Green Computing?

The computer i have at work is haunted. The person who had it before me was frequently getting blue screens of doom. We tried to fix that by putting Fedora on it, but today, after loading up the latest updates, i get regular crashes trying to run 3d screen savers. (Seriously, who doesn't run Molecule while working for a genetics laboratory?).

I was given the choice, to run memtest tonight and let it run all the way through or to try with random sticks of RAM tomorrow. I opted for the latter because it means not keeping the machine on all night long. But is it really more green? Those sticks of RAM have a certain environmental load too. Is it better to run energy using tests on the currently existing hardware or check every point of failure with a backup known working set? Which is more green? Should we even worry about such decisions at all?

1 flames:

Anoniem zei

IMO try the new RAM sticks. Keep the old ones and test them when time permits, each one proven to be still good can be kept for backup.
More over if the errors are in smaller regions one can use it with the patched kernel on a box with smaller importance (home router or something) that tolerate such ram modules by excluding the regions that are known to be not working properly.