We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
energy saving tips for your comp?
Topic Started: Sep 22 2008, 07:11 PM (937 Views)
The sentinel-ZNS
Member Avatar
Space octopus
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
ive heard people say:

"lowering the contrast of your comp screen saves energy"

"using your system's own screensaver and not the kind you get from another website saves resources"

"using less FF add ons decreases wasted resources"

which of these are true or false? iam dedicated in trying to save as much resources as i possibly can. becasue of my atrocious and insatiable craving to be online 14 hours per day :w00t:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Ben
Member Avatar
Quantum-locked when observed.

Your title is "energy saving tips," but your post seems to be more concentrated on saving computer resources. These goals are not necessarily analogous, although they certainly overlap.

To save energy consumption, turn your computer off. Really. Unless you have some sort of reason for leaving it on when you aren't home or you aren't at work (like a scheduled process), turning off your computer will seriously save power. If you have a large number of scheduled tasks, consider if you can run those only once a day or even once a week, then set your computer to automatically power on, run those tasks, then power itself off. If you must leave your computer on, but you won't be using it, then turn off the screen. Don't use a screensaver, actually power off the hardware.

To save resource consumption, get a good maintenance program like CCleaner and look at what programs you have set to run at start-up. Many popular programs like to install startup applications that will run in the background all day. These applications make the program launch faster, so if you use it all the time, it might be useful. But things like the Adobe Speed Launcher more often than not just slow down your computer's start up and munch at resources.

Quote:
 
"lowering the contrast of your comp screen saves energy"

It's true that a lower brightness means less energy's expended. However, unless you're trying to conserve laptop battery power, you won't notice. I run my laptop on full brightness when it's on AC, and then I have it at about half when it's on battery power.

Quote:
 
"using your system's own screensaver and not the kind you get from another website saves resources"

I don't use a screensaver at all. The screen will turn off after a certain amount of idleness on my part; I don't see the need to waste power or resources on a cute animation or even just a still image.

Quote:
 
"using less FF add ons decreases wasted resources"

That depends on which add-ons you use. Some add-ons are resource-heavy, others not. That's why the newest version of Firebug has its more advanced tools disabled by default for all pages until you explicitly enable them--these were slowing down page loads. An add-on like ChatZilla, which is a full IRC chat in Firefox, or FireFTP, an FTP client, will use more resources than something like ColourZilla, which you invoke only when you need it.

If you think Firefox is performing too slowly, re-evaluate your add-ons every couple of months. Look at the list and ask yourself if you really need the add-on. If the answer is no, then remove it or disable it. It also depends on your computer--a more powerful computer will naturally be able to run Firefox and its add-ons faster than a slower computer of the previous generation.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The sentinel-ZNS
Member Avatar
Space octopus
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
wow thx ben bro!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
FinalKiller0
Member Avatar
OVER 1,000!!
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Ben, can you tell me how to schedule a computer, or give me a link to a site that helps? I want to schedule my computer, but I don't know how. (I'm using XP).
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Christian
Member Avatar
Always a Step Ahead
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Ben
Sep 22 2008, 07:25 PM
To save energy consumption, turn your computer off. Really. Unless you have some sort of reason for leaving it on when you aren't home or you aren't at work (like a scheduled process), turning off your computer will seriously save power. If you have a large number of scheduled tasks, consider if you can run those only once a day or even once a week, then set your computer to automatically power on, run those tasks, then power itself off. If you must leave your computer on, but you won't be using it, then turn off the screen. Don't use a screensaver, actually power off the hardware.
Actually, I read a while ago that a study found turning off a computer and putting it in sleep/hibernate mode is relatively the same thing when it comes to saving "power". Even Microsoft said something similar.

Microsoft
 
There are several advantages to choosing sleep over shutting down:

While Windows does use some power in sleep mode, it's very small: about one-tenth as much as it would need if you left the computer running. A mobile PC typically uses 1 to 2 percent of battery power per hour in sleep mode.
Then they go on to say...

Microsoft
 
But there are instances when you should shut down your computer fully—for example, when you install a new memory card or other hardware. If you don't plan to use your computer for several days or more, you should also shut it down.


Article, find "If I'm not planning to use my computer for awhile, should I shut it down or put it to sleep?".
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Jia
我爱我的国家
[ *  *  * ]
Don't leave it on stand-by overnight. Also turn it off at the powerpoint. I can't sleep with the computer screen light on anyway, any light on in the room and I struggle to sleep.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Ben
Member Avatar
Quantum-locked when observed.

Christian
Sep 24 2008, 11:44 AM
Ben
Sep 22 2008, 07:25 PM
To save energy consumption, turn your computer off. Really. Unless you have some sort of reason for leaving it on when you aren't home or you aren't at work (like a scheduled process), turning off your computer will seriously save power. If you have a large number of scheduled tasks, consider if you can run those only once a day or even once a week, then set your computer to automatically power on, run those tasks, then power itself off. If you must leave your computer on, but you won't be using it, then turn off the screen. Don't use a screensaver, actually power off the hardware.
Actually, I read a while ago that a study found turning off a computer and putting it in sleep/hibernate mode is relatively the same thing when it comes to saving "power".
I never said shutting down was better than standby/hibernation. ;) I said that shutting down was better than leaving your computer running all the time, in terms of power consumption.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The sentinel-ZNS
Member Avatar
Space octopus
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
i always tuck my comp in bed to sleep..thereby saving resource..rarely would i hibernate or shut down.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Technology Chat · Next Topic »
Add Reply