demo123
08-01-2007, 06:47 PM
How to save energy with your computer
here are some ways you can save some energy with your beloved PC.
1. Turn it off from the wall
If you are leaving to holiday or some other business, and not gonna turn on the PC for couple of days, turn it off from the main power, from the wall power point. Today's PCs (even laptops and many other consumer devices) have all these LEDs and soft-switchs (non-mechanical switches). All these are provided with power 24/7. This standby power can consume few watts per day.
2. USB devices
I think every one of us using at least a single USB device as of today. USB draws power from what it is connected to (i.e. PC). And sometime back, it was discovered USB can significantly waste energy (due to a driver problem). So if you are using external USB devices, such as USB flash drives, HDDs, lamps, fans whatever, take them out when you are not using. (exceptions for the keyboard and mouse, they are essential to communicate with PC, don't they?)
3. Replace old cathode-tube monitors with LCD
Remember old bulky cathode-tube monitors, which takes up an acre ? Apart from huge space it needs, it consumes more than 100 watts. In a PC system with cathode-tube monitor, monitor accounts for more than 50% of energy wastage. So, replace them with new LCD monitors. They are getting cheaper by the day.
4. Use processor features
As a consequence of the 'Giga-Hertz Race', energy consumed by processor shoot up over last few years. However, Intel and AMD came up with their own solutions to deal with the problem. Some of the approaches are, lower the processor clock speeds when load is small, even turn off certain portions of the processor when idle. So, what are they and how to use them. Intel calles it SpeedStep Enhancement Features, whereas AMD calls it Cool'n'Quiet. How to enable them, goto BIOS when you are starting the PC, then enable the feature. This really helps.
5. Turn off the monitor/HDD
Usually this is done by windows OS it self. But you can configure when to do it. All you need to do is, goto Start>Control Panel>Power Options, decide when to turn off your monitor, HDD, click OK.
Even without this you can do turn off the monitor manually, by power switch on the monitor.
6. Memory usage
One problem with all the RAM types is, they need to refresh all the memory locations periodically to keep the data alive. This process will require energy. So, what you can do is, limit the amount of programs you are using concurrently. Stick to the once you need and close down rest.
Also disable unnecessary programs loading to the memory when windows is booting up. How to do this, goto Start>Run>type msconfig and enter>startup (Tab).. then deselect things which are not essential, reboot.
Also you can use a clever cache program to improve performance and availbility of free RAM, like O&O clever cache.
7. Funny sounds
Windows default comes with sounds and chimes here and there. It is very nice, but it just wasting your energy and slow up the OS slightly, so no gain overall. So, turn them off. Goto Contro Panel>Sounds.
8. Fans
Normal PC usually comes with 2 Fans, one is inbuilt with the power unit. Other is usually for the processor. However, some people prefer having another fan or two for ventilation. Well, fans are not passive devices (devices not using power). Hence, limit the number of fans. Else use some efficient fans by Zalman or Cooler Master. Also there are some fin solutions by motherboard developers. Ultimately, use a water cooler system with one fan instead of many.
9. Buy minimal power consuming devices to your PC
If you check the shops, there are so many products at different price levels and power levels. For an instance, CPUs, GPUs comes with different power ratings. Consider what sort of work you do and what devices suit the purpose which use less power. And configure them accordingly. (like processor features).
Good Luck and help to save energy and keep the earth green.
here are some ways you can save some energy with your beloved PC.
1. Turn it off from the wall
If you are leaving to holiday or some other business, and not gonna turn on the PC for couple of days, turn it off from the main power, from the wall power point. Today's PCs (even laptops and many other consumer devices) have all these LEDs and soft-switchs (non-mechanical switches). All these are provided with power 24/7. This standby power can consume few watts per day.
2. USB devices
I think every one of us using at least a single USB device as of today. USB draws power from what it is connected to (i.e. PC). And sometime back, it was discovered USB can significantly waste energy (due to a driver problem). So if you are using external USB devices, such as USB flash drives, HDDs, lamps, fans whatever, take them out when you are not using. (exceptions for the keyboard and mouse, they are essential to communicate with PC, don't they?)
3. Replace old cathode-tube monitors with LCD
Remember old bulky cathode-tube monitors, which takes up an acre ? Apart from huge space it needs, it consumes more than 100 watts. In a PC system with cathode-tube monitor, monitor accounts for more than 50% of energy wastage. So, replace them with new LCD monitors. They are getting cheaper by the day.
4. Use processor features
As a consequence of the 'Giga-Hertz Race', energy consumed by processor shoot up over last few years. However, Intel and AMD came up with their own solutions to deal with the problem. Some of the approaches are, lower the processor clock speeds when load is small, even turn off certain portions of the processor when idle. So, what are they and how to use them. Intel calles it SpeedStep Enhancement Features, whereas AMD calls it Cool'n'Quiet. How to enable them, goto BIOS when you are starting the PC, then enable the feature. This really helps.
5. Turn off the monitor/HDD
Usually this is done by windows OS it self. But you can configure when to do it. All you need to do is, goto Start>Control Panel>Power Options, decide when to turn off your monitor, HDD, click OK.
Even without this you can do turn off the monitor manually, by power switch on the monitor.
6. Memory usage
One problem with all the RAM types is, they need to refresh all the memory locations periodically to keep the data alive. This process will require energy. So, what you can do is, limit the amount of programs you are using concurrently. Stick to the once you need and close down rest.
Also disable unnecessary programs loading to the memory when windows is booting up. How to do this, goto Start>Run>type msconfig and enter>startup (Tab).. then deselect things which are not essential, reboot.
Also you can use a clever cache program to improve performance and availbility of free RAM, like O&O clever cache.
7. Funny sounds
Windows default comes with sounds and chimes here and there. It is very nice, but it just wasting your energy and slow up the OS slightly, so no gain overall. So, turn them off. Goto Contro Panel>Sounds.
8. Fans
Normal PC usually comes with 2 Fans, one is inbuilt with the power unit. Other is usually for the processor. However, some people prefer having another fan or two for ventilation. Well, fans are not passive devices (devices not using power). Hence, limit the number of fans. Else use some efficient fans by Zalman or Cooler Master. Also there are some fin solutions by motherboard developers. Ultimately, use a water cooler system with one fan instead of many.
9. Buy minimal power consuming devices to your PC
If you check the shops, there are so many products at different price levels and power levels. For an instance, CPUs, GPUs comes with different power ratings. Consider what sort of work you do and what devices suit the purpose which use less power. And configure them accordingly. (like processor features).
Good Luck and help to save energy and keep the earth green.