A couple of weeks ago, I finally bought some new hardware, to benefit of all the new Linux bells-and-whistles on the desktop, also of decent performances in current applications, and of virtualization-capable processors.

When I frequently read that a slow old PC is good enough to browse the web, I think this is blatantly false nowadays. My old Pentium 4, clocked at 2.4 GHz was regularly using 100% CPU at peaks, when rendering some complex web pages. I don't know exactly who is to blame. The complexity of the said web pages, the complexity of the firefox browser, the habit to put hardware intensive flash stuff everywhere [1], also the increasing use of ajax effects. Maybe a cumulative effect of all these reasons. But trust me, an old PC is just too slow to browse todays web. And I don't even speak about performance needed for gaming...

[1] even with the flashblock mozilla extension, so only selected flash are active.

What can be underlined about the hardware evolution since four years years:

• gigabit ethernet over copper wiring is everywhere and is cheap. The bottleneck now shifted from the network back to the disks (that can not yet deliver 1Gbit throughput, until the next technology leap that will be SSD drives)
• processors are now multi core by default, and their clock frequency no longer increases. L2 caches are bigger. So clearly the computing power density increases.
  
• Even if the power consumption per socket increases over the time, and the requirement for efficient cooling method still exists, the average power consumption per core decreases.
  
• Noise reduction is now a selling factor. The desktop computer does not have to be as noisy as data center hardware. The desktop can be used in a home theater setup, and its design now requires some care, to generate less noise. The solutions are well known : bigger heat sinks, bigger and slower fans.
  
• ACPI and power-management is well supported. Suspending a desktop to ram is possible, just like a laptop, and allows to save and restore a work session overnight.
  

My router stays up 24/7, and serves as my web browser, my mail server, and a few other public services. The machine I use for this is a Dell optiplex 755, with a Core 2 E6550 processor. I removed the pci-express video card, as this box is basically head-less, and if I really need to display output, I still can use the Intel onboard graphic card. This machine is really quiet, the processor only consumes 65 Watts. This is a good choice for a router. I'm also very satisfied by the purchase of one a the only PCI modem card, that is supported with linux, because it is a real hardware modem, and not a cheap winmodem.

My main desktop machine is a Dell precision T3400, with a Core 2 Quad Q6700 CPU. Four cores in a single socket is rather impressive, and remains me the old times, around 1996, when I installed my first Linux on a dual Pentium 90. I opted for a 30 inches flat panel screen, that advantageously replaces two 21 inches screens, with a wide resolution of 2560x1600 pixels. This kind of resolution requires a special dual-link DVI card. Initially, I had bought an nvidia quadro fx 1700. I thought this choice was a good balance between performance, and power consumption/noise (peak at 42 Watts). When I first started to play with the card, I have been quickly deceived by the amount of noise emitted by its small fan. This card occupies a single slot on the motherboard.

After some investigation, I discovered another model, also powered by nvidia, but sold to the gamers with a geforce 8600GT chip. This card made by Asus has approximately the same performance, and the same power consumption than the quadro fx 1700, but it has the great advantage to be passively cooled, with a big heat sink that occupies a second slot in the mobo. The same power, less expensive, with more silence in my room, sweet experience! OK, the GPU is clearly hotter on the passively cooled card (65 C degrees), than on the quadro fx (40 C degrees), but this temperature is still far from the 105 degrees limit, advertised by the nvidia-settings program.

Another of my goals was cable bloatedness reduction, that's been partially achieved :

• a wide screen instead of two side-by-side screens;
  
• an internal modem, instead of a serial external one;
  
• the wifi access-point is now on the same LAN than other boxes, not on a separate network interface on the router;
  
• the memory cards reader is now integrated in the box (using the location of the floppy drive), and not a separate usb device;
  
• the router is now headless, without keyboard and screen.