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Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 15 August 2002

Note: the comments below are the unabridged submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.

 

From: Mark Ross
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: PC Power

Ever since I've had broadband, about 5 or 6 years now, I
have been leaving my computer powered on 24x7.

The PC powers down the monitor after a period of time but
that is the only power saving option enabled in my main
system.

My other system stays on 24x7 as well but I have it
configured to sleep after a given period of inactivity.

And you've already pointed out the reason - it's easier on
the hardware if you leave it on all the time.  It also
happens to be very convenient to just sit down and start
using the PC without waiting for the boot-up sequence to
complete...




From: julian stone
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Advice on  Hardware

I've been in business for many years now and firmly believe
that gear lasts longer when left to run continuously. My
Dell Workstation (Fast video drives x 4, stacks of ram, NT,
etc) has just been placed into a planned retirement after 5
years hard use.
As I was a bit of a workaholic, and constantly rendering
huge files, the machine was almost permanantly on. I think
it was restarted once or twice a month, and that was more
to clear the memory than give it a rest. I never lost a
drive, never fried memory and never lost a power supply.
Kinda reminds me of the reliability of an old Anglia I used
to have.
I do suggest being proactive with computer care and adding
an extra fan or two internally or using a larger case
(better ventilation), but most of all, try not to let your
hairy animals lie sleeping next to the fan vents on the
back...
Julian - www.go-fx.com




From: Charlie Callcut
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: To switch off or not to switch off?

I used to switch off just my monitor and leave the CPU
running for exactly the reasons that Bruce outlines in
Thursday's article.  I use the PC every day, often morning
& night but I was surprised when I started switching off
the whole kit & kaboodle (can't remember why I started to
do so) how much the power bill changed.  The monitor draws
the most power, but the CPU adds up in the end, so I've
continued to switch off every day, and no problems so far.
Heat has the effect of hardening components and insulation
due to the slow-bake effect, and three years is a lot of
baking.  Maybe it just broke when it cooled down.




From: Chris
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: hard wearing hardware

I generally leave my main workstation powered on 24/7 and only turn the
monitor off, however as someone else has already commented, power
consumption is higher. Since I've moved back home, I'm amazed at how much
higher my power bill has been, and seeing as I use fires for heating, and
energy efficient light bulbs, the only thing I can attribute the massive
rise in power consumption to is the PCs I have running. I am generally
tending to switch off additional machines if they're not needed. I'm also
starting to take a close look at CPU efficiency and power consumption. I'm
needing to upgrade my main workstation sometime in the near future, but
for what I do, I certainly don't need some 2GHz + behemoth, and I'm likely
to be checking out energy benchmarks just as much as performance ones
before I decide what to put in my new box



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