Poll

What type of computer do you use for your weather station?

Standard Desktop or Tower
96 (54.5%)
Mini Desktop or Tower
23 (13.1%)
Laptop
22 (12.5%)
Netbook
14 (8%)
Other
21 (11.9%)

Total Members Voted: 174

Author Topic: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?  (Read 42667 times)

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Offline Mark / Ohio

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This is a question I've been tossing around for sometime.  As of this past week after recently running 34 days without a reboot or error, my desktop that is just a few months shy of it's 10 birthday has been giving me some problems in the form of random errors and BSoDs.  So I figure at this point given it's age it is about time to start looking and thinking more serious just in case it's condition further worsens beyond my computer medicinal capabilities.  (Read cheap and easy fix.)   ;)

I stopped at the local shop that built it originally and was looking at their current specials and got to talking with them about what I wanted to do with it. (Which is now mainly run the weather station software and data uploads as I have an Acer 5610 laptop I bought from them a couple of years ago I use for most everything else.)  They also sell the little Acer netbook.  But the guy I talked with said it or any laptop was not really designed for 24/7 operation and over the long haul would be of a shorter lifespan under those operating conditions in comparison to some size of desktop.  (This in reply to my question if it would hold together for 10 years like my desktop.)  Which kind of backed up what my gut feeling on the issue has been all along.  But I'm sure he would also prefer to sell me a more expensive unit as well.   ;)

Knowing members here are using both from past discussions, I was curious to find out what is still the more popular way to do it.  Also if your using a notebook or netbook please take a moment to drop a comment on how long and how does it seem to be holding up?





« Last Edit: April 29, 2009, 01:21:17 AM by Mark / Ohio »
Mark 
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Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2009, 02:01:31 AM »
I've got one IBM laptop (T21) that is at least 8 yrs old.  Running pretty much 24/7 and it is still fine.  For my wx stn. I got a netbook.  Works great as it is lower power and less heat.  Netbook for sure!
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Offline TorH

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2009, 03:35:28 AM »
For my weatherstation i use a Dell (tower) Dimension 8300 2,8Ghz 1Gb Ram and 480GB HD, it's running 24/7 and it's just for the Davis VP2 and the weathersoftware.
I used for a while a Acer laptop (which is almost not in use  :oops: ) but it noised more than the Dell that i don't hear even it's staying right beside of mee, and it runs just as fine like when it was new 6 years ago  ;)
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Offline mackbig

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2009, 06:27:36 AM »
I use a full size desktop.  Could save a bit of power using a netbook, but I also have a boltek pci stormtracker, which means no laptop/netbook option for me.  There is a an external pci solution but at over $1000 for that piece of hardware any savings in electricity cost would be out the window.........

Andrew

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Offline sam2004gp

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2009, 07:11:29 AM »
I use a Pentium III 800 MHZ, 384Mb RAM for my weather station.  It is 14 years old and still uses the original factory 8GB HD.  So I say go with a cheap mini-tower or desktop unit.  My PC only pulls 50watts, when the monitor is off.  Perhaps part of your old computer's problem is either "bit-rot" or the hard drive is starting to fail.  Before I would buy a new pc and if you have an extra hard drive laying around, clone it and swap it out of the machine and see if your random "wonky-ness" goes away.
SAM --->>> http://www.mountcrawfordweather.org
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Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2009, 09:12:16 AM »
   I am using a Dell Inspirion 530S that has 2.40 GHz processor (Intel Pentium Dual CPU) and 2 GB RAM.
It is on 24/7 and is only 6 months old.  I also run at least one, and sometimes two, BOINC distributed computing project on this computer 24/7.  It has run flawlessly so far. [-o< ;)
       Mark

Offline tinplate

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2009, 09:49:12 AM »
Running a tiny pc that draws 4 to 5 watts. It runs Windows XP and is dedicated to handling my weather data. I don't have a monitor or keyboard connected to it - I just use TightVNC to control it remotely over my LAN. It's been running non-stop for over a year. I like it, because along with drawing little power, it generates almost no heat, and has no moving parts, so it's totally silent. I have it, my router, and my DSL modem (all low power devices) connected to a UPS. So, the data flow is almost uninterrupted, even during most power outages (DSL still works during most power outages).

Steve

Offline ncpilot

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2009, 10:38:11 AM »
Steve, any thoughts on what will happen when XP is really no longer available? I think I read that Microsoft will have a light version of 7 for netbooks (and by implication, that's the only thing available for those that build their own low power machines?)--and that it will have a limit on simultaneous apps that can run?
Marc
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Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2009, 10:46:40 AM »
Win7 is already on netbooks.  Works like a charm by all accounts.  I  suspect once it is nLited it will work at least as good as XP.  Besides, XP will always be around... somewhere.
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Offline lddaly

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2009, 10:52:15 AM »
I am running a Shuttle SG31G2 based system I built earlier this year. Quad Core, 4GB RAM, etc. (all parts purchased from newegg.com for less than $500) It is small, quiet, and runs (headless) in my equipment closet with a Weather Envoy attached. Everything connected to a UPS of course. It is running Windows Server 2008 I got from attending a Micro$oft event last year. The system is not dedicated to weather related tasks.

Offline offroadjosh

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #10 on: April 29, 2009, 11:29:19 AM »
i use a emachines computer for my weather stuff, i have had it since first week of Dec 2008 and i have sent it in to them 3 time seems to have alot of issues but when it works it seems to be a good computer.



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Online Garth Bock

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #11 on: April 29, 2009, 01:18:09 PM »
The weather station is on a Dell Gx620 desktop (3.2 ghz 2gb mem 80gb O/S drive, 160gb second drive) which I got on eBay for $175. I have a second Gx620 for a MySql server and a Gx620 Tower for developement and soon to be my Boltek station.

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #12 on: April 29, 2009, 07:25:48 PM »
Running a Toshiba Satellite L305D, 3g, 320g, AMDx2. Runs much cooler than hp laps; even w/ Milestone netcam server plus all the other wx software.

Offline Davidb

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2009, 11:18:12 PM »
Question-

How do you measure the power usage of different computers?
-
can it be put in a lower power state overnight  ( we run four webcams on ours as well - I suspect they use most of the power )
-
David


Offline tinplate

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2009, 12:53:53 AM »
Steve, any thoughts on what will happen when XP is really no longer available? I think I read that Microsoft will have a light version of 7 for netbooks (and by implication, that's the only thing available for those that build their own low power machines?)--and that it will have a limit on simultaneous apps that can run?
They're going to continue selling XP to system builders of low power PCs for a while still. Beyond that, we can cross our fingers that they get Windows 7 right, but to be honest, I'm skeptical it will run in lower memory systems. I'm hedging my bets by moving the weather software I develop to a different development tool that allows easy  porting to linux and mac in addition to windows. Linux is maturing nicely, and runs quite well on limited PCs.

Steve

Offline SlowModem

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #15 on: April 30, 2009, 04:13:52 AM »
I'm using an old turn of the century Dell  2300 desktop.  40G HD, 250 MB RAM (upgraded to 750 MB).  Win XP.  I  leave it on 24/7.  I have had to replace the modem (I use dialup).  It's hanging in there.

Greg

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Offline mackbig

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2009, 06:38:55 AM »
I use a UPM Dual Rate Energy Meter.
http://www.sears.ca/gp/product/B00115PP76/sr=1-5/qid=1241087690/ref=sr_1_5/175-5495775-1453828?ie=UTF8&searsBrand=core&mqnodeid=APS

Kill-a-watt I believe was the first low price wattage meter.  Our local power co, and the city teamed up a few years ago, you can actually borrow a watt meter from the library and use it for a week at a time for free.    It is pretty cool to see how much all your gadgets use...

Also, I doubt your webcams draw much wattage at all.  maybe a handfull perhaps around 5 watts....

Andrew


Question-

How do you measure the power usage of different computers?
-
can it be put in a lower power state overnight  ( we run four webcams on ours as well - I suspect they use most of the power )
-
David



Andrew - Davis VP2+ 6163, serial weatherlink, wireless anemometer, running Weather Display.  Boltek PCI Stormtracker, Astrogenic Nexstorm, Strikestar - UNI, CWOP CW8618, GrLevel3, (Station 2 OS WMR968, VWS 13.01p09), Windows 7-64

Offline sam2004gp

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2009, 07:24:13 AM »
Question-

How do you measure the power usage of different computers?
-
can it be put in a lower power state overnight  ( we run four webcams on ours as well - I suspect they use most of the power )
-
David



Some UPSs will tell you, the power draw of watts.... Of course this is with the monitor operating.  You can remove the monitor from the UPS power strip to see what the machine itself draws.  Which is what I did.

Or

Other folks have purchased energy monitor devices similar to the http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
at Lowes or Home Depot.  They are also nice to have around for testing other devices besides your computer.

EDIT: Just noticed the response above but I left my original reply as addtional info.  ;) :-)
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Offline sirhc_31

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2009, 07:48:06 AM »
I'm using a laptop Acer Aspire 5684 WLMi which is switched on 24/7 and I have no problem whatsoever :-)

www.mauritius-weather.info

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Offline AZmonsooncats

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #19 on: April 30, 2009, 12:41:49 PM »
 My weather station runs on a  Dell Inspiron 530, Intel Core2 Duo processor E6550 (2.33GHz 1333FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 4MB cache  with 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz  and a 320GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive it is running with Xp Professional  did not want Vista at the time I set this computer up and its has been up 24/7 since Dec 2007. It is the second weather computer as my old Dell 8400  #-o had issues after only 3 years ](*,), may it was a close lightning stike or something but I do have surge and spike protect still don't the caused the problem although I had some tell be it was the motherboard, still have this computer and only run it ocassionally as it is noisy and forgets what hardaware is installed on it.

The new computer runs the Davis Vantage Pro with virtual Vp with weatherlink and weatherdisplay. The computer also runs the Boltek lightning detector and L2k the computer runs fine and when I not around I run it with the monitor shut off because it is not neccesary to run the monitor 24/7 I do not know how much energy the computer uses ;) oh well

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Offline Mark / Ohio

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2009, 12:49:19 AM »
Thanks all for the replies!   8-)

Interesting reading the troubles seen even with some of the larger units.  As with anything it is sort of luck of the draw even among like models when you buy anything.   :roll:  The fellow at the store also showed me a mini tower model there he thought might be a better choice over the netbook but the caveat with it being it was not really expandable if I wanted to add anything (PCI cards) in the future.  I have had the thought of adding a lightning detector and the web cam idea that I have spoke about many times but never done yet is still rolling around in a corner somewhere too.   ;)

Originally when I bought this Acer 5610 (Intel Core Solo T1300 /1.6 GHz) I'm typing on I had thoughts of making it the weather PC when the old computer died and just getting a new more powerful laptop to serve the rest of my needs.  It does not generate a lot of heat plus I would have longer up time during power failures provided I continue to keep the DSL modem/router on battery backup.

Still though, the little netbooks and mini computers like Tinplate is using sure are tempting me.   :grin:

BTW, Took the cover off my old computer, blew out the dust, reset all the memory cards, motherboard connectors, and card the processor is on into their sockets.  Also swapped out an external 4-port USB hub that had a number of years of 24/7 operation on it, reinstalled the programs that had thrown an error, chk disk and defrag.  So far it has run now little over 5 days with no reboot and no problems.  (Knocking on wood.   :mrgreen:)  So either I fixed it or I torqued a hairline connection crack that will return to haunt me again on it's own time.  One or the other.   8-[ 
Mark 
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Offline Arthurhh

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2009, 02:20:22 AM »
Oh dear I guess I am a wee bit over the top with my gear.

Celeron with a gig ram for a firewall, dual core 2 ghz several gig ram for the web server/WX machine, two IBM x31 notebooks for no2 station and dev work, two tosh 300 satellite notebooks for her indoors and I to use as main machines, a dual core 2+ghz with 1 terabyte raid 5 and 4 gig ram for my main graphics station and office work, add to that my occasional use of a dell 6400 notebook from work. Yeah I guess just a little OTT. Guess what I do for a living

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #22 on: May 04, 2009, 02:24:17 AM »
Guess what I do for a living

  Bank Robber? :lol:  Kidding of course!!   Mark

Offline Arthurhh

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #23 on: May 04, 2009, 02:27:29 AM »
Yep I guess the avatar could suggest that  :roll:

Offline Bushman

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Re: Laptop, Desktop, or something in between on your weather station?
« Reply #24 on: May 04, 2009, 09:21:11 AM »
Hey Mark, don't forget that both lightning and webcams can work on USB which the Netbooks/mincros have.  :)  Add a hub for 10-15 bucks and you can add all the devices you want.
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