I assume you have some form of onboard integrated graphics which is still technically a graphics card.

Texs homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Texas homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

The main reason for a deep foundation is to get down below the frost line into stable soil (so the house doesn't shift between seasons).

In a warm climate, you don't have that problem, and basements aren't needed.

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I assume you have some form of onboard integrated graphics which is still technically a graphics card.

Texs homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

Yes, I have an ATI ES1000 515E on my mobo, but I don't think it uses much power. I have also 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, 2 160 GB disks, a DVD R/W. plus printer, scanner, audio speakers, ADSL modem. Plus a TV, stereo, refrigerator with freezer, washing machine, Heating and hot water come from a methane stove,but warm water could come from solar panels (my roof is flat).

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Texas homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

The main reason for a deep foundation is to get down below the frost line into stable soil (so the house doesn't shift between seasons).

In a warm climate, you don't have that problem, and basements aren't needed.

Totally off topic, but there are several very cold locations in Canada where basements are not feasible because of rocky soil (unless you blast, which tends to upset the neighbours). The answer is either to drill and drive deep piles, or "float" the house on a thick pad of concrete and re-bar, or live in a moving house.

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Here's what My average cost per KWh should be: $0.03239(after a 20% Care Rate Discount), My Electricity cost Me $61.31 last month, I don't know what My next bill will be like of course, As there have been what I'd think are minor reductions in usage around here, 2 clocks(one with big red leds that's a clock radio), 2 older Ethernet devices were replaced with a new model 7500 DSL Modem/Router(Its Black too), I'd be surprised If the bill was under $61 of course as I've had to run the cooler on high, sometimes 24/7 and If certain things I've put in motion bear fruit I plan to do some hdd(750GB 7200rpm, instead of 10,000rpm and 150GB+250GB[7200rpm]) and cooling(CoolIT DM-1000 Domino A.L.C. CPU Cooler) upgrades to this PC, Plus getting the A/C's Refrigerant refilled($120) in My Car. I'm not sure which is hotter 109F outside yesterday or the A/C in My Car right now. :o

I bought some of those WD green 1TB drives for my new system. They say they use a variable spindle speed from 5400-7200rpm. Which I can't actually notice any speed change from my old array of sata 320gb drives. However, they do run MUCH cooler.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Having had an ID 10 T error. I had just thought to change the "Write to disk a most every n seconds" setting. Changed it to 300 seconds and noticed my old 76 gb raptor drop from 37ºC to 34ºC. Fewer write operations seems to lower the power used and heat generated. I consider it a win for efficiency until I can get a really cheap SSD for that system.

I have also been thinking about running BOINC on a ram drive with something like a 5-10 min save for it.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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Seti could do the world, and themselves, a favor by not issuing wu's to these slow computers. I know that perspective isn't popular, but it is rational.

I agree. Oh, by the way, SETI will no longer be issuing WU's to any of your machines because someone thinks your machines are too slow!!!!

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SETI@home since 1999
"Set it, and Forget it!"

I assume you have some form of onboard integrated graphics which is still technically a graphics card.

Texs homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

From what I had seen on a program on TV recently, it appears the biggest issue with basements in Texas is that the bedrock is so close to the surface. They were using this huge machine to dig/cut/grind a trench to put in either water or gas lines, and it had to grind down a number of feet thru the bedrock to lay it down. I think that's pretty common down there, but if there are any Texans lurking around, chime in please! :)

Texas homes for some reason have no basement level. Seems odd that the one place you'd want to have a basement and you can't get one.

The main reason for a deep foundation is to get down below the frost line into stable soil (so the house doesn't shift between seasons).

In a warm climate, you don't have that problem, and basements aren't needed.

Weeelll, maybe, but there are also other perfectly good uses for having a basement, and in Texas, I would have to rate #1 as a place to get your butt down into when a tornado is heading your way, as they are at the southern end of tornado alley. Then there is the extra storage/living/playing space it adds to your house, a place that (usually) is quieter than the rest of the house if your location is in a noisy area, and I'm sure there's others. Of course, if you have to dig down 8-10' into bedrock for a 24-28' x 50-60' hole, well that may not always be practical. But on the positive side, you can be pretty darn sure that there won't be any foundation settling when it's built on bedrock. ;)

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From what I had seen on a program on TV recently, it appears the biggest issue with basements in Texas is that the bedrock is so close to the surface.

Is that because all the topsoil has blown away into the ocean?

(It's too hard to farm rock :-( )

Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I was doing some playing around with some hardware this weekend. I blew the dust off of my old P3 mother board, an Asus TUSL2-C, and thought I'd give it a go at BOINC while measuring it's power usage.

AE64-Current: 0.2/0.6/0.7-Volt Amps: 24/72/84
Intel(R) Pentium(R) III CPU family 1400MHz [x86 Family 6 Model 11 Stepping 1](1 processors)
AE64-7.97
AE64-2016/0.0039533730

BoincView reports a value of 7.97 credit/hr for this machine. So that with its energy usage gives me a value of 0.0039533730 credits per watt per day. Which is higher then the 2.4GHz P4 machine I have. For this test the power supply, video card, hard drive, and network card from my 2.4GHz P4 machine were used.

Not to shabby for an old out of date machine with PC133 ram if I say so. It's running just slightly behind my 1.5Ghz Pentium M notebook. Which has the faster quad pumped bus and DDR memory.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[