's talking about won't
draw a lot of power, but how much will the two RL02 drives he's
talking about using? I don't have the manual handy, but IIRC, it's
no small amount. My /73 is in a BA123, but probably draws less power
than the average PC, BUT I'm using 3 1/2" SCSI drives, that draw a
lot less power than the old 5 1/4" full Height drives I used to use,
or my RAxx or RL0x drives.

> > Take a look into running an emulator on a Mini-ITX Linux box if
>you feel the
> > need to have it up 24/7.
>
>Other than the fact that an emulator lacks all the character of a real
>PDP-11, I wouldn't wish Linux on my worst enemy. The only thing worse
>is MS.

Depends on if you're interested in the Hardware, Software, or both.
If you're interested in just the software, the emulator *IS* the
better choice in most cases.

As for Linux, choose the right tool for the right job. For many
things Linux is an excellent tool. When setting up a system for
emulation, Linux or Windows are the best choices (though for PDP-8
emulation, the Mac is the best choice). You might have time to mess
around getting everything to work on some other OS, but most of us
don't.

Zane
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