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Help me reduce power usage on this PC
Hi
I got an old PC lying around (and collecting dust ). I was thinking whether I could still use it for something.
What I wonder is that how much power would it use, compared to todays' computer? I heard that these old processors are power hogs, consuming a lot of electricity, running up the bills. Is that true?
Either way, I want to reduce power usage to as little as possible. Please give me tips to do that. Since this is a desktop PC, I can swap out quite everything. I have several power supplies lying around, for example.
This PC would be used as a secondary computer, for quite light purposes like browsing, office work, listening to music, watching movies (not HD), just DVDs and divx. Not really gaming, maybe very old games. I know it's not powerful, it doesn't have to be. It just needs to be as energy efficent and silent as possible. Currently, it is loud as hell. (CPU fan mostly, it is running at full speed without the need - should I try speedfan? it seems to work with it, but I wanna automatize so it can spin it up when things go hot)
It has:
Code:CURRENTLY INSTALLED: Motherboard: ABIT VA-10 CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Memory: 1 GB DDR1 (I believe 333 Mhz) [Layout: 1 x 1 GB module, other slots free] Graphics: ATI Radeon 9250SE AGP 128MB Dedicated (+ onboard VIA UniChrome but is not in use now) Hard drives: 1 x 80GB Samsung ATA Drive 7200RPM Other PCI cards: - PCI Network card: TENDA Gigabit (because onboard network is totally fried (with cable in: it shows connected/disconnected state altering several times per every second, I couldn't even possibly pull it out and plug it back in that fast), but this one works). Again, unsure about power usage - PCI SATA RAID Card: (Silicon Image card) -> for the possibility to install SATA drives, currently none. [B]again, unsure about power usage Others: Case fan CD Drive (barely used, in 99% of uptime is idle). (does it draw any significant amount of power?) Power supply: Currently installed: 280W (seems to work fine)
Upgrade vectors - things I have and can plug in:
- 60 GB SSD (SATA, but I have a SATA Card already in. The computer doesn't need much storage space, of course 80GB is better but does it worth it in regards of power & speed? Do you vote for the SSD?)
- Power supply: The current one is the oldest (and used for years, I don't know if there's an aging progress for power supplies?), I have another one (about 6 or 7 years old, but barely used) 400W. If I plug it in, but leave the same parts inside, would it use more energy? (Would it use 400W? Does it always use that much power? Does it ever use it?) 280W sounds better for me but man that power supply is so run down. (but still works). I believe it was used for 7-8 hours a day, almost everyday. You can imagine how much dust it has inside
So please help me get this PC "thinner"