Computer on 24/7 or off every night?

[Generator]

mini-itx linux box perhaps? ^_^

I'm not experienced in the linux world but I will be playing with different flavours for the server. I've always ran Windows on all my pc's, I did try to install SUSE on an old box but it didn't agree with its hardware.

Back on topic.. I do like tree's tho until there's a new way of replenishing the environment!

 

[Nikkeli]

Who doesn't love trees, but I believe they are just fine regardless of my energy consumption.

And after I die, does it matter if there is trees

 

[garysgold]

Hi Nikkeli,

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

And after I die, does it matter if there is trees

It will matter to me.

Hope you enjoy your stay.

Gary

 

[Joan Archer]

I turn mine off every night, for one thing I'm on a key meter and have to keep it topped up, and the electric is more expensive this way plus I'm not taking the chance of the possibility of fire during the night or the damage that could be caused by storms.

 

[WartHog]

I usually shut mine down every couple of nights. If I don't shut it down, I will turn off my monitors @ least.

 

[IronHalik]

To clear things up.

If you have like 550W PSU that dosnt mean you use it all. Actually modern PC rigs scale near lineary between power consumption and work load.

You use lots of power when you hear the fans going fast. It means that CPU or GPU (or both) is working hard, is sweating and needs to cool itself down.

So idle PC (or simply downloading sth or other light background tasks. Someone wrote before about folding@home. It isnt light) will consume over half of energy less.
Things like intel speed step or amd cool n quiet help this.

In sleep mode the whole session image is dumped into RAM. And RAM needs power to keep thos 1/0 bits alive.

Default powered down standby mode will take around 5-10W (thats some basic things on motherboard and ethernet adapter if you have wake-on-lan etc.)
In sleep mode the RAM is also kept alive. Since modern RAM chips are very energy efficient (you can say that by low heat generated) I would say its another couple of watts.

Hibernation mode is nice. Your work is dumped to image on disk and disk powered down (since HDDs dont need power to keep data). Its almost the same as powering down and is slower then sleep mode but after hitting the pwr_btn you can start work where you left it.


For me it all dosnt matter since my hardware dosnt support hibernation and sleep mode kills my ethernet after wakeup and I need to restart the PC to revive it Need to get some NAS with basic OS on it so I would be able to DL large files with it.

Hope it helps. Rep me if it does

PS. For comparision. The power you need to operate modern PC in idle is enough to light up whole 2 story house with energy saving gas lightbulbs :>

 

[LePoilu]

Since Win2k I use Hibernation each time stop my computer.

One day I took my calc and made some tests. The result : Over one year, turning off the computer each night represent an economy of 30% on my electriciy bill !!! :shock:

Why hibernate over S3 suspend to RAM ? Hibernation allow me to totally cut off power consumption at the source: I use an electrical plug with command for on/off ==> O watt.. while S3 still use some Watt for ... for what ? 2 sec for resuming against 10sec with hibernation.
By the way as I have a watercooling system, with a 220V waterpump, I can stop (and restart) the pump in the same time than the computer.

I use S3 sleep mode during the day when I go out for few minutes/hours...

Somtimes my computer don't sleep the night.. but it's because it have some work to do (3D rendering)

 

[LePoilu]

For me it all dosnt matter since my hardware dosnt support hibernation

What kind of hardware do you have for not supporting Hibernation ??


Hibernation is like a "software" sleep mode. And only some rare driver can have trouble with it... Most of recent hardware work well with hibernation

 

[IronHalik]

I didnt look wich deivce is blocking hibernation. I simply dont have the option by default and when i forced it via regedit the system would go to hibernation but wouldnt go up again. Tbh, It was on vista and I have not tried it on W7 :>

 

[Azural]

I hibernate my laptop whenever I'm not using it or downloading anything.

When I was using a desktop (don't have one right now) I always just turned the monitor off at night and it pretty much only went 'off' when it was resetting for an update.

 

[swarfega]

Dont leave it on if its not doing anything. I leave mine on processing folding@home data and maybe downloading something. Otherwise it would be off.

 

[Jacee]

I have three on all day, but I shut all of them off when I go to bed. If I'm not using a computer while sleeping, then I see no sense in keeping it on.

 

[weh]

For all practical purposes, in the US of A, on average, 1 watt of electrical power used 24/7/365 = $1 per year. That's a pretty good incentive to cut off what's not really needed.

Something most people don't know: power bricks use power regardless of their client devices connection and/or power on status. In other words, leaving your cell phone charger plugged into a wall socket costs essentially the same whether the phone is attached and being charged or not. Same goes for the power bricks that supply printers, laptops and other devices.

APC makes an absolutely wonderful power strip (w/ surge suppressor circuitry) -- model # P7GT -- which can switch on auxiliary devices when it senses power being drawn by a master device. (see: APC Power-Saving Essential SurgeArrest 7 outlet, with phone line protection, 120V) I've got half a dozen of these around the house.

That being said, I have three computers and two NAS units. I have the NAS units set with automatic drive spin-down and to "wake on LAN." Two of the computers I turn on only when needed. The third, my main computer, stays on all day but is usually turned off before I go to sleep. The one exception is that I leave all three computers on Sunday nights so that they can call home (M$, others) for updates and run full backups.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Thinking of the Planet, I turn mine off if I'm away from it for an extended period, such as overnight.

 

[Bryce]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but constantly turning it off and on every day actually wears the hardware down faster than if it's on 24/7. Also, the power if uses really isn't that much to even notice on your bill. I've had all of my computers on non-stop except for OS re-installs and updates (about 6 computers) and I've never really noticed a large increase in my bill. And plus, I'm always on a computer so it's better than waiting a few seconds for it to boot up.

EDIT: Saw someone mentioned they turn theirs off if their away for long periods. I usually do that but once I was doing something on it the last second before our family left for vacation and it ended up staying on the entire time we were gone, which was about 3 months lol. But at the hotel I'm like **** I forgot my music so I just SSH'd into it and all was good =).

 

[LePoilu]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but constantly turning it off and on every day actually wears the hardware down faster than if it's on 24/7. Also, the power if uses really isn't that much to even notice on your bill. I've had all of my computers on non-stop except for OS re-installs and updates (about 6 computers) and I've never really noticed a large increase in my bill. And plus, I'm always on a computer so it's better than waiting a few seconds for it to boot up.

Indeed, turnin off and on may stress a little bit the hardware.
BUT, You certainly will change it before because you'll find it not "up to date".
The "utility time to live" is really less than the "hardware time to live".

This is absolutly not a argument against turning off your computer when you do not need it (or even a S3 sleep, which take 2sec for waking up)


About the bill: Of course it depends of your overall bill. If the reste of the house is like a darkhole, a single computer will not make many difference. But at the time we talk, Energy saving is not a whim. Little things can have big consequence, but if you don't care about all ofthat... It is not in your honor.
Don't think about your bill.. but about your children ...

 

[Ex_Brit]

The jury is out on which is best for the machine I think. I suppose for someone who pays high rates for electricity it would matter, but here we have relatively cheap hydro-electricity so am not too worried about it personally. I just turn everything off to keep the conscience salved and perhaps slow down the dust build-up inside my machine....(says he frantically searching for reasons..LOL).

 

[weh]

Computers, even ones with very large power supplies and high-powered graphics cards, rarely actually draw anywhere near the total power for which their supplies are rated. My main computer has a 750-watt power supply and contains 14 hard drives. At idle, it draws only about 235 watts -- essentially the same as 4x 60-watt light bulbs.

Regardless, left on doing nothing but sitting there idling 24/7/365, my computer would add approximately $235 to my electric bill annually. The 1-watt 24/7/365 = $1 annually adage is a pretty accurate estimate based on the average cost of electricity in the United States.

There is another handy device that will tell you the actual power used by devices in your home -- it's the P3 Kill A Watt monitor (see: P3 - Kill A Watt and other versions).

 

[jimbo45]

Depends on your power bill and how your electricity is generated.

When I'm back home our Electricity is cheap (Non Carbon - Thermal and Hydro) so it's probably less wear and tear to leave the machine on than stop and start it.

I wish we could find some way of exporting it -- Engineers out there - if there are any more of you left left these days -- we have a MEGA MEGA SURPLUS of energy but no way of currently getting it into approx 2,000 KM undersea high capacity transmisson lines. If you could solve this problem you could :

1) make such a fortune that would make Mr Gates look like a "Bag person" that you sometimes see in the US panhandling under Freeway Bridges.

2) contribute HUGELY to Green energy and a cleaner planet.

3) Tell the Saudis and similar countries to go back to riding (or smoking) Camels again and also tell the governments of these countries to "Go and make a sexual move with a Duck".

4) Get your money back that you invested in our screwed up Banking system. -- At least we aren't the only one's whose banks are totally hosed up so I don't feel too guilty about that -- if you play "Casino" then you have to take losses as well as gains.

My Linux server has currently been running for 283 days since last re-boot.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[LePoilu]

but here we have relatively cheap hydro-electricity so am not too worried about it personally..

"cheap hydro-electricity" is nothing if there's no power saving!!

This kind of thinks made me sad ! You just look at you little navel without any look around you, Shame on you !

If everybody think like you, you can be sure that your "cheap hydro-electricity" will not stay cheap for long !