finding cheap hardware for Linux?

[E Frank Ball]

} When shopping for old hardware, i think it does pay to consider the power
} usage.  If it's a 24/7 box, then it seems the power costs of older hardware
} could eat up any initial savings.  This is just an assumption on my part --
} i really don't know how a 486 CPU with it's larger die compares in power
} usage to say a K6-2 or how a 1995 2gb SCSI drive compares to a modern 30GB
} beast.  I do that for less noise and power, i'd rather have one decent sized
} drive than a string of tiny ones.
} 
} Am i totally off on my assumptions?

Partially.  I don't think the 486 uses too much power.  I can't comapare
it to a K6-2, but it will use less than a Pentium of any flavor.
Athelons are the king of power consumption (but damned fast).  Old hard
drives are power pigs.  They are also way too small and a reliability
issue.  That said I have twin 1GB SCSI drives in my 486/66 (they were
free).  I'm about to build up a Pentium 60 with one 1GB and one 2GB SCSI
drives (also free).

Rumaging around in my hard drive box I picked a random 1 GB SCSI drive:
900mA at 5V and 900mA at 12 volts (The drives in my machine MAY use a little
less power).  A 4.3GB IDE drive:  650mA at 5V and 720mA at 12V.  (remember I
needed 2 of the 1GB drives).

I used to have a stack of 8" drives at work that were 660MB each and
took 2.5A at 5V and about 1.5A12V.

If you can get a cheap 486/66 and spend $100 on a new drive you will get
oodles of capacity, much improved reliability, and the lowest possible
power consumption.  

   E Frank Ball                efball at efball.com