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How much power does standby save?

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Just wondering, as I have a system thats stubborn as heck to startup, but having it running 24/7, but putting it in standby when not in use, would be great. Another q - there's no way do download whilst in standby, is there? Is there any way to reduce power whilst downloading - use rmclock to underclock the cpu perhaps?
 
invictius said:
Just wondering, as I have a system thats stubborn as heck to startup, but having it running 24/7, but putting it in standby when not in use, would be great. Another q - there's no way do download whilst in standby, is there? Is there any way to reduce power whilst downloading - use rmclock to underclock the cpu perhaps?
No, you can’t download whilst in standby.
You can reduce power consumption at idle quite easily provided your system supports Speedstep or Cool ‘n’ Quiet. Use RMClock or CrystalCPUID to reduce the multiplier to the minimum that it supports and more importantly to also reduce VCore to the lowest stable value that it supports.

The least power hungry system that I’ve encountered is my Core Duo laptop. If I close the lid and leave it downloading it only consumes 15W. Even running dual Prime95 at the most power hungry setting it only consumes 30W with the lid closed. That’s bloody amazing for a dual core 1.66 GHz system with 1 GB DDR2 RAM me thinks.:beer:
 
smilingcrow said:
No, you can’t download whilst in standby.
You can reduce power consumption at idle quite easily provided your system supports Speedstep or Cool ‘n’ Quiet. Use RMClock or CrystalCPUID to reduce the multiplier to the minimum that it supports and more importantly to also reduce VCore to the lowest stable value that it supports.

The least power hungry system that I’ve encountered is my Core Duo laptop. If I close the lid and leave it downloading it only consumes 15W. Even running dual Prime95 at the most power hungry setting it only consumes 30W with the lid closed. That’s bloody amazing for a dual core 1.66 GHz system with 1 GB DDR2 RAM me thinks.:beer:

RMclock doesn't seem to support athlon xp's, all the clocking settings are greyed-out... btw, how do u manage to measure wattage?
 
If I am not going to be using the computer for long periods it goes off. Alternate is hibernate.

If I want it at real low power, while still bieng on. I just select standby manually. Not hard to do with the right config in the power options.

If I am going to be doing things throughout the day. I have the monitor shut off, mostly it sits in standby.

There is plenty of options for the Power Options Properties. You can have it sit in the tray and you can easily modify for what you intend to be doing for the upcoming events. i.e. - Guesstimate how long the activity is going to be. Then have it go into standby after the download/activity is done. Turning disks off that are not needed can save a few watts. If your crafty a toggle switch can work for this. Just wire a switch on the line.

Most modern computers are pretty darn good about saving a few watts here and there all by themselves. Unless you overclocked the heck out of the machine. If you are stock and want the machine in an off like state. Then don't mind the space. Hibernate works too. It will shut off, but be much faster loading back up.

If you was using a AMD setup I would suggest Cool n Quiet. Alas your not, so your going to have to poke around for a program your comfortable using, or find power settings that suite you and your needs. If I remember right newer P4's and up throttle well. So it should do what you want pretty easy.
 
invictius said:
RMclock doesn't seem to support athlon xp's, all the clocking settings are greyed-out... btw, how do u manage to measure wattage?
I measure the power consumption using a simple unit that plugs into the wall socket. You plug whatever device that you want to measure into it and it gives you a whole range of info about it. I picked it up in Maplins (UK) on sale for under £10.
It’s useful for showing which electrical items are power hungry on standby for example.
 
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