Sunday, July 06, 2008

hottaa

It's getting hotter now.. everything is hot: economy and all. We all wanted to lower the pressure but so frustrating. I am leaving a pointers here to at least in our own we could slowly down the hottest perks of electric whatsoever. Try to apply these:

5. Don't use a CRT. Yes, we know you think it has better color and better response times, but if you're trying to save on power, CRTs are a Very Bad Idea. The well-regarded Sony G400 19", for example, was specced for 140W while operational, with an idle power consumption of 15W. The Acer AL2216 that I've recommended as a low-cost 22" LCD in the past doesn't just offer a larger screen, it also draws 40 percent of the power. According to Acer, operational power draw for the AL2216 is 55W, while idle power is just 2W.

Oh, and while you're at it, move into the 21st century with the rest of us. Install a real furnace, use something other than yak hair for your winter coat, and stop asking your wife to iron with a hot chunk of metal.


4. Ensure that either Intel SpeedStep or AMD Cool'N'Quiet are functional. Both Intel and AMD have built sophisticated throttling capabilities into their microprocessors that allow the chips to significantly reduce their speed, power consumption, and heat output. Originally, these features were designed for mobile processors, but they've been integrated into desktop and workstation processors as well.

The only problem is, enabling SpeedStep or C&Q can be a multistep process. It's perfectly possible for your CPU, motherboard, and OS to all support SpeedStep, but have the function turned off all the same. Don't assume that this is confined to prebuilt systems, either. Most motherboard vendors set their default BIOS settings for values that are least likely to cause trouble, and this can lead to certain power-saving features being disabled by default. AMD and Intel have both published guides to enabling their respective technologies, but you still may have to check BIOS settings to ensure everything is functional.


3. Manually adjust clockspeeds, voltages via software. If your system doesn't support SpeedStep/Cool'N'Quiet, or if you want to tweak those settings further, it's possible to use other software programs to do so. AMD offers AMD OverDrive, NVIDIA has nTune, Crystal CPUID can be quite useful for adjusting CPU multipliers (at least on K8/Intel parts—K10 support for multiplier adjustment isn't in yet), and many motherboard manufacturers have their own programs—though the quality of the software (and the accuracy of its reporting) can vary widely.

The best reason to adjust these settings via software is that nothing you set is permanent until you choose to lock the settings in and use them every boot. If you slip, and choose an option that locks the system, stability and proper functionality are just a hard reset away. One exception to this, is Asus's AI Suite—that program does make changes to the BIOS when you adjust settings in the software.


2. Manually adjust clockspeeds, voltages, via hardware. This is something you should only consider doing if you are comfortable inside a BIOS and know how to reset it via the jumper on the motherboard. If you plan on seriously tweaking the system for minimum power consumption, you may end up resetting quite a bit as you hunt for the appropriate settings. It's extremely difficult to give any guidance on which settings to adjust; different motherboards offer different settings, and may well call the same option two different things.

If you're serious enough about power conservation to do this kind of testing, be advised that you will spend a fair amount of time researching voltage ranges, what individual settings do, and how to adjust them to retain stability while cutting power consumption. This kind of fine-grained tuning can yield results—I was able to cut 17W off the 9350 at load just by adjusting CPU and memory controller voltages, and I could've undoubtedly achieved larger results had I taken the time to hand-tune the entire system.


1. Turn the damn thing off. This is the single-most important action one can take to reduce total system power consumption. Many people (myself included) tend to leave the system on 24/7. Cool'N'Quiet/SpeedStep reduce idle power consumption, but it still adds up over time.




---I wish somehow this could help us!:)

--Enjoy the weekend everyone!:) So hot outside nice soaring at the beach! hehe

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