Tune Your PC: Save The Planet (OK - a little drmatic - but some interesting facts!)

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/1...a-little-drmatic-but-some-interesting-facts/1

 

It makes sense to prolong the life of your PC as it will not only save the environment but also it will lower the average cost of ownership of the PC, giving you consumer surplus. Hence, Saving the environment not only make sense but it also make cents.

I actually ended up automating the power supply of the old computers and servers of my office by installing some cool devices. You can buy some of these power strips from Amazon for less than $70 that will help you schedule a calendar. For example, if your office hour is 9-5, you can setup the power strip to turn on the computers at 8:45 AM and auto-shutdown at 5:15 PM during weekdays! This way you don't have to go thru entire office manually checking 100s of computers to see if those were turned off by your employees to save electricity. I found this cool power strip called PwrUSB that even checks if the file server hosted on our basement is hung or not thru a connected USB port and auto restart the machine.

There are so many products that can help us save energy in our everyday lives - there is no excuse not trying to save precious energy and reduce our carbon footprint.

 

There is software that does the same thing. Most NHS hospital sites now turn off non-mission critical (i.e. office) PC's at 6.00pm unless someone is actively using it.

This is because most office staff cannot seem to bring themselves to turn the darn thing off at the end of the working day. Their argument is that it takes so long to boot up in the morning (as if they don't spend the first 15 minutes making cups of tea and nattering anyway). Keep in mind that these are usually generic Dells running a stock Windows plus Office install, making them some of the fastest booting PCs I've encountered. I showed some office staff the delights of Standby and Hibernate, which reduces the boot time to mere seconds and picks up where they left off. Still wouldn't use it --"too complicated". Now IT turns off their machines for them. They don't appear to have noticed.

 

My PC makes a great space heater when running F@H lol. I've always wondered at what point is it worth switching out old hardware to something more efficient. What I mean is, is it worth switch from an old athlon dual to an ivy bridge pentium. Would energy savings pay for itself or would it tack so long that several generations will arrive before then. I know several people still running pentium 4's which are more than enough for office, facebook, bbc iplayer etc.

 

4 years old. Closing.