Slow down CPU to save money?

A

ajsie

New Member
Hi!

At the present moment I have a P4 2.53 ghz and so far as I am concerned it uses a lot of electricity. So I wonder if I can go in on BIOS settings and slow down the speed for example down to 200-600 mhz over the night when I just have it on for downloading stuff, to reduce my bills on electirity? Is that possible, would it not damage my CPU?

I also wonder if anybody knows how big the differences are between 200 mhz, 300 mhz, 1 ghz, 2ghz and so on if you are focusing on the electricity usage?

Lets say for an example: "you will spare 6 times money having a 200 mhz CPU on than a 2.53 ghz".

Thanks!
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
As far as electricity goes ... probably not noticeable savings. You might see a drop from say 90W being drawn from the CPU down to 80-85W ....sure thats 5-10W/sec or what not but on the bigscale not noticeable (since you are billed by the Kilowatt hour)

So I wonder if I can go in on BIOS settings and slow down the speed for example down to 200-600 mhz over the night when I just have it on for downloading stuff
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Now that ive reread your post and realized exactly how low you want to drop the thing, yeah that would drop your power useage from the ballpark of 90W to prolly 40W (just by the CPU, everything else will use roughly same power). If you want to do this, goto bios and drop the clock speed and multiplier as low as they go :)
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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Well they do have 400W PSUs........ and 500W.... and 600W.... now unless you live in a generator station then yeah they can use a lot of electricity.
 
Praetor

Praetor

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Well lightbulbs use 60W, 100W etc.
Average CPU kicks in at 40-90W
Moden video card kick in at 40-50W
HDD around 20W apiece
CDPLAYER around 6W

Realistically you wont be saving that much but hey im a student... i understand a penny is a friggen penny :p (course where i'm staying electricity is covered so im good to go)
 
D

darkd3vil

New Member
yeah it kinda sucks for me im a student and my dad is trying to make me only be on it like a certain amount a day and thats bogus because well ive built it and everything and im paying the 70 bucks a month for my internet so he can back off
 
Praetor

Praetor

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LOL dont forget who pays the rent, food, heat, plumbing heehee ... lol seriously though im not tellin ya how to live your life but in university and stuff you dont really need a computer all that much! (and i'm in two Software Engineering programs at two different schools and im sayin that heehee). Now unless you're in Englsh or somethng that might be different of couse :p

haha have a good one
:)
 
4

4W4K3

VIP Member
we have 7 desktop computers and 2 laptops in our house...not including all the electronics that are used to connect them, printers, wireless, faxes, scanners...so yes it would save money to slow them down....but at a loss of performane and speed. i would never consider it...im an overclocker so slowing down my computer would kill me lmao...but if u need the extra few $$$$ its a creative idea that would probably work.
 
Praetor

Praetor

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Yeah it wont really save much power (I'm guessing $200 a year ... sure thats $200 but thats less than a buck a day ... up to you).
 
Praetor

Praetor

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LOL yeah that usually works for most people ... not me though ... no need. ... i dont sleep :p
 
Nephilim

Nephilim

VIP Member
Keep in mind that a PSU no matter it's wattage rating will only draw what it needs.

The high power draw only occurs when you're making heavy use of components like the processor, hard drives, video cards and/or optical drives with activities like gaming or ripping/ encoding music and video otherwise the power draw is minimal.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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Yes very true .. and windows has a knack for turning devices off seemingly at random anyways.
 
C

charly

New Member
im saving electricity

:)
but my reason is to keep that noise down.
AMD 2400, 1GB ram, 480GB HD (3 drives all aircooled), 1 Asus DVD burner, 1 Asus DVD reader, 1 Liteon CD-burner, Creative 5.1, Asus 128MB Nvidia, Deep Impact cooler PLUS Fancontroll by Zalman (about 8 coolers)

in case of minimum use i turn 4 coolers off and i deactivate my usb memory sticks.

that would save some money, but my main point is keep the noise down.
:D
ciao
 
Blind_Arrow

Blind_Arrow

New Member
I have 4 desktops running in my flat at one time (2 in each room), 2 of them are high-end, and rest 2 are mid-end.

rather than just thinking about downgrading the systems, what I did was changed my bulbs to energy savers (as I was running 7 Bulbs of 40W each) and Now I'm running 7 Energy savers of 11W equalivernt to 60W each, and therefore I cit down my electricity from 280W to 77W and twice the light as well.

think of something like that, although it is a heavy investment in start, eventually pays of after soem time.
 
Praetor

Praetor

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Staff member
I have 4 desktops running in my flat at one time (2 in each room), 2 of them are high-end, and rest 2 are mid-end.

rather than just thinking about downgrading the systems, what I did was changed my bulbs to energy savers (as I was running 7 Bulbs of 40W each) and Now I'm running 7 Energy savers of 11W equalivernt to 60W each, and therefore I cit down my electricity from 280W to 77W and twice the light as well.

think of something like that, although it is a heavy investment in start, eventually pays of after soem time.
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Or you could just put a bunch of cathodes for your computer! Blue is the best for spot illumination as well as for reading and doing homework etc .. go red if you're concerned about your nightvision (heehee you can tell *someone* is allergic to white-light :D)
 
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