Leaving a server on all day

[Bill Moran]

Jonathon McKitrick <jcm at FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 05:18:07PM +0100, Richard Caley wrote:
> : In article <20040608122101.GA68204 at dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, Jonathon McKitrick (jm) writes:
> : 
> : jm> I have my desktop configured to run as a server and app server for a thin
> : jm> client laptop.  Will running it all day without suspend mode use a lot of
> : jm> power?
> : 
> : Turn the monitor off, especially if it is getting old. I have a 19inch
> : from back when they were expensive and it eats power. 
> 
> Hopefully I'll get my flat screen back soon from repair.  I guess those use
> less power, right?

I remember having this conversation with someone not too long ago, and our
consensus was that flat screens used just as much power as tube monitors.  Don't
hold me to that, though, I don't seem to remember our testing technique as being
very ... uhm ... "scientific".

>  Also, a 1.8GHz Athlon won't use any more power than
> necessary during idle time, right?

Different processors are different.  Many newer CPUs will throttle their power
consumption while the machine is idle, but most older ones can't do this.
You'll need to research the specific CPU + motherboard to see if this is
available or not, but (as far as my lousy memory serves) Athlons in the 1.8G
range don't support reduced power during non-usage, and will consume just as
many watts while the system is idle as while it's doing a buildworld.

Please note that I am not an authority on hardware, if I'm off-base here, I
wouldn't mind a correction ;)  But this is how things stand to the best of
my knowledge.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com