[LINK] Leave on, or turn off?

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006/Dec/01, at 12:10 PM, Adam Todd wrote:
> At 06:40 PM 30/11/2006, Stewart Fist wrote:
>> I haven't thought about this much over the last decade, but I now  
>> assume
>> from some of the postings that most servers these days use  
>> specially-built
>> high quality components.
>
> Pffft!
>
>> I had assumed that virtually everything made for modern home and  
>> business
>> PCs, laptops and servers probably comes off the same mass-production
>> production-line -- so the basic disks, cpus, memory chips, etc  
>> would be
>> pretty much the same -- and hence any difference in survivability  
>> would be
>> due to added fans, power-surge protection, and the like.
>>
>> Not so ???
>
> Yes so.  A Pentium Chip is a Pentium Chip.  There isn't much  
> difference between chips, unless you specifically request Military  
> Spec chipsets and they don't cover every possible chip and  
> combination in use.

It was never about the chips, they don't present the reliability  
issues usually, it's things with moving parts.  That said, there are  
different chips but it's mainly a quality issue - they all come off  
the same assembly line some with a higher speed rating and get sold  
for more etc.  In consumer electronic it's easier for them to make  
one chip that will do multiple things and disable the bits they don't  
want in the circuit board and sell it for 10 different purposes.

> No one is going to manufacture at high cost zillions of chips to  
> sell in $5 consumer product.  But at the same time, no one is going  
> to make things (other than perhaps Apple iPods) that break all the  
> time!
>
> I've had no problem with good choice components.  You can buy First  
> quality gear or you can buy reject cheap stuff from the "well it  
> might be ok" boxes.
>
> Unless you are buying Brand Name gear, and why on earth generally  
> would you (laptops excluded) you aren't likely to find chipsets  
> that are any different to the next model.

No but hard disks are rated consumer or server grade.  And fans have  
similar quality levels.

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph/F: +61 2 62577881 M: +61 417820641
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961