Hi linux fans

The last time I had a laptop was when it had windows 98. When that laptop died, I've been using desktop tower PCs.

I'm thinking of getting a laptop to use as a home server for backups and media streaming.

I don't want to use those cheap netbook laptops or a raspberry Pi. I need something with more power, memory and storage.

So, my question is -- does leaving a laptop on 24/7 costs too much in electricity? Thanks in advance!

I don't think that it can cost too much. A laptop has a parameter -- maximal electricity consumption which is relative low because laptops are designed for low electricity consumption.
On the other hand laptops are not designed to work in 24/7 mode.

Additionally the hardware on laptops is engineered to fit within the small space. Replacement is sometimes costly or limited in selection options.

Consumer goods aren't made to run 24/7, that's not to say that they can't though.

Maybe a Celeron based system would keep the running costs low, as would using SSD drive(s).

Take a look at this one - https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/...ithdnpi34.html

Thanks all for your suggestions and input.

I could get one of those cheap celeron netbooks like HP stream or Dell and remove windows 10 and put linux on it. The only caveat is they don't have ethernet ports and they rely on wifi.

For now I got to think and weight the options of either a laptop, netbook or raspberry Pi.

Thanks again to everyone

And bonus, with a laptop you have a build-in inverter.

I'm using a Raspberry Pi3B as my daily driver right now, doing all the things I used to do on laptops & desktops before, it handles it surprisingly well.

Lots of people are using them as servers, & don't seem to have any trouble with them either, depends on what you need, I guess, but they're certainly usable little computers.

Laptops have very good energy management. They are able to shut down sections of the system. Almost any system easily allow you to use a usb to ethernet if you wish to use. (assuming the chipset is supported in distro)

I'd remove the internal battery if I were to leave it on ac power. A gel cell ups would be safer usually but I've seen them over heat too. IBM sent out a deal about removing the lithium batteries on laptops that are not being used as portable.

Yes, the notion of using a mini pc or ARM based is usually energy stingy but some may not easily allow you to run all programs and may be quite slow on some web based services.

Desktops tends towards 100W+ depending on hardware. Laptops tend towards 45W- depending on hardware. While you'll have more specs than a RPi, your specs will thermal throttle and other things and are not quite what the paper specs state. One advantage of using a laptop is that it has a built in UPS (battery). Beyond that you're making trade-offs and such, but laptop specs are pretty good these days. I tend to use laptops for everything, built in keyboard, mouse, battery, screen, and such. But I expect them to last half as long as other options. Where you might buy a new desktop every 5-ish years, you'll probably be buying a new laptop every 2-ish years.

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