Altair Fan

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Tony Duell wrote the single quoted stuff:
> 
> >>I may well replace the PSUs in a KL10 with SMPSUs.  That reduces the
> >>operating costs by more than $30/day.  Compuserve did this to their KL10s
> > 
> > 
> > Why not replace them with a PC running an emulator and reduce the 
> > operating costs still futher?
> 
> Why not?  Because it doesn't have the same nostalgia factor as the real 

You do realise I was being sarcastic, I hope.

I, probably more than anybody here, like to run the real hardware. I like 
to use the origianl storage devices, terminals, etc wherever possible. 
Yes I might add modeen stuff _as well_, but I keep the original stuff going.

I am very much a hardware person. To me a computer is a complicated 
(normally) electronic circuit. I am interested in the complete circuit, 
not just the CPU. That's one little bit of it. Other parts, including the 
PSU, can be interesting too. 

> hardware?  Because it is fun to have real blinking lights instead of 
> emulated blinking lights?  Because it is fun to touch the real item and 
> plug in real cards and connect real cables?

Of course.

> > To me (a hardware hacker) the design of the PSU _is_ part of the design 
> > of the machine, and should br preserved (I've seen at least as many 
> > interesting PSU designs as, say, CPU designs...)
> 
> Tony, you have to have a consistent story on this one.  You don't have 
> $100 to buy a used but usable PC for the times that one is needed, but 

You know full well that $100 is by no means the total cost of ownership 
for that PC for the length of time I'll want to be using it.

> you are critical of somebody who wants to swap out the power supply of 
> his computer to save $900/month on electricity.  Would you advocate that 
> he leave in the original supply and then never use it?  How is that a 
> better outcome?

I'd probably rather want to reduce the operating hours (but not to zero), 
and keep the machine original. 

-tony